Who more spineless: politicos or knights in armour?

Ayaz Amir

We are more than familiar with the phenomenon of politicians deserting sinking ships, and not looking back. Endless examples of this can be quoted from our history. And we justly say that the genus politicus has no spine.

But, Allah be praised, officers and gentlemen of the armed forces have also shown time and again that when it comes to opportunism they stand in no need of lessons from anyone. In their academies they are taught that the first thing is character and everything else, including professional excellence, comes afterwards. But in worshipping the rising sun and turning their backs on the setting sun they are no less nimble and astute than their political counterparts.

Ayub, self-appointed field marshal and president for a decade, was left friendless in his hour of need. His party, the Convention League of blessed memory, disintegrated and melted away, almost as if it had never existed. But even his generals whom he had pampered and promoted, Yahya and his clique, cast him adrift. In fact, Yahya conspired with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to get rid of Ayub. Both thought they were being clever but Bhutto proved smarter than Yahya.

And when after defeat in the east and Bhutto’s ascension to power in the west Yahya was confined to his Harley Street residence there was no one to offer him a word of comfort. Even his mistresses, and as we know there was a long line of them, were gone. We know of his escapades when he was in power. There is not a single recorded instance of any escapade when he had fallen from glory. True, it wasn’t easy approaching him under close house arrest. But a love letter over the walls, some verses from Ghalib as a remembrance of happy days gone by….how difficult would that have been?

Zia was the only military ruler whose light shone even after his death, primarily because his legacy survived in the form of (1) the ISI, which by then had become the leading school of national ideology and confused Islamic studies and was headed by our friend, the inevitable Lt Gen Hamid Gul, an uncompromising Zia protégé; and (2) the Pakistan Muslim League headed by another fierce Zia protégé, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. Militarily and politically the Zia legacy was thus protected. Spurring on this band of Zia devotees was another common factor: hatred of the PPP.

That was then. To listen to Gen Hamid Gul and stalwarts of the PML-N these days is almost to get the impression that Zia never happened and democracy and the 1973 Constitution were discovered by them.

What then do we say about a country whose leading born-again democrats are the likes of Gen Hamid Gul and our other friend, Khan Roedad Khan? To remember episodes from their past, the theories they used to spout then, and their present great love of democracy….and about the only thing one can do is to pucker one’s eyes and chuckle.

Now it is another erstwhile strongman’s turn to face the music of altered circumstances and the spectacle is not a little funny of born-again democrats calling for his blood and media persons and anchor persons joining the chorus, quite forgetting their own role as big spoons, qawwals and chamchas, of the same dictator. But that’s how it is. How de Gaulle compared his insight into men with his knowledge of animals is instructive.

But knights of the fourth estate may owe something to their consciences; they owe nothing to the military. What about the military, in whose academies so much stress is laid on character? How many the beneficiaries of the Musharraf order? Where are they now that their hero finds himself trapped, willingly flying back into harm’s way, driven by God knows what flaky dreams of glory?

There is no place on earth with more retired military fogeys than the Pindi-Islamabad area and Lahore Cantonment and Defence (no ordnance parks these but housing colonies). Here is selective justice at its most naked, a former army chief charged with treason by a political class specialising in tax evasion and bank default, a political class rising to political prominence through military favours in the past…and the battalions and brigades of retired faujis with which the Potohar landscape is infested have nothing to say.

Even common criminals find moral support if nothing else from their near and dear ones. Musharraf’s solitude is stunning, a parable on the vicissitudes of human fortune. Forget about Q League politicos, MNAs and cabinet members, what about the hordes of khakis, generals no less, who in one form or another received favours at Musharraf’s hands? What great sacrifice does it take to stand on Constitution Avenue? What does it take to say anything before the cameras? Mutterings in private you would probably hear but anything louder seems far beyond most of our retired ghazis.

Once upon a time it was the military fashion to be against Bhutto and the PPP. There was no holding military men back. Today, whatever the mood in private, and some people tell me it is pretty grim, there is little of military disquiet coming to the fore. If this were for love of democracy nothing could be more wonderful. But is anyone being fooled by the pantomime we are seeing? If this were any kind of national accountability it would command more respect if the politicians in charge swept a broom through their own stables.

The PM was heard saying in Bahawalpur that one must always speak the truth to the nation. A truly inspiring idea but one which would really catch on if those in authority were to begin by coming clean about their unpaid bank loans taken years ago.

But to keep things in perspective, politicos can be amongst the greatest opportunists in the world but from their ranks also come great risk-takers and genuine lovers of liberty. The feudal class deserted Bhutto but ordinary party workers did not. Even in Musharraf’s case it is one politico, son of a Jat, Shujaat Hussain, who is showing the courage to speak out in his support. But what about people like Tariq Aziz? In which deep trench has he taken position? What about those generals who wore funny headgear and clenched their fists as they raised slogans during Musharraf’s referendum? Governors of Punjab, interior ministers, chiefs of staff, heads of this and that, where are they? Or was de Gaulle right?

I thought Zardari was being a chump but on second thoughts it is clear he is playing his cards beautifully, egging on the government to embroil itself deeper in this mess. And Nawaz Sharif, like the Sardarji in that joke, has no idea who pushed him from the bridge into the water. Nisar it was who helped make Musharraf army chief in 1998. This time again it is he who seems to be prime mover behind Musharraf’s treason trial: the bone sticking in the government’s throat, which it seems unable either to swallow or to spit out. And we are not through with this saga as yet.

But all said and done, Musharraf should now appear in court and face the charges against him boldly. It just doesn’t look right for a former army chief to report sick when the going is tough.

Tailpiece: Is this a deaf and dumb nation? Do we have nothing to say about that Hangu ninth grader, Aitezaz Hussain, who challenged a young suicide bomber, prevented a catastrophe from occurring and died in the process? Anywhere else this would be front-page news and splashed on every TV screen. Here most of the political class has lost its power of speech, or indeed the power to see anything. But then what would you expect? Anyway, this was heroism pure and simple and as a nation we need to honour it, and see that his family is properly looked after.

Email: winlust@yahoo.com
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