The political turmoil in Pakistan was caused, in the view of many, by not only a lack of governmental accountability but also by corruption at the highest level of administration.
Pakistan has long been run by such dreadful governments. It appears to suggest that Nawaz Sharif hesitated to accept the notion that development requires good governance, meaning open, transparent and accountable public institutions. Whereas previous governments were chaotic in their awfulness, this one under Nawaz Sharif has turned out to be systematic.
He was democratically elected but he is not a democrat. His basic instincts were dictatorial not democratic. He acted more like a despot after his landslide election victory in 1997. Over the past few years he picked off individuals and institutions that he believed posed any threat to his own power.
Dissent within his party was suppressed. He amended the Constitution to strip the President of the power to remove him and ousted the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Reversing the traditional balance of power between the military and civilian government, Nawaz Sharif has seen off an army chief, General Jehangir Karamat, and then tried to push through a constitutional amendment that would give him sweeping powers to ignore Pakistan's legislature and provincial governments in the name of Islamisation.
The judiciary at first tried to check Mr Sharif, but later gave up. When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sajjad Ali Shah took the President's side in 1997, a mob from Mr Sharif's party stormed the Supreme Court and Mr Sharif sacked Mr Shah.
Then he turned on the press. His Government embarked on a campaign of harassment and intimidation against those members of the press who questioned his misuse of power. For example, in mid-1999, the Jang Group of newspapers had its bank accounts frozen and its newsprint confiscated. Najam Sethi, the publisher and editor of another newspaper, Friday Times, was held without charge. All copies of the Friday Times were seized, and its website has been jammed.
The roots of Pakistan's political crisis go deep beyond the October 99 coup. It is in the nature of the feudal system and politics in Pakistan.
Feudal mentality ;
Throughout history, feudalism has appeared in different forms. The feudal prototype in Pakistan consists of landlords with large joint families possessing hundreds or even thousands of acres of land. They seldom make any direct contribution to agricultural production. Instead, all work is done by peasants or tenants who live at subsistence level.
The landlord, by virtue of his ownership and control of such vast amounts of land and human resources, is powerful enough to influence the distribution of water, fertilisers, tractor permits and agricultural credit and, consequently exercises considerable influence over the revenue, police and judicial administration of the area. The landlord is, thus, lord and master. Such absolute power can easily corrupt, and it is no wonder that the feudal system there is humanly degrading.
The system, which some critics say is parasitical at its very root, induces a state of mind which may be called the feudal mentality. This can be defined as an attitude of selfishness and arrogance on the part of the landlords. It is all attitude nurtured by excessive wealth and power, while honesty, justice, love of learning and respect for the law have all but disappeared. Having such a mentality, when members of feudal families obtain responsible positions in civil service, business, industry and politics, their influence is multiplied in all directions. Indeed the worsening moral, social, economic and political crisis facing this country can be attributed mainly to the powerful feudal influences operating there.
Almost half of Pakistan's Gross National Product and the bulk of its export earnings are derived primarily from the agricultural sector controlled by a few thousand feudal families. Armed with a monopoly of economic power, they easily pre-empted political power.
To begin with, the Pakistan Muslim League, the party laying Pakistan's foundation 53 years ago, was almost wholly dominated by feudal lords such as the Zamindars, Jagirdars, Nawabs, Nawabzadas and Sardars, the sole exception being the Jinnahs. Pakistan's major political parties are feudal-oriented, and more than two-thirds of the National Assembly (Lower House) is composed of this class. Besides, most of the key executive posts in the provinces are held by them.