December 8, 2007 at 07:23:01

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For a deeper Understanding of politics in Pakistan

By syed mahdi (about the author)     Page 3 of 3 page(s)

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Reverting to the 6 'political blocs' in Pakistan's political matrix listed above, they have all developed after Pakistan came into being. They are now matters of fact and are not totally dependent on ethnicity or vernacular divides. There is plenty of over lapping. For example, whereas the bulk of the servicemen and officers in the Armed Forces hail from Punjab and the North West Frontier Province, the top brass does include Balochis, Sindhis and 'Mohajirs'. In the Feudal Landlords bloc, the biggest and the most powerful ones are in Punjab and Sindh. They carry with them massive electorate banks; their 'serfs' (for want of a better word) because of the universal suffrage guaranteed to them by the State. It is these 'serfs' along with the commercial and industrial workers/labor which constitute the fifth bloc, the Labor Bloc.

The 'serfs' are mainly illiterate, extremely poor and are not independently organized and hence, have no 'rights' of any kind yet, despite the short lived effort made by the Pakistan Peoples Party in the nineteen seventies under the leadership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the father of Benazir Bhutto of today. They are a huge but dormant political 'force' which could tilt politics in Pakistan if they are able to organize or be organized politically by any of the other blocs. They missed their chance when 'socialism' was in fashion worldwide. Their counterparts in India did not, thanks to Gandhi's thirty year long crusade for the salvation of serfs in India, which was adopted by the left leaning Indian National Congress Party under Nehru, as Government Policy after Independence. Landlordism was abolished and a ceiling of 60 hectares was put on agricultural land ownership. Having said this, the Armed Forces of Pakistan draws heavily from these same serfs and the former being a more powerful bloc than the Landlords do have potential overriding clout over the latter.

The Business Class is a bloc mainly centered in the two Punjabi cities of Lahore and Faisalabad and in the Capital of Sindh, Karachi the ex-Federal Capital of Pakistan. The latter is where the mohajir bloc is based. Historically, the biggest Muslim owned industries, industrialists, banks and bankers in pre-partition India were based in what became post-partition India the likes of Adamjee Jute Mills and Habib Bank. They shifted to Pakistan (East & West) ahead of the partitioning. Once more, for the sake of record, Habib Bank paid the salaries and other expenditures of the Government of Pakistan as well as those of the provincial governments for months till such times the Government of Pakistan could take over this onus, simply because on August 14, 1947, Pakistan had nothing in its coffers; no gold reserves and no money, both awaiting transfer from India. Hence, for all practical purposes the muhajirs contributed heavily in getting Pakistan on its feet, financially!

As the years passed their financial prowess began to grow in the business and provincial politics in Pakistan. The 'muhajirs' also being the majority ethnic group in the country's capital, started filling up the job cadres in Pakistan's federal/central governments. Because of this latter influx by a numerically smaller bloc, nation wide, the muhajirs were targeted in later years in many ways, simply to cut them down to size; the two most important being, the shifting of the nation's capital to Islamabad and the 'nationalizing' of Banks, Insurance and Industries during the premiership of Benazir Bhutto's socialist leaning father. Islamabad was built up in a valley sandwiched between Punjab and the North West Frontier Province and within a few miles of the Armed Forces' Headquarters in Rawalpindi, that is, close to the Punjabi bloc, the Tribal bloc and the Armed Forces' bloc. The nationalizing was made supposedly in favor of the Labor Class.

Both moves contributed to the shifting of money and power out from the muhajir bloc to the other more powerful blocs; the Armed Forces, the Punjabi and the tribesmen. By the nineteen eighties the 'muhajir response' came in the form of civil disturbances and armed conflicts and the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (the now infamous MQM) came into being, leading to much bloodshed and terrorism. The Government's take over of banks, insurance companies and industries failed miserably with the economy, industrial growth and foreign investments going into a suicidal nose dive. On the face of it, Bhutto did what he did for and on behalf of the industrial labor bloc but as it turned out, they came out as the biggest losers. The Armed Forces bloc then intervened, although belated under General Zia ul Haque to put a stop to all this.

The Tribal Bloc in the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan, up until the anti Soviet Jihad in the nineteen eighties, played a less significant role in Pakistan's politics and only to the extent of or in ratio to their numbers in the Armed Forces. This was due either t o their choice to remain aloof in defense of their 'autonomy' as granted to them by the British or due to their neglect by successive federal/central governments, perhaps, due to the desire of such governments to stay clear of this fearful 'hornets nest' armed to the teeth with weapons and their conservative brand of Islam which has kept them away from the pursuit of 'formal' education and 'civilian' careers. This bloc desired to be left in peace and they were left in peace which is now seen as having being injudicious and wrong. Since the nineteen eighties this bloc gained much power and importance but, unfortunately, not in the context of Pakistani politics but as willing pawns in international the Cold War 'game'.

In came American dollars, petrodollars, arms/armaments, 'jihadis' and Al Qaeda. This tribal bloc has during the past two years started flexing its 'armed' muscles in Pakistani politics by exporting its beliefs, ways and means to the rest of Pakistan which are all undemocratic, uncivil and criminal.

The last bloc, the middle class bloc has never had a direct say in Pakistani politics nor power to change things. Despite this, they are the backbone of government and business. In the beginning the higher echelon of this bloc were mostly muhajirs or refugees who had opted for Pakistan when given such a choice by the British Government of India months prior to partition and were 'safely' transferred to Pakistan (East & West). They changed their titles from the British Indian Civil Service (ICS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Provincial Service (IPS) to PCS, PFS and PPS respectively. Although they could not make policies, they were the ones who executed policies made by governments, civilian or military. During the times when Pakistan's democratic process went into doldrums, this bloc became quite influential because 'governments could come and governments could go but they went on forever'.

For this reason and the fact that at the least in the beginning it was 'muhajir' manned, they were targeted in the form of "Screening"- whereby the Government would force retire any of its members on the disputable charge of being "unfit"-. The first such massive screening or 'purge' was carried out by the Armed Forces bloc in the late nineteen fifties and early nineteen sixties under the Martial Law regime of Field Marshall Ayyoub Khan. The second such 'purge' came under the democratically elected government of the Peoples Party of Pakistan under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto's father, the same government which nationalized banks, insurance companies and industries. They did not, however, target the Feudal Landlords, like Nehru did in India, because of its leaders, including Bhutto, were Feudal Landlords. The 'serfs' still remain serfs and the Peoples Party of Pakistan under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto still speaks about the rights of these 'serfs'.

The above is my personal reading of what Pakistani politics has been about during the last six decades and still is. Between or among them there are few shared political interests. This not withstanding, what could be identified as being the pursuit of national interests, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how it is observed does exist ONLY in the Pakistani Armed Forces Bloc. The interests of all the remaining blocs are represented in it to some extent, again, more or less based on the power of each of the remaining blocs. This explains the Pakistani Armed Forces' potential or dormant power and prowess in the politics of the country. In its power, prowess and 'inroads' into the politics of the country, the Pakistani Armed Forces resemble their counterparts in Turkey.

Unfortunately, the current political crisis in Pakistan is being perceived, analyzed and commented/acted upon in the West without taking all the above into due consideration due either to ignorance or due to Pakistan being sucked into the eye of the post 9/11 tornado. Sometimes Pakistan is ordered to become democratic and corrupt ex-politicians and failed political parties are forced down Pakistan's gullets. At other times the safety of Pakistan's nuclear assets is used to push pre-election political agendas by frightening the honorable occupants of Capitol Hill, thereby, eliciting US threats to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age. Yet again Shylocks in the US Administration threaten Pakistan on the repayment of ten billion dollars in 'flesh' and blood or meet the fate of Iraq which had also received not 10 but hundreds of billion of US dollars! Both blood and flesh have been in view ever since 2003, the year Empire Struck Back.

All this pugnacious talk is helping no one except the Islamic Militants by confirming their twisted propaganda against America.

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