[ALOCHONA] Elections Alone Won’t Help, Time Now To Revive NSC

Elections Alone Won't Help, Time Now To Revive NSC

 

By AHMED QURAISHI

 

If Pakistan ever uses a nuclear device, civilians will have more hand in it than the military.

 

Six out of the top ten men authorized to push the button are civilians. The military is in the minority with four votes. But its input is strong and acknowledged.

 

For all that it matters, the credit for putting this civilian face to Pakistan's strategic arsenal goes to President Pervez Musharraf's military-led administration eight years ago.

 

This little known fact may hold the key to Pakistan's democratic evolution for the near future. The above example, taken from the National Command Authority, represents an ideal mix for an evolving Pakistani democracy, where a democratic setup goes hand in glove with a strong military.

 

This is not just theory. It is already a reality in the form of National Security Council. The NSC may hold the answer to our existing political mess. It will definitely not fit in with western democracy.  But it is our homeland. We will have to take our own path, tailoring our own political system to suit our requirements. Our friends will simply have to respect our choices, aid or no aid, military or otherwise.

 

Despite yesterday's ballot, it is no secret that Pakistan's politicians generally do not inspire confidence. This may change in the future but it stands true for now.

 

The military record hasn't been perfect either. The experience of the past eight years has shown that while a military-led administration is good for stability, in the end the lack of a civilian democratic face provides an opening for foreign meddling in our affairs.

 

So, if both the military and the politicians have so far been unable to do it alone, it is only natural they will need to do it together. An ideal arrangement for the near future should see Pakistan as an economically focused, stable democracy with the military very much active in the background.

 

Without being too diplomatic, this means a civilian Pakistani democracy with a strong military backing.

 

The only way that this is constitutionally possible is through the NSC. Moreover, this is also practically the only forum where the nation's civilian and military leaders can do business in a formal environment without subjecting Pakistan's national security concerns to unnecessary outside scrutiny.

 

This will entail a role for the military in the country's domestic affairs and a say in matters of foreign policy and national security.

 

There is a long list of culprits in our sixty-year modern history who can be blamed for this situation. But the fact is that this is where we stand. And we have to work with what we have.

 

The idealists will have to remember that, in Pakistan, we cannot afford to repeat the post-Soviet Russian mistake where democracy effectively turned into chaos.

 

The point is this: Pakistan at this stage may afford a flawed political system, but it cannot afford a weak one. We already are seeing signs of a complex campaign to destabilize Pakistan. We know who is behind it but we can't blame them. They are pursuing their interests. Ours lie in consolidating the Pakistani state, through whatever means. The end here certainly justifies the means.

 

A weak Pakistani political system is attracting overt outside interference, like the disastrous U.S. attempt at 'micromanaging' late Mrs. Benazir Bhutto's climb to power.

 

We have also been almost ditched by our American ally in Afghanistan, which has become a staging ground for anti-Pakistan activities. Simultaneously, a neighbor is using this environment to stir up separatism inside Pakistan.

 

A strong political-military coordination through the NSC will pave the way for the most urgent and necessary task of reforming Pakistan's flawed political system.

 

The Pakistani federal administration needs to be restructured. We need to solve the problem of a weak executive, with power divided between a president and a prime minister and sometimes the military chief. We need to solve the problem of ethnic and linguistic politics. And we need to find a quick way of transferring development money to rural towns and villages.

 

The Pakistani federation can be strengthened by dividing the existing ethnic-based provinces into smaller, non-ethnic administrative units with their own local parliaments and elected chief executives. A creative proposal to this effect lies dormant somewhere in the cabins of the National Reconstruction Bureau.

 

If pursued, the plan can put an end to the problem of ethnic separatism and turn the focus of Pakistani politics from the national to the local.

 

As for the 'troika'—federal power divided between a president, a prime minister, and the military—the problem can be addressed by giving the Pakistanis the right to directly elect the chief executive—a President.

 

None of these difficult tasks is possible without the backing of the Pakistani military. But in all of this, the military needs to know that Pakistan's middle class is its best ally, not the feudal elite that has a choking grip on our politics.

 

The feudal elite can be manipulated. But its loyalty, with few exceptions, is to its interests. The Pakistani middle class is more nationalistic and competent. It needs to be brought forward.

 

http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/latest_col.php?id=19#

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