The Hindu : People pine for democracy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 03, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

People pine for democracy

By Kuldip Nayar

I preferred air to the much-vaunted motorcade to travel to Islamabad. It was four times costlier but three hours quicker. Silhouetted against hills, the city sits pretty in the midst of thick, green vegetation. The many-lane roads and supermarkets make it look modern and unclogged. Government buildings are too opulent. The former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, wanted to sell his office because it was unwieldy and costly.

Like most capitals, the city is devoid of soul. Authority resides here, not popular will. Cut off from the people in Lahore and Karachi on one side and from Peshawar and Quetta on the other, Islamabad has weaved itself in the cocoon of its own authoritative ways. I felt this all the more after meeting the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and a string of bureaucrats, past and present. Riaz Khokhar, once the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi, is the Foreign Secretary. Another former High Commissioner, Abdus Sattar, is leading a retired life but recording some past events, for example, the Agra Summit where he accompanied the President, Pervez Musharraf, as his Foreign Minister. Both bureaucrats and government leaders accepted the primacy of the military and its `essential role' for the country's integrity.

People, on the other hand, would like the army to go back to the barracks sooner than later. Although they do not see the end of the tunnel, they have developed over the years the type of tenacity which may give them one day the democratic structure they pine for. They envy India on this point despite the dark spots they pick up in its governance. The Gujarat carnage is one.

* * *

Rawalpindi and Islamabad are twin cities like Delhi and New Delhi or Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Gen. Musharraf lives at Rawalpindi in the official residence of the Chief of the Army Staff. Probably, the building reflects authority. Zia-ul-Haq also continued to live there even after becoming the President. The huge marble President's house at Islamabad is, however, vacant. It is used only for official purposes.

When Ayub Khan chose the place for the Pakistan capital and named it Islamabad, he was very particular that the President's house should be as `imposing' as the Viceroy's house (Rashtrapati Bhavan) in New Delhi. At a stone's throw from the residence of Chief of the Army Staff is the jail where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged. Zia was the President then. I remember the message Bhutto sent me through his lawyer, Yahya Bakhtiar, to find out the fate of his mercy petition. He was definite that the General could not hang him because of `pressure' by America and Saudi Arabia. When I met the General I found him under no pressure. In fact, he gave himself out by the remark he made in reply to a question.

When I inquired how much time he would take to deal with the mercy petition, he asked me when I was returning to India. I inferred that the hanging was immediate and conveyed this to Yahya Bakhtiar. The next day I flew to Delhi. The following morning I heard that Bhutto had been hanged.

* * *

All newspapers in Pakistan have their offices at Islamabad. Leading papers have also simultaneous editions. It is quite a throng of journalists. They made no secret of the `pressure' which the military exerted to `influence' them. They were concerned over Gen. Musharraf's remark: `Unfortunately our media is playing a negative role and presenting the doom's day scenario.' The observation, in fact, is uncalled for. Gen. Musharraf has been having a good press. Tired of misgovernance by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he earned the reputation of a `reluctant dictator'.

The army's intervention was justified because of Nawaz Sharif's acts of omission and commission. I was told by a leading journalist that they preferred to `leave out certain things' because the repercussions could be `terrible'. Knowing what happened to the Tehelka and the Outlook people in my country I did not pursue the subject.

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