The leaders

The fact that Pakistan’s best leaders were military strongmen like Zia Ul Haq already shows the fact that the society in itself is tough to govern. Civilian based democratic governments that were in power in the 90s were the bar jokes of the international community. They were weak and were not really concentrating on consolidating the resources and measures to ensure growth of any sort. We had 3 different PMs and all three were charged with corruption. At this point India seems pretty incorruptible if you ask me.

Now we see another charge at a civilian based government. Ever since Ghilani came to power, the only thing we have heard from him is how he wants to impeach the president. For Christ sake man what about rising costs of living, fuel costs, extremism and lack of social progress? Nah, getting rid of a guy who gave unprecedented growth to the very country you are running now will solve these things. I would love to analyse what the current PM has done. The thing is, he hasn’t done much. Pakistan has stagnated over the last year due to this internal struggle.

So we look to the alternative, our new former president. I do agree that the approach with which he took to consolidate power for himself in terms of a new 5 year term of office was borderline totalitarianism. The man did make some mistakes too. The red mosque siege was a delicate situation for him. He had to weigh in with the people’s affinity towards Islam compared to and extremist element that was sure to make a statement. Going in too strong from the get go would seem like he didn’t care about the religion and not going in at all would symbolise weakness and indecision.

Let’s take a look from the start, 9 years back. The first thing he does when he come to power is that he sets about purging corruption in the civil service and starts to move away from Taleban and Al Qaeda elements. He is a general after all and all generals play with strategy. By siding with America and Israel, he opened up more avenues for his government to introduce more investment and to gain military hardware. With the investment, more money would stream into Pakistan giving rise to the decline of corruption and with military hardware; he was capable of improving his armed forces without having to aid the afghan invasion and at the same time protect its borders from insurgents from the aftermath of the invasion.

Protecting the borders was important. You have to understand that as dim-witted as the Bush administration was, they did realise that at some point they would have to invade Pakistan to stop the safe haven for terrorist in the western and northern tribal areas. It was at this point in time, did Musharraf put his foot down and explain that doing so would create one more enemy and that too in an area where support from a local country is needed given the waning support from the Muslim world for the Americans. He was dictating the war on terrorism in his on backyard something a civilian leader would probably crumble with.

Parts to repair old F-16s from America and the purchase of a new radar and air system from Israel boosted up the armed forces in a way that stopped during Kargil 97. with this came the opening up of Pakistan with the appointment of Shauqat Aziz, the former Citibank President to take the post of PM. With such experience of financial and economic matters, the country started opening up to new investments from the western world with which there were previous based sanctions and improving current ties with Asian powerhouses like China and India. Higher GDP, newer and better infrastructure, less graft came about this.

It was predominant to see bribes being taken in Pakistan. Such Kopi money was given in such a way, you’d think it was a new HR based incentive scheme for bonuses. When upon entering Pakistani airports, just to get a speedy clearance at immigration you have to pay anywhere between 250-500 RPS. With the new found increase in budget, the administration was able to triple the pay for civil service alone.

Speaking of India, the one reason they were so nice was because there was a stable and strong figure in charge of the country. With the current situation in Pakistan, India will be monitoring this because the guy who caused the 97 war is a partner in the government and is known to be weak. The man single-handedly improved defences, increased investments and removed graft and did the holy grail of any Pakistani leader. Achieve a peaceful and harmonious relationship with India.

What he didn’t do was to try to bring about social change in terms of a more open society. This I will analyse in the segment on the people so watch this space.