Pakistan; The Ongoing “Soft Revolution” towards a “Welfare State” – Part II

Guest Post by Silence
Part I of this series can be read here

The first Cultural Revolution in history of sub-continent was the Sufi movement, from the 13th century A.D. Sufism increasingly attracted the creative social and intellectual energies within the community and with the passage of time it acquired new dimensions and began to deal with the mundane aspects of life as well to free religious thought from the rigidity imposed by Mullah and to move away towards rural areas from the evil and debilitation effects of wealth, monarchy and bureaucracy concentrated in big cities.

The character of Sufi movement was such that if did not require official patronage or military protection and it also proved a serious challenge for both feudal and Mullahs however the movement was hijacked by converting the graves of Saints in to shrines, feudal patronized these shrines by donating lands to the caretakers and a new class of “Peers” emerged which was pro-establishment.

These peer’s who had actively helped British or had remained neutral now emerged and filled the vacuum of the empty places of nationalist Indians and as leaders of Muslim public opinion.

Pakistan movement was itself was a struggle of liberal, middle class and educated Muslims comprising of “Civil Society” and intellectuals of that time, Quaid-i-Azam was named as Kafir-i-Azam by then Jamat-i-Islami and hardliner groups, however after independence these hardliners joined the feudal, beaurucracy and military and hijacked it by giving a new slogan “Pakistan ka matlab kia…Lailaha ilAllah.

This proved to be an alliance which protected the interests of establishment and military (which comprised of sons of feudal lords recruited by British rulers) while the middle class and civil society was completely ousted after assassination of Liaqat Ali Khan.

As the middle class and civil society is always biggest threat for authoritarian rule, General Ayub decided to move the capital of Pakistan from Karachi (which was mostly middle class city) to Islamabad, a new capital where ruling elite can live with lower class workers who are too much busy in making ends meet rather then creating any trouble for rulers.

These times the leadership of Awami League was mostly comprised of professors, lawyers and middle class and on the other hand Communism was influencing Pakistan greatly, there was a clear division of left and right wings and establishment, feudal lords and Mullah was at the verge of loosing their grip over power.

This was the time when establishment and military decided to establish PPP to hijack the leftist movement and promoted ZA Bhutto to hijack entire movement, the middle class educated left wing leaders were later on send to prisons or sidelined by Bhutto and replaced by feudal lords, this was the second biggest hijack of any civil society/middle class movement. The second biggest threat from Bengali middle class Awami League was averted by separation of Bangladesh.

This was the time when Pakistan became a complete security state form a welfare states slogan given by left wing dominated founder members of PPP and middle class leadership of Awami League.

Although Bhutto did not damaged the ruling establishment but the organized middle class and political awareness in ordinary workers of PPP remained a threat for ruling Mafia and the time, establishment realized that Bhutto was getting out of their control, he was removed from scene.

Ziaual Haq gave free hand to Mullahs, assembled feudal lords in to so called “Majlish Shoora” and crushed any remains of civil society, free press, trade and students unions and thereafter US dollars started flowing for recruitment of Jihadi’s for proxy soviet war, these jihadi’s were free to kill the remaining left wing workers, some were executed by Military and others fled away from country, press and civil society activists were crushed by ISI and judiciary was made subordinate to executive, we became a complete theocratic state ruled by generals, feudal lords and mad jihadi Mullah’s.

ISI organized MQM as a tool to control the biggest middle class city of Karachi, IJI and several other religious groups to keep civil society under pressure, several ethnic groups in rural areas of Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan to counter the influence of PPP vocal workers and replaced the remaining middle class in PPP by feudal lords and some fake leaders who are actually on payroll of agencies. Situation with Nawaz league (PMLN) is not much different which itself is a creation of agencies.

Establishment controls all major parties in Pakistan and influences their decisions as needed. But question is weather these parties can survive in these times when after 30 years struggle, the lower class had transformed in to a sizeable middle class, education level are far above from times of dictatorships, the media has got the power to influence the public opinion and technology has mad the world a global village and it has not been possible to fool all the people all the times.

I would humbly disagree with those who think that dream of change is just a delusion, whatever present system of status quo and exploitation tries to do, it would not be able to deliver.

This is the time when an invisible power struggle has began between the pro-establishment and antiestablishment forces, where we go from here is although not certain but there is no likelihood that Pakistani public will be ready to accept a rule like Taliban as we are much different culturally, socially and ethnically from Afghanistan.

There is no doubt in my mind that liberal, educated and middle class leadership is emerging which has mobilized general public because of the mistake made by establishment by removing Chief Justice of Pakistan and people has started thinking out of the box.

Here is another question, weather reinstatement of Chief Justice and deposed Judges will bring any revolution and break the status quo, the answer is in a definite and big “NO”, we can not expect a welfare state emerging if the deposed judges are back, however this will disintegrate the alliance of exploitation and began a war between partners of collation of exploitation and ultimately bring down this alliance of Military, Mullah, Feudal Lords and Judges.

To understand it better we have to look in to the events which took place since removal of Chief Justice and how the powers of status quo and anti-establishment are allaying, how judicial system actually works and where it will became a catalyst for change.

That would give us a clear idea weather “Long March” was a success or a failure and weather Aitazaz made a right decision or a mistake………

There are two types of judges, ones who are liked by the lawyers community and the ones who are respected, it is not necessary that a judge who is liked by lawyers is really respected and vice versa. Chief Justice Iftakhar Muhammad was widely disliked by lawyers because being proactive, vocal, and overconfident which resulted his court room being nick named as “Slaughter House”. The reasons were obvious, justice rushed is justice crushed.

However he was respected for his sincerity, judicial activism and bold decisions which were not common in Supreme Court, although I have no doubt in mind that he got his son inducted in to FIA and later in police as a political favors, but he refused to compromise on his judgments against wrong government decisions on basis of that favors, if one check the record, almost all of judges in higher judiciary get such favors and much more.

On decision of Steel Mills case he made the then prime minister upset, also his several other actions against beaurucracy were disliked by General Musharaf and his fellows. The disliking in lawyers community against Chief Justice gave dictator a chance to blackmail him, but his advisors miscalculated that very fact that although Chief Justice is disliked by lawyers on certain issues, the lawyers respect him for his integrity and courage.

Although Chief Justice was not aware at the time when he refused to submit before General Musharaf that lawyers will come out to help him, but he was sure that “Supreme Judicial Council” will not take any pressure from Generals and decide on merit as the charges were frivolous, fortunately many of the judges who held senior ranks were either good professional lawyers before being elevated as judges or not corrupt and they wont fear about their jobs.

However things changed dramatically and lawyer’s community refused to accept any such action against Chief Justice, the hatred against General’s overcome the disliking of chief justice and his courage and integrity become a cause. There is a famous quote that why should a judge fight generals on cost of his job when entire nation is distributing sweets when a dictator takes over, the disapproval of Generals decision by lawyers was fueled by the treatment met by him by police and agencies.

Once lawyers showed strength, the judges in Supreme Court realized that they have some backing, as, the civil society, human rights organizations and international support joined lawyers the judiciary started feeling confident for first time in our history that they are no more slaves of generals and that resulted in to reinstatement of chief justice.

That was the same strength which helped more then 60 judges of superior courts to refuse to take oath under PCO or second martial law of General Musharaf, however if, like our past, the public and lawyers would have been sleeping over chief justice issue, the number of judges refusing to take oath under PCO would have been significantly less.

The lawyers, civil society and middle class Pakistani’s have shown an unprecedented resistance, the media coverage brought this issue to every citizen and it would not be wrong to say that ever if Benazir was not assassinated the results of elections would have been same, however Benazir’s assassination put establishment on defensive and added in to anger of a common man.

Unfortunately people have not seen any change after the election, as NRO, US pressure and alliance of Zardari with establishment are the main hindrances in restoration of deposed judges, as we all know that PPP is in no mood to play antiestablishment role, rather its own workers and party itself is hostage to elements which are on payroll of agencies.

The middle class, liberal and educated people are frustrated with this situation where a common man is fed up with rising costs, in such situation it was not a miracle that hundreds of thousands of people participated in long march.

On other hand the establishment has already inducted his forces in this movement, be it in form of Jamat Islami or ex-servicemen in order to hijack the entire movement, if such a movement of liberal and middle class educated people is hijacked by JI, students of Lal Masjid and ex-servicemen and turns violent, it will derail the half cocked democracy which is exposing the real face of our political parties and generals would have a reason to interfere.

Keeping in view the number of participants of long march and in case the judges were not restored for next few days in case of “Dharna”, it would have surely turned violent and at the same time while the lawyers and civil society would have not been able to sit-in for indefinite period of time, the pro-establishment forces would have taken over the entire movement by turning it violent.

This situation would have not only shaken the confidence of general public, who participated with their families on lawyers and civil society but also helped the forces of status quo to further their agenda.

This is supported by the fact that youngsters belonging to IJT, students of Lala masjid and “Brave” ex-servicemen who were raising slogans of “Now or Never” did not bothered to do any “Dharna” even after the lawyers announced that whoever wants a sit in is free to do so, does not it clearly indicate that those who have been always a part of generals weather in uniform or as civilians intended to hijack the entire movement as it has been in our history.

Undoubtedly, the leaders of lawyers made a wise decision, they not only saved a movement of civil society and liberal educated Pakistani’s from going in to hands to pro establishment jihadi elements but have also established the credibility of civil society to lead.

Today every Pakistani is praising the civil society apart from supporting their cause that it was a biggest protest in Islamabad and so peaceful, this trust of the common man is the real gain for civil society and liberal middle class of Pakistan. It has not only changed the Pakistan’s image overseas but have given a hope to a common man that not only generals and feudal lords can run the country but also there is another force which is amongst themselves.

There is no doubt that judges would be reinstated but now with a new courage that they have nation on their back, they generals-judges alliance is already a thing of past and with an independent judiciary there is no force which can protect status quo, although it will take some time for things to shape up, but we are on right track, this is the beginning of a soft revolution which has already changed a lot without any violence

Silence.