Self-serving narrative of military apologists

True democrats - Aslam Beg and Hamid Gul

Every 10 years when a military ruler is discredited, we suddenly see a loud chorus of dyed in the wool pro-establishment voices attempting to cleanse the military’s reputation as an institution from the taint of the unpopular dictator. As a result, for the last few years, Pakistanis have been confronted with the hilarious sight of retired military servicemen like Aslam Beg and Hamid Gul giving lectures on democracy or pro-establishment bureaucrats like Roedad Khan preaching about a people’s revolution. Reading the first few paragraphs of the article below by Syed Masudul Hasan (a retired brigadier and general-secretary of the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Association) one might be forgiven for thinking – here is a rare military man who accepts the institutional responsibility of the military for destroying Pakistan’s political system.

But after a few paragraphs, one realizes this is simply another attempt to cleanse the image of the military by dissociating it from the actions of a “unconstitutional acts of a few generals never represented the views of the rank and file of the armed forces.” So just because Musharraf became unpopular among hardline elements within the military during the end of his tenure because of his pro-West policies and backchannel talks on Kashmir, we are now supposed to start respecting the supporters of the internal counter-coup against him (including luminaries like Hamid Gul and Aslam Beg) as true democrats and supporters of democracy and the parliament. What a joke!

If that isn’t bad enough, Brigadier Masud even implies that it was really only the formation of PESA that resulted in a turning point in Pakistan’s history. According to him, military coups by rogue generals “were indemnified by our superior courts and parliaments” until ex-servicemen had enough and formed PESA to topple the Musharraf regime. By saying this he is trying to paint PESA as the only effective opposition to military rule in Pakistan’s history. It’s quite funny that military personnel can’t even pretend to support democratic governance against military rule without undermining parliament and painting the military as a saviour. While the role of the judiciary is certainly tainted, the 1958 coup was preceded by the dissolution of the Constituent assembly by Iskandar Mirza so how could parliament have indemnified Ayub Khan’s coup? Similarly, Zia dissolved the National Assembly in 1977 and Musharraf’s declaration of emergency suspended the National Assembly in 1999 and finally dissolved it in 2001. So either Brigadier Masud has a very poor grasp of Pakistan’s history or he is simply out to (falsely) prove that the military can’t be blamed for subverting the constitution when the parliament is a willing accomplice. Even more alarming is this report by Kamran Shafi that PESA has now taken it upon itself to act as a custodian of civil society organizations. It wasn’t bad enough that the military is constantly performing coups on the civilian government – now with PESA, the military is attempting to carry out a coup on civil society organizations.

Those who mauled our constitution by Syed Masudul Hasan:

Pakistan’s founding fathers wanted the country to become a modern and enlightened democratic Islamic state. It is our misfortune that even after 63 years of existence, we are still probing in the dark to find our correct bearings. It is most unfortunate, in fact tragic, that the main characters responsible for the present state of affairs are those who had taken an oath to protect and defend the constitution of Pakistan. They not only kept derailing the country from the path to democracy but also caused incalculable harm to its integrity and sovereignty.

Under the 1962 Constitution, Ayub Khan ruled the country as if it were his fiefdom. For more than 11 years the provinces did not have elected governments and were ruled through despotic governors. Political and economic deprivation sowed the seeds for disintegration in East Pakistan. He resigned after taking the country to the brink of disaster. Yahya Khan finished the job that was left half way by Ayub. As for General Zia, he hanged the first elected prime minister of Pakistan, brought in extremism in religion and put the country essentially in reverse gear. General Musharraf also overthrew a democratically elected government, and primarily to save his own position. His follies include the Kargil episode, the assault on Lal Masjid, Nawab Akbar Bugti’s murder and our complete surrender to America on one phone call.

Unfortunately, almost all the unconstitutional acts of these self-seeking generals were indemnified and protected by our superior courts and parliaments. When Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule and packed off the superior judiciary after the chief justice of Pakistan had refused to resign, a group of retired military officers thought that enough was enough. They formed an organisation called the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Association (Pesa) whose main purpose was to show to the people of Pakistan that unconstitutional acts of a few generals never represented the views of the rank and file of the armed forces.

Pesa came out with full support for the chief justice and demanded restoration of the judiciary. It also demanded removal of Musharraf and his trial for treason. After the long march was called off, members of Pesa were the first group to reach the chief justice’s house to congratulate him.

At the present time, the country is faced with external as well as internal threats. Institutional corruption is at its highest level, and state institutions that used to be pride of the nation are failing. Poverty-stricken Pakistanis are committing suicides in worryingly large numbers. There is no semblance of rule of law and even in the settled areas poor people are being subjected to unlawful trials through local jirgas.

Members of Pesa have demonstrated in favour of the lawyers’ movement, in support of minorities, women’s causes and have aided internally displaced people. The association also intends to organise a national convention of like-minded organisations and societies with a view to coordinating their efforts to advocate democracy.

Some quarters blame all ex-servicemen for the misdeeds of a few self-seeking generals. This is not justified on the simple grounds that one cannot blame the entire civilian population if some of them order women to be killed by their dogs or if they bury them alive? Likewise, neither political parties nor the judiciary can be held responsible if some of them supported the military dictators in the past.

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