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| June 26, 2000 | ||
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| Pakistan's
Queen B Benazir's key aide describes how she was done in by an 'ethos of militarism' By G.Parthasarthy TRIAL AND ERROR Iqbal Akhund's book on the "Advent and Eclipse of Benazir Bhutto" vividly describes the challenges that Benazir faced when she assumed office after Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash. Akhund describes how the role of a popularly-elected prime minister was circumscribed and subverted by an overbearing army chief, General Mirza Aslam Beg, and by a president Benazir thought had done in her father, Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Being a discreet civil servant Akhund has thrown little light on Benazir's personal life. This book was, after all, never meant to be a biographical sketch. It is essentially an insider's account of Benazir's brief first tenure as prime minister. When Benazir assumed power many in India had hoped that she and Rajiv Gandhi would forge a new era of peace. Akhund describes the pitfalls Benazir experienced while charting this course. The chapter on Siachen and the role of Indian diplomats and negotiators is particularly revealing. Akhund claims that after then foreign secretary S.K. Singh had acknowledged an agreement had been reached to withdraw troops from existing eyeball to eyeball positions and relocate them to positions held in 1972, India backtracked. In retrospect, considering that any withdrawal of forces would have left the Siachen region open to easy occupation by Pakistan, was the decision to go slow not a prudent one? Second, had the views of our armed forces been comprehensively considered before we agreed to a pull back? Akhund is incorrect when he claims that the LoC was never defined in the Siachen region. The Karachi Agreement of 1949 clearly states that beyond Point NJ 9842 the ceasefire line shall lie "North to the Glaciers". There is no basis for Akhund's claim that the LoC proceeds eastwards from NJ 9842, giving Pakistan control over the Karakoram Pass. It is obvious from what Akhund writes that on issues like relations with India and Afghanistan and on Kashmir, the army calls the shots in Pakistan. Benazir could rarely if ever have her way. Akhund's book is a "must read" for Pakistan watchers. Being a Sindhi, his description of the Sindh situation naturally has a particular orientation. However, the ethos of Pakistani militarism has to be constantly kept in mind. As Akhund proclaims, "The Pakistan Muslim thinks of himself as heir to the Muslim Empire, descended from a race of conquerors and rulers. There is, therefore, a streak of militarism in Pakistan's ethos, even at the popular level ... Benazir, a decade-long victim of Martial Law, could not, or would not, dispense with even the outward symbols of militarism." |
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Many
Pakistanis affirm that their lives and destinies are moulded by three
"A"s -- "Allah, Army and America". While Allah has
bestowed them with the richest agricultural lands in the subcontinent and
with plentiful resources of gas and minerals, He has balanced these with
the trials, tribulations and tyranny they have borne because of the
overwhelming and all-pervasive role of their army and America.