Daily Times

What we saw over the weekend and Monday in the backdrop of a sit-in in Islamabad by Tehreek-e-Labbaik, a Sunni extremist organisation must not be shocking but only if we are naïve. Many have mourned at the abject surrender of the state before the religious fanatics. But it was not the first time writ of the state was lost. We have seen, not in distant past, the state of Pakistan led by military cowing down before Taliban variants in FATA’s agencies from South Waziristan to Bajaur and in Malakand, Swat. Actually what’s more outrageous is the way military establishment conducted itself at the peak this crisis, which only reaffirmed the impression that military is hardly subordinate to its civilian bosses, seeks to build its popular reputation exclusively and at the expense of elected government.

On the next day of the resolution of the sit-in, what echoed in the hall of Islamabad High Court where Justice Siddiqui so rightly deplored the role of military and its intelligence apparatus during the whole sit-in episode and their officers becoming the guarantors of that demeaning agreement between government of Pakistan and Tehreek-e-Labbaik should only serve as a reminder of how the military in Pakistan has been intervening in politics. While the cobbling together of erstwhile IJI, MQM and MMA in days of yore was done clandestinely; of late, the military establishment has stopped bothering with the need to act covertly.

Since last October, we have all seen how military establishment pedalled the agenda of mainstreaming the sectarian groups such as JuD to get them involved in the political process without paying any heeds to warning from government and protests from political parties. Earlier this month, we saw how openly the military establishment solemnised the wedlock of MQM Pakistan and PSP, which could hardly last a night. Keeping in view the blatant sway military establishment enjoys over foreign policy, national security and politics, it doesn’t sound too right when we say that Pakistan is a ‘republic’. No doubt we are indebted to the sacrifices of our soldiers in military, along with those from police and other LEAs, but one finds such political manoeuvrings from various apparatuses of the military establishment as soiling its respect and dignity.

No doubt we are indebted to the sacrifices of our soldiers in military, along with those from police and other LEAs, but one finds such political manoeuvrings from various apparatuses of the military establishment as soiling its respect and dignity.

Isn’t it better that we formally turn Pakistan into a stratocracy instead of calling ourselves a republic when we hardly are? In a stratocracy, our state and the military will constitutionally be the same entity; military officers will hold the government posts. We may also entitle the citizens, with mandatory military service, or those discharged honourably from the military, the right to vote and govern. Given the kind of affection our military enjoys in masses, such a dispensation will be an instant hit.

We may further lace it with provisions such as having reservation of, let’s say, 30 per cent of seats in both houses of parliament for the military representatives. This will not only legitimise the political role but also ensure that no law or constitutional amendment deemed adverse by military leadership will ever be passed by the parliament without direct support from representatives of the deep-state in the assemblies. If such a system is unthinkable, lest we forget that after all a similar regime has functioned in Myanmar for years.

Let’s not worry about diplomatic consequences of having a stratocracy. China, which is the largest FDI contributor to Pakistan with more than half of all FDI coming from there, doesn’t care if we are a democracy or not. For the rest of the world, honestly, we are a country of interest more for adverse reasons related to international and regional security than development or trade. This is witnessed by the fact that no head of the state or of the government of the G7 countries visited Pakistan in the last decade, barring two lightning visits of UK PM Cameron, each spanned less than 24 hours while he passed to or from another country. In all these years, however, we had numerous visits from the military and security leadership of the G7 countries, which says a lot about their interests in Pakistan.

So as the punch line of Nike’s ad goes ‘Just Do It!’, let’s do it. This way our military won’t have to illegally indulge in politics spoiling its dignity and we will have stability as there won’t be any sit-ins then. As for luxury of democracy, it may be dispensed with for Islam didn’t injunction democracy for us anyway.

The writer is a sociologist with interest in history and politics. He tweets @ZulfiRao1

Published in Daily Times, November 30^th 2017.