Cassius: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings”.(Shakespeare -Julius Caesar). My apologies for digressing but this is important. Perhaps what stands out more than anything in understanding Pakistan’s elite capture is our spinelessness as a society, our lack of will to resist and fight for our rights and worse our cowardly “learned helplessness”. While we routinely blame our kleptocratic politicians, military dictators, spineless judiciary, corrupt bureaucrats, rapacious business-people and the mafia like establishment, we forget that ultimately the fault lies within us. The fault lies in our servility and our weakness in accepting our lot with our tails tucked between our legs. It is this spinelessness which allowed foreign invaders to plunder this land. It is this trait which allowed a small bunch of business merchants from a small island in Europe to rule over 300 million Indians for over a 100 years with less than 20,000 British, civilians, women and children included. It is this same lack of courage, both physical and moral, which allowed a one eyed illiterate Sikh chieftain of 3 million Sikhs to rule over 70 million Muslims of a so-called “martial race”. His realm stretching from Ludhiana to Peshawar to Kashmir. We do not see any names like Chattha, Chaudhry, Bajwa, Sharif, Niazi, Daultana, Yousafzai, Akhunzada, Khan, Soomro, Bhutto, Chandio, Bugti, Achakzai or suchlike from the lands of Punjab, Sindh, KP or Balochistan among the leaders of the 1857 War of Independence between Bahadur Shah Zafar and the East India Company. Of the vast majority of military units which then revolted against their British masters, not one was Pathan, Sikh or Punjabi Muslim. However they comprised a large portion of British forces, nearly 3/4 which recaptured Delhi in September 1857 and participated in the arson, loot and rape of fellow Muslims of Delhi. We either seek Divine Help or a knight in shining armour or an entitled diva to save us from our wretched conditions or worse, servile acceptance again wrapped in theology. But never or rarely to fight, revolt, rebel and sacrifice! Even tiny Cuba fought against its Spanish masters! So it is no surprise that there is barely a whimper when a Ghulam Mohammed sacks a sitting Prime Minister. Or rubber spined Chief Justices and Supreme Courts uphold the calumny of military takeovers by Ayub, Zia, Yahya or Musharraf. Or the reverence large numbers amongst us still bestow on criminals and kleptocrats like Benazir, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. Notwithstanding the hijacking of Gandhara Industries by Gohar Ayub during his father’s rule, it was Zia who set the foundation of crony capitalism by inducting and promoting the Sharifs, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, scores of other business people, and allowing several of his military cronies and their families to enrich themselves. So the stage was ripe for Benazir to continue along these lines when elected in 1988, especially given the type of man she had married. Part of Benazir’s mystique was her very personal battle with Zia who had hanged her father. This is really what drove her. And like her father she also had different personas. The adored public face of the Bhutto legacy. The private face of a spoilt, arrogant, privileged and entitled “monarch”. The western face of a liberal democrat, a woman in a male dominated society leading her country out of the darkness of military dictatorship, against serious odds. But yet again, like her father, she carried both the devil and the angel within her. And as was the case with her father, the devil won. To her detractors Benazir’s first stint in power was marked by the headline “We don’t have much time, make as much money as you can”. To those who revered her it was a constant struggle against an establishment which did not give her a free hand. Both are true. But this is not a commentary on her rule. It’s not about her sponsoring the Taliban or about handing over the list of our Sikh assets to the Indians or being deeply beholden to the US or her battles with Gen. Aslam Beg. So till we the people do not rise up and take our destinies into our own hands, please keep waiting for the messiah who is not going to come or keep getting whipped and robbed every day! This is about elite capture taking root during her first period as PM. In my view, this is when we saw elite capture, being consciously, deliberately and formally “inducted” as a political tool of “governance”. While it had not yet taken the superior “art” form it was to take in the successive administrations of Nawaz Sharif, her second turn as PM, Musharraf and Zardari and eventually converting Pakistan into Sharif Inc & Zardari Inc, the loot and under had begun in earnest. Since they were new to the game, both husband and wife depended on business persons to bring projects to them through their front men and women, and would take a cut for pushing it through the system. To facilitate this Asif Zardari had installed several of his unelected cronies in offices in the PM house and secretariat. All investment projects requiring government approvals were routed through them, first to him and then to Benazir, thereby earning him his infamous “Mr.10 percent” moniker. Thus Benazir set in motion the wheels of rot, corruption and criminality in governance. She consciously, knowingly and deliberately allowed the wholesale loot and plunder of the country secretly sending her own wealth overseas. Contrary to the excuse offered by her supporters, it is now well known that she was part and parcel of and in complete knowledge of all her husband’s corruption and of the hundreds of millions stashed away in Switzerland snd properties across the UK and Europe. She personally engaged with her and her husband’s front man, Jens Schlegelmilch, whom she described as their family’s attorney in Europe for more than 20 years, who managed their ill gotten wealth. Dozens of front companies in off shore tax havens, hidden behind layers and layers of secrecy which, allegedly, only three people knew about. Asif Zardari, Benazir and Rehman Malik. And now, allegedly, Bilawal as well! Not sure if his sisters know This was taxpayer’s money. Wealth that belonged to the State. Money that should have gone to feed starving children, saving lives, creating jobs and building schools and hospitals. But this went into their personal accounts. Will it ever be recovered? Perhaps never! Let’s face it. Benazir was a crook! Running ahead of myself, but between her, Zardari and Nawaz they had 20 years to fix the rot, build institutions, implement meritocracy in public sector institutions, curb corruption, provide better education, improve health care and create job opportunities. But no. All they achieved was the successful elite capture of Pakistan and the subsequent economic plunder of the country which is conservatively estimated at $37 billion, plundered by these three alone, and another $100 billion or more by their cronies and corrupt business associates who partnered with them. So till we the people do not rise up and take our destinies into our own hands, please keep waiting for the messiah who is not going to come or keep getting whipped and robbed every day! Insha Allah, next week in Part 6 we discuss how Elite Capture lead to Gen. Musharraf’s intervention and the rise of military influence. Haider Mehdi is a Geo political commentator / blogger on National and International affairs