What is the matter with our retired Army Generals, they seem to have discovered virtues of constitutional rule and democracy rather late in the day. Several of them have of late ganged up to demand that President Musharraf (incidentally also a retired general) should resign and hand over power to a caretaker government headed by the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. We regret that we have been in the past associated with unconstitutional regimes and we apologise to the nation for adopting the wrong course, they said, but we believe that now is the time to make amends for past mistakes and return to the democratic path. The belated apology is on the face of it an honourable gesture. Better late than never is an old saying, but what made them wait so long to find out the truth about their past adventures is the key question. As long as they had a share in the booty and were treated as ‘more equal than others’, it did not occur to them that they were guilty of betraying the people, but once they lost the perks of power and authority a metamorphosis took place to turn them into the apostles of the rights of people. Ironically, as critics say, every retired general appears to take up cudgels for restoration of democracy when he has played his innings as the army’s top brass but never before he is still a part of oppressive set up. Whether it is duplicity, or hypocrisy, one is forced to attribute sinister motives to this rare breed of converts to democracy.
Among the big guns of the retired generals, who have been more vocal than others in pressing for return to a genuine democratic order, are Faiz Ali Chishti, Mirza Aslam Beg and Hameed Gul. Gen Chishti was a leading figure in 1977 military junta, said to be second to Gen Ziaul Haq, which toppled Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s elected government, imposed Martial Law in the country, and eventually hanged the deposed prime minister. Chishti was reputed to be a more ambitious general than others and fancied himself as a ‘coup maker’ himself. Small wonder he was sidelines by the ‘big boss’ a few years later but did not raise his voice of dissent as long as Ziaul Haq was alive and kicking. Mirza Aslam Beg became the army chief after Ziaul Haq plane crash. He must be given credit for not imposing another Martial Law when observers said he could have easily got away with it, given the uncertain political situation in the country, even though critics believed that it was not out of respect for democracy that he did seize power but because he was reputed to be a ‘chicken-hearted’ General. Nevertheless it is now an open secret that Aslam Beg was involved in furnishing funds to the ISI chief Assad Durrani for ‘buying political support for the IJI candidates against Benazir Bhutto in 1988 elections. And Hamid Gul was the ISI chief during the Afghan civil war, who earned notoriety for the ‘Jalalabad operation’ debacle, as Hamid Gul went on giving deadlines for the fall of the city which did not happen, and was eventually removed by Benazir Bhutto when she became prime minister. Hamid Gul has since arrogated to himself the right to act as the unofficial spokesman of the Taliban, more so their Pakistani counterparts who the government says are engaged in acts of terrorism, but Hamid Gul calls them ‘soldiers of Islam’.
If anyone of the retired generals had stood up against a military regime to defy Martial Law or any other form of unconstitutional rule when they themselves were part and parcel of the system one would have saluted for their courage of conviction. But their belated championing of democracy is a dubious mission, unless they are trying to cash in on Musharraf’s declining popular support to win public favour. To ask Musharraf to step down when the country all set to hold the general election, and all the principal political actors are poised to take part in it (Asif Zardari does not even rule out power-sharing with Musharraf) smacks of a holier than thou attitude. This will surely not help the new ‘converts’ to democracy to vindicate their prestige, or to rehabilitate the army’s reputation for non-interference in the country’s politics. The desired prescription under the circumstances is a smooth transition to a democratic order, not another plunge to a phase of uncertain power equations.
