Remember who requested the NWFP government to call for postponing by-elections and then advised the Election Commission of Pakistan to delay the polling to August from June, causing distrust among the partners in the coalition government. Who called for ending the peace agreements signed between the tribal people and the NWFP government in Swat, a move that revived suicide bombings? Who advised the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari to take back his pledge of restoring the sacked judges through a parliamentary resolution and instead reinstate them through a constitutional amendment accepting the November 3 martial law imposed by former army chief Pervez Musharraf.
In the latest of several blunders, who issued a notification for bringing the ISI under the interior ministry causing grave resentment in the military establishment.
Two people, or more commonly known advisers of the PPP government, will stand out for all the stated blunders by the ruling party in the first four months in power.
Adviser on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik and the adviser on law, Farooq Naek are, apparently, putting in their best effort to damage the PPP. While Rehman Malik is behind the by-election delay, scrapping of peace accord and the latest ISI notification blunder, Mr Naek is solely responsible for blocking the legal and morally correct reinstatement of deposed judges. There is growing impression in the government and the PPP that both the co-chairman and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have terrible advisers on law and interior causing grave damage to the party’s and the government’s reputation and credibility.
Since the formation of the coalition government in March, the alliance has gone through uneasy relations given the solo flight by the major partner -- the PPP. Party stalwarts, workers and sympathizers are already concerned that the party and the government are being run by unelected people, who are in some capacity or the other involved in key decision-making, leaving out the old guards and the elected members.
The party’s elected members, in private conversations, express the concern that most advisers are playing in the hands of the establishment, bringing a bad name to the party, which was known for fighting against the civil and military establishment for the sake of people. However, Malik and Naek, seem to influence and dominate all party meetings and decision-makings ignoring the likes of Naveed Qamar, Raza Rabbani, Aitzaz Ahsan and Amin Fahim. Benazir Bhutto’s old friend Naheed Khan and her husband Safdar Abbasi had become irrelevant soon after the death of Bhutto in December last year.
For these reasons the coalition government broke up so soon, much before it could gel together. The time of the break-up surprised even the opposition parties, who had predicted that the coalition government may last for six months to one year. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which was the second biggest group in the coalition, does not trust PPP’s advisers and now its leadership believes that these non-elected people running the party and the government will go back to their businesses and homes in Dubai and United Kingdom after messing up governance.
The ANP is having problems in the coalition government because, its leadership says, the PPP is not consulting the party on any matter. The prime minister is hardly visible in any key decision-making raising questions inside and outside Pakistan as to who is ruling the country?
Amid chaos of governance and people having no experience or qualification to manage gigantic tasks, the politicians are once again at the receiving end of the people, making the forces of establishment stronger by the day.
The lack of thinking and little understanding of how a political government is run became visible last week when a simple interior ministry notification brought the civilian intelligence network, IB, and the military intelligence body, ISI, under the control of the interior minister, making Rehman Malik the most powerful interior minister in the country’s history. That glory was, however, short-lived as the military strongly objected to the government’s decision and moved fast to get the order reversed. The fact that the order was reversed within few hours of issuance is reflective of how weak the civilian government is and how strong the establishment is. It also shows that boundaries have been drawn between the civilian rulers and the establishment backed by the military, and the political government is not allowed to cross that boundary line, no matter what. The role and powers of the civilian government are limited and it has to work within the given boundary wall.
The notification pertaining to ISI’s control was not issued by mistake. According to media reports, as soon as the notification was issued, Zardari, reacting from Dubai, said it was a good decision and had been done so that the military did not get the blame for any wrongdoing of the ISI. When the notification was reversed, according to media reports, Zardari said the decision of reversal was good because the earlier order had created misunderstandings between the government and the military.
The fact that the civilian government has proved be a weak one is one reason that the rhetoric against Musharraf by both Nawaz Sharif and Zardari have died down lately. While, Sharif geared up his tough stance against Musharraf soon after the February elections, Zardari moved slowly against Musharraf calling upon him to quit for the first time in May. Of late, both the leaders have stayed abroad on one pretext or the other leaving the field open to Musharraf to gain strength and consolidate his position. According to reports, the PML-Q president and Musharraf loyalist, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, said the honeymoon between Zardari and Musharraf was over and confrontation between the political government and the president had started.
Because of the actions (read lack of action) and statements of past four months, the PPP and its leadership has lost a lot of trust and confidence of the people and his political allies. The latest survey of public opinion conducted by the American International Republican Institute shows that the PPP is losing ground, but at the same time gains are not being made by the establishment-backed PML-Q or the president, but its political ally Nawaz Sharif.
A government run by advisers with no experience in politics has proved to be a disaster. The only experience that advisers like Rehman Malik and Farooq Naek have is striking deals with the establishment, sitting across the table. The problem with relying too much on unelected advisers is that they don’t involve thinking process in decision-making and all they are concerned about are benefits, without realising these might be hurting the people.
On the other hand, elected people are always concerned about the welfare of the people because they know that they have to go back to the people to get their votes. Unless, the PPP government gets rid of unelected advisers running the government affairs, its popularity will continue to slide down with no recovery in sight.