Pakistan Army’s Ayub Khan Moment — Qamar Bajwa’s Political Role Will Force Him to engage with an Opposition He Despises
By Husain Haqqani
13 October
2020
Pakistan’s
opposition parties have, once again, formed a broad alliance, even as special
assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Lt Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa,
resigned from his post Monday.
File
image of the Pakistani military establishment, headed by Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa
| @OfficialDGISPR | Twitter
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Such
alliances have been created several times since politicians opposing Pakistan’s
first military ruler, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, allied against him in the 1960s.
But, unlike in the past, this time the politicians have not been content with
targeting just the president or prime minister of the day. They are questioning
the very premise of the military’s role in Pakistan’s politics.
The army
under General Qamar Javed Bajwa thought that wielding power without taking the
driver’s seat would insulate it from becoming the target of criticism. But
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s civilian government has not been able to protect
the military from political attacks while executing General Bajwa’s policies.
The weak civilian façade has created an opening for civilian politicians to
demand ‘undiluted democracy.’
The
opposition leaders all have their flaws, but each of them also has a popular
support base. Supporters of politicians expect them to be flawed and support
them with those shortcomings. Support for the army, on the other hand, rests on
the assumption that it is an institution above politics, trained and willing to
defend the country.
Pakistan’s
army has been involved in politics since Ayub Khan took over as army chief in
1951. Still, its officers’ oath insists that they would not concern themselves
with politics and the army tries hard to maintain the appearance that it is a
national institution, not a political actor.
But
recently, one of the many retired generals who appear regularly on Pakistani
television channels described the army as “Pakistan’s largest political party.”
As opposition politicians start criticising the army, treating it as a rival
party, General Bajwa might be forced to revisit his strategy of letting the
people see Imran Khan’s government as the army’s own, while describing
opponents and critics as enemies of Pakistan.
A Mythical Entity
As I had
noted in The Indian Express once, Major General (retd) Sher Ali Khan Pataudi
had in 1969 advised Pakistan’s second military ruler, General Yahya Khan, “that
the reason the military was able to snatch the initiative from politicians
after the fall of Field Marshal Ayub Khan was not because of its firepower but
because of its charisma.”
Pakistan
Army’s charisma was “the precious political resource that once lost would not
be easily retrieved.” It was better for the army to remain, for the people, “a
mythical entity, a magical force, that would succour them in times of need when
all else failed.”
According
to Sher Ali, “In the minds of the people, unlike the bureaucracy and the
politicians with whom they had daily contact and whom they knew to be corrupt
and oppressive, the army was the final guarantor of Pakistan and its
well-being.” The army needed to exercise power from behind the scenes to keep
things that way. It could not shoot its way through its own people.
Each period
of direct rule by a military commander — Ayub Khan 1958-69, Yahya Khan 1969-71,
Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq 1977-1988, and Pervez Musharraf 1999-2007 — has ended with
the return to power of politicians the army so desperately wants to bypass. The
reason is the military’s desire to avoid exposing itself to the people, to the
point of losing its charisma.
But over
time, the Pakistan Army has become too intertwined in politics and the media,
diluting the charisma that depended on the army being a mythical entity.
This time,
the army commander is not even directly in power and already the role of the
army is becoming politically controversial. The army will, once again, have to
think of ways to rule without being seen to be ruling.
Bajwa’s Reluctance
General
Bajwa has already held out an olive branch to critics of the army’s political role
by saying that positive criticism must not be confused with hybrid war against
Pakistan.
“Most
voices that might seem loud to you, come from a place of love, patriotism and
trust and therefore must be heeded,” he said while speaking at the passing-out parade
of cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy.
Which
brings us to the reason why Pakistan’s generals have repeatedly failed at
politics.
General
Muhammad Musa, Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army (1958-1966) explained
that politics baffled him because he was trained to “locate the enemy and
liquidate the enemy.” He was trained to obey his superiors and command his
subordinates, but did not know how to deal with “my own people” whose beliefs
and convictions made them defiant.
Politics is
about choosing between alternative solutions, ideas, and policy options. It
requires compromise and adjustments, and it involves persuasion, not commanding,
and getting obedience.
Even if the
opposition parties fail to immobilise the Imran Khan government through large
street protests, Bajwa’s political role will force him to engage with an
opposition he despises. But it may still not lead to the admission by the
entire institution that life in uniform does not prepare a general for the
rough and tumble of the political world.
Ironically,
the reaction of most Pakistani soldiers to this article will be to dismiss it
as an exiled Pakistani writing in an India-based news outlet, without thinking
what forces people into exile and why so many of us are barred from writing in
Pakistan’s own media.
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Husain Haqqani, director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson
Institute in Washington D.C., was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States
from 2008-11. His books include ‘Pakistan Between Mosque and Military’, ‘India
vs Pakistan: Why Can’t we be Friends‘ and ‘Reimagining Pakistan‘. Views are
personal.
Original Headline: Pakistan Army’s Ayub Khan
moment — find ways to rule without being seen as ruling
Source: The Print
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