POLITICIANS VERSUS GENERALS

 A Balance Sheet

 Press briefing by Secretary Information of Pakistan Muslim League (N)
 Muhammad Siddique-ul-Farooque on Wednesday, November 28,2001

  After capturing power in October 1999, General Pervez Musharraf focused his attention on character assassination of politicians, and his team joined him in hurling all sorts of accusations against the political leadership of the country. Radio, television and the print media were lined up to circulate fake stories of corruption.  TV play writers were commissioned to malign the politicians; and the campaign, in which technical resources and manpower worth billions of rupees have been spent, continues unabatedly even today.

 The main objective of this campaign has been to convince the nation that the politicians are always corrupt incompetent and characterless people, who have caused immeasurable damage to the country; while the Generals are very competent persons.  They served the country very well in the past, and now General Pervez Musharraf has come to flood the country with milk and honey, to ensure justice for all, to get accession of entire Jammu and Kashmir, to make Pakistan’s defense invincible, and lead the country to a place of honor in the world!

 

Let us briefly review the 54 years of Pakistan’s political history that includes the rule of both the civilian leaders and the dictator generals. It would enable the people to judge what good the Generals brought to the nation and what losses the politicians inflicted on the country.

 

1.          CREATION AND BREAKUP OF PAKISTAN

Politicians and the people under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah – the unparalleled politician – created Pakistan. While the dictator Generals dismembered Pakistan by accepting a humiliating defeat, and ordering 90,000 troops of the Pakistan Army to surrender to India. The bubble of their policy that defense of East Pakistan lies in West Pakistan blew in their face.

 2.          TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION

A political leader bought the strategic Gwadar port from the Sultanate of Oman and included it into Pakistan; while the generals dished out three important rivers of the motherland, strategic Siachen, a large area of Runn of Kutch to India and dumped the humiliation of Tashkent Declaration in the lap of the nation.

 3.          NUCLEAR SECURITY IN JEOPARDY

Political leaders first laid the foundation of the atomic program, and then made Pakistan member of international nuclear club with six nuclear explosions rejecting heavy American pressures and tempting offer of three and a half billion dollars in aid. The ruling general, on the other hand, has jeopardized the security of nuclear installations by opening Pakistan’s air space to foreign intervention

4.          KASHMIR QUESTION: SUCCESS, FAILURE

During the rule of a politician, the Indian Prime Minister visited Lahore and, admitting the importance of Kashmir dispute, signed the historic Lahore Declaration to resolve it. The ruling General begged India for dialogue for 20 months and then came back empty-handed from Agra.

 

5.          STATE LAND

An elected politician distributed 8 lakh acres of land among the landless haris, and provided them loans on easy installments so as to boost national production. The dictator Generals doled out 250-300 acres of land each to their colleague Generals. They also acquired thousands of costly commercial and residential plots in defense housing schemes under soft terms devised by themselves; and the majority sold them on market prices, making millions of rupees overnight.

 

6.          HEROIN AND KALASHNIKOV CULTURE

A political ruler caused parliamentary legislation for capital punishment to the drug-smugglers, and cleansed the country of the evil of narcotics; while the policies of a General introduced heroin and Kalashnikov culture in the country, and set the humiliating tradition of horse-trading and writing off of loans.

 

7.          NATIONAL HARMONY, DISHARMONY

A Political ruler promoted national cohesion, inter-provincial harmony, eliminated lingual and parochial prejudices, enforced reforms for the open market economy that won world-wide appreciation and forced India to toe Pakistan’s line. The ruling Generals, on the other hand, deliberately nurtured the linguist and ethnic groups, created bad blood among the provinces, ruined peace and harmony in the country, particularly the port city of Karachi and damaged the national economy.

 

8.       RELIEF TO WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

          An elected politician wrote off loans of widows, orphans and retired government servants, and arranged free of cost treatment of the kidney patients including dialysis.  The General terminated that loan write-off scheme, and closed down the dialysis centers providing free treatment to poor kidney patients.

 

9.          WATER APPORTINOMENT ISSUE

It was a political ruler who solved the 70 years old water apportionment issue, and distribution of financial resources among the provinces with consensus. The General has again caused controversy among the provinces on water apportionment, which is fraught with the danger of adversely affecting GNP and  creating inter-provincial disharmony, thus weakening the federation.

 

10.          ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE, DEPENDENCE

Political ruler took practical measures to make Pakistan politically and economically independent and put the country on the road to economic and political stability; while the General has made Pakistan a client state, and is moving from door to door with begging bowl in hands.

 

11.          REJECTION, ACCEPTANCE OF FOREIGN TROOPS

Political rulers did not allow use of country’s airfields or land by foreign forces against a third country in the supreme national interest. The dictator Generals rulers handed, handed over country’s airfields and land for use against a third country, and even allowed establishment of air espionage bases in Pakistan.

 

12.          NUCLEAR PREPAREDNESS AND VICE VERSA

During the rule of a political leader nuclear weapons were in a state of preparedness to counter any aggression since Indian nukes were also in a state of preparedness; while the General has ordered dismantling  of our nuclear weapons and putting their components geographically apart, neglecting the fact that Indian nukes are ready to be fired.

 

13.          STRATEGIC DEPTH FOUND,LOST

The political ruler made Afghanistan a friendly state and earned 2400 kilometers strategic depth for Pakistan’s security; while the General has turned Afghanistan into a hostile country, lost the strategic depth and made western borders unsafe.

This brief comparison is based on historic facts making it abundantly clear as to who proved incompetent, inefficient, corrupt and practically disloyal to the country.

Certainly, some politicians during their limited and patchy rule committed some mistakes. But their mistakes are negligible compared to their achievements. On the contrary, some Generals in their long, uninterrupted and stable rule also took some good measures but their achievements are negligible in comparison with their blunders. And the pranks during the 26 months of General Pervez Musharraf’s unconstitutional rule show that he has left his predecessors miles behind.