Pakistan Under Musharraf Military Regime, And The Question Of
By Aftab Hassan Khan, Fri Dec 9th

It is been over four years that General Musharaf is been inpower. Three years with a naked military regime and the last oneyear with a so-called democratic government and he as apresident. General Musharaf is a lucky military dictator whorealised the changed world situation after 11th September 2001so he changed his policies overnight to become a partner ofAmerican imperialism in the "fight against terrorism". He, atleast in words, changed his life time support to religiousfundamentalist and to some extent abandoned them without anyshame or apology.

World imperialism in return awarded him by accepting hisdictatorial rule without a question or doubt. Imperialist forcesrewarded him by rescheduling his loans and granting him some newloans as well. He became darling of the western rulers and afamily friend of President Bush. He became the award-winningpresident of Pakistan who was invited by President Bush in June2003 at Camp David, as was boasted by the Pakistani governmentcontrol media.

General Musharaf wins this position by his hard work to pleasethe international imperialist institutions like IMF,World Bankand WTO. He acted blindly on the precious advises of theseinstitutions to implement the restructuring plan of publicsector, privatization, lowering of the trade tariffs andderegulation’s. "This is the painful recipe that we must adoptif to overcome the economic recession and to start the recoveryof the sick economy" he boasted as he took power in October 1999in a bloodless coup. He had overthrown an unpopular rich PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif was not able to complete hisfull five-year term although he had a two third majority in theparliament elected in the year 1997. Nawaz Sharfi tried his bestto implement the policies IMF, World Bank and WTO. But wasunable due to massive resistance by the workers and smalltraders. General Musharaf took power precisely to implement theunfinished agenda of Nawaz Sharif.

The result of the implementation of the imperialist guidedpolices is a disaster for the working class of Pakistan. Therecent Sate Bank Pakistan report indicate an increase of atleast 15% more poverty within the last three years despite allthe media hype of a great recovery of the Pakistan economy underMusharaf. The government claim that there are record 11 billionUS Dollars foreign reserves due to the polices of the regime.

Political Front

The masses have lost all confidence on the main capitalistpolitical parties. You can not find any difference of policiesamong the two main stream parties, Pakistan Peoples Party ofBenazir Bhotto and Pakistan Muslim League of ex Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif. The two were at one time representing quitedifferent policies; PPP was a populist radical party, which atone time was able to attract many working classes to itsfold.But Under Benazir Bhotto, the PPP has become a right wingconservative party closely linked at different times with thearmy generals and the American imperialism. Benazir Bhotto wereelected twice as Prime Minister (1988 and 1994) but was unableto deliver any reform agenda. She is at present in exile andsince 1998, living in Dubai and running its party via emails. Acourt in Pakistan on corruption charges sentenced her. Herhusband is in a Pakistani jail for the last seven years forallegedly corruption, nepotism, murder and attempt of murdercharges. The PPP emerged the largest parliamentary party duringthe October 2002 general elections begging around 22 percent ofthe votes. The PPP is at present part of an alliance calledAlliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) along with someother main bourgeoisie parties. The ARD has been unable tolaunch any mass agitation against the present regime despite allits claims of launching one.

Religious Fundamentalism

The distrust of the masses on the main political parties hasled many to take political refuge under the religious parties.The religious parties have formed a united alliance calledMutihida Majlis Ammal (United organization for Action). The MMAhave won over 15 percent of the votes during the October generalelections. They have formed a provincial government in NorthWestFrontier Province, and part of the provincial government atBaluchistan. NWFP province is next to Afghanistan. The formationof the government by the religious fundamentalists in thisprovince has given a major boast to the Talban Mujahidin inAfghanistan. It is here where Americans want Musharaf to go fora crack down on the provincial government. The centralgovernment have led many raids on the so called Alqaida hideoutsin this province to please the American imperialism that theMusharaf regime is serious to have a go on religious fanatics.

The ongoing growth of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan is aserious threat to the progressive forces of Pakistan. Thereligious fundamentalists have several trends within its ranks.But overall they are all united in their extreme right wing,semi fascist approaches in politics. They promote conservative’sfamily values that mean women as half of men. Their antiimperialist sloganeering does not deserve them to earn as a realanti imperialist force. It is semi fascist forces against theimperialists at this juncture of history. Religiousfundamentalism has grown tremendously particularly after thecollapse of Stalinism. It has provided to some extent a feelingof security for many ordinary Muslims. Some of the religiousparties have build their infrastructures on a mass basis in theshape of religious educational institutions, Mosques and charityorganizations with the assistance of the American imperialismduring the eighties. They also had tremendous help from thereactionary rulers of Saudi Arabia. They were waiting for theirturn to become mass base. That turn has come and they enjoymassive support among the masses more than what they had got thevotes in the general elections of October 2002.

The religious parties grew with the help of the army and thestate. You can say that religious fundamentalist forces inPakistan are mainly due to the heavy economic and social help bydifferent groups within the state. But that is only a part ofthe whole story. They have also grown because of the tremendousdisappointments by the main political parties to offer anysocial help to the masses during their power periods from 1988to 1999. The religious parties have now offered an alternativeto these capitalist feudal political parties.

Can they come to power in Pakistan? Would it be like Afghanistanor like Iran? It is difficult to say that the religious partieswill come to power through elections. The bourgeoisie andAmerican imperialist forces will not allow that to happen. Theycan become junior partners in the power but not as the solerepresentatives of the people of Pakistan. The religiousfundamentalist provincial government is already under threatform the Center and is not being tolerated. The ongoingpopularity of these religious fundamentalists groups has alsoincreased the hopes of the masses to solve their economicproblems. Yet in the province of NWFP, the

MMA government havefailed to address the question poverty and unemployment. Theyhave tried to compromise with the Center to be able to continuetheir government. Although a Sharia bill is been introduced inthe assembly that will give maximum powers to thefundamentalists groups to monitor the Islamic functioning of thestate and the public. But generally they have carried outpolicies dictated by the Center. The result is not very good intheir favor and many questions about their credibility havearisen.But despite this experience in this province, they aremaking headways in the most populated province of Punjab. Theyare also controlling the largest city of Pakistan Karachi. Atthis city the Mayer elected during the year 2001 is fromJamaat-I-Islami.At the time when the armed forces of the countryare trying find out the remnants of the Taliban inWaziristan andother parts of tribal belts, they seem to have forgotten thatthese Taliban also exist in the City likes Karachi. It is notthe slum of this city where they have been regrouping but infactit the seat of learning, the University of Karachi, where theydemonstrated their power on November 5 2003, at the StudentTeaching Center hall. Sources said that around eight to tenactivists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, the student wing ofJamat-I-Islami, the main religious fundamentalist party inPakistan, attacked the hall, smashing the things on display. Theattackers alleged that the exhibition was promoting obscenityand vulgarity, said a frightened student at the condition ofanonymity. “I do not know what is their idea of obscenity. Youcan see that we had clothes on textile display, computer andposters on graphic and products on industrial designs, said afemale student of final year. She said that they did not evenbother to look at the materials on display but they stormed theplace and smashed anything that was in their range.Incisdentlike this are very common where the religious fundamentalisthave taken control of the educational institutions. The semifascist thugs are found in every major cities and are in growingnumbers.

There are over 24000 relogious institutions called Madrassas inPakistan. Over a million students are registered in theseschools. The Musharaf regime are in full support of thesereligious schools pleading that not all religious schoolspromote Jehad. The education in Pakistan is becoming more andmore a business. Private schools have taken over the publicschools in numbers. There are mpore primary school students inpreivate ininstitutions than the public primary schools. This isthe natural result of the ever reducing government spending oneducation. Less than 2 per cent of the national income in spenton education in Pakistan. But military regime can not keep thesame old relationship with the religious fundamentalists as werebefore September 2001. Gradually, there is a bitter taste intheir relationship. The MMA, the major alliance of thesereligious fundamentalist parties, is threatening to launch anationwide campaign. That is on the question of democracy. TheMMA alongside with ARD¨is demanding that Legal FrameWork Order(LFO) announced by General Musharaf be brought to theparliament. Under LFO, through a presidential ordinance, GeneralMusharaf have legalized its three-year of military governmentand several amendments have been made in the constitution.

Relationship with India

Pakistan and India has fought three wars during the last 56years of socalled independence from the British imperialism. Atpresent a peace fever has taken over the main policies ofMusharaf regime and Vajpai,s Bhartia Junta Part government inIndia. The sour relationship between India and Pakistan was atits peak during the last three years. No road, train or air linkwas allowed by the two government untill three months before.Now all the routs are going to be open within next three months.This is manly due to the pressure of the American imperialismand also from a masses to open up the borders.

The American imperialism at present does not favour a warbetween India and Pakistan. it wants Musharaf regime to take onthe religious fundamentalists rather than a war on India. Thatis why Musharaf regime is now bringing most of its army from thefront line with India to the front line with Afghanistan. It hascarried out military operation in the tribal areas betweenAfghanistan and Pakistan that was unthinkable in the past. Theperiorities of American inperalism at this juncture of histioryis to put all efforts to stop Assama and its allies forces totake over Afghanistan. But since the pakistani religiousfundamentalists have taken over the province next toAfghanistan, the guerella activities is been on the increas.There is an increase activites of the Talba Jihadies agaisnt theNATO forces in Afghanistan.

The other factor is a termendous desire of the masses to apeacefull atmosphere between the two countries. The bothcountries are economies of less than $ 400 per capita. But theirmain spending have been and still is the expenditure on the nameof defense. That is at the cost of the social sector on bothside. The infrastrucre remain absolute weak and unstable ineconomic , political and social basis.

The political situation is quite volatile. The presesnt set upof a mixture of military and civil politicians is not verystrong one. The government is a weak government and is still notbeen able to legalise itself in the eyes of the masses. It isstill considered mostly by the masses and rightly so a puppetgovernment of the military with Musharaf as pressident. Theprime minister Jamali who hails from Baluchistan is heading abreak away group of conservative Muslim League. The ML has along history to work together with the establishment to retainand remain in power.

The present government will find itself very difficult tocomplete its full five years of term. Now almost a year ingovernment, it has faced crisis after crisis. The elected primeminister zafarullah Jamali has been already forced to resign bythe Gen. Musharraf and the former employee of the IMF currentFinance minister would be the new prime minister. One of thebest comment on the present government has come one of itsminister of information Sheikh Rashid. He told a reporter thatthe best success of this governmet is that it is still in powerafter even a year. The civilian set up under a general has triedits best to avoid any confrontation with the military by obeyingall its orders without any question. But this situation can notlast very for.It is possible that the present socalled civiliangovernment be overthorwn by General Musharaf if he feels atunease with the setup. he want to have absolute powers like adictator but with a civilian prime minister, he had to sharesome of its authority. General Musharaf can become even moredictator by declaring an emergency or even a martial law. A newmilitary rule is not at all ruled out. With or without Musharaf,the military will be part of the power for soem more time untilla real mass movement erupt to challange the power.

About the author:25 years old Human Rights and activist for DemocraticDevelopment in Pakistan, currently living in exile in Sweden.Contact Author: aftabhasen@yahoo.com