Weak politicians made Pakistan military strong

Hasil Bizenjo is one of those rare Pakistani politicians who remain untainted by corruption and other charges. He carries the burden of a famous last name – his father being one of the most respected Baloch leaders of his generation – and the responsibility of playing politics at a national level as a representative of the most neglected province of the country. So far he has handled this responsibility well.

He is a firm opponent of military rule, but was the first politician from Balochistan to be invited to meet General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's chief executive. Bizenjo's clean record and issue-oriented politics is his strength, which makes him an influential voice within the grand opposition alliance. A student activist who dived into politics after his father's death, Bizenjo was a member of the National Assembly before the military overthrew the civilians 15 months ago.

The military takeover of October 1999 led to a suspension of the National Assembly and Senate, and Bizenjo and his fellow parliamentarians were forced into yet another round of political life under army rule. Since then, the ousted political class has managed to regroup to an extent, and is now making efforts to speak with one voice against the military government.

Demand

Bizenjo was recently in Dubai and I caught up with him for an informal interview at a mutual friend's house. "Our demand is an immediate restoration of democracy and the constitution," he told me. This, he said, could only be done if "we have consensus among us that the army must go". The "we" he referred to is the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) which is a grouping of Pakistan's all major political parties, formed with the one-point agenda of, as the name suggests, restoration of democracy.

This is about all that most of these parties agree on, and that is why there is little talk of what will happen in the post-army rule era. Most parties in the ARD, which includes the two largest ones Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of Nawaz Sharif, maintain severe disagreements with each other, but circumstances have forced them to join hands against the military government.

Good track record

Bizenjo's Balochistan National Party (BNP) is a member of the ARD, and he is a fervent proponent of this alliance. He says political alliances have a good track record of pressuring governments, and are the most effective means of launching a campaign against them.

The Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), a conglomeration of major and minor parties pulled down the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the 1970's, while the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) put up a spirited opposition to military strongman General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980's. Bizenjo believes ARD can today play a similar role.

But first it has to put its own house in order. One major reason why Pakistan's military rulers face no immediate threat is the absence of any strong, credible and united alternative. ARD was meant to fill this vacuum by gathering civilian leaders under one banner, but the traditional rivalry between the parties of Bhutto and Sharif, who have between them dominated Pakistani politics since 1988, threatens to endanger this delicate alliance.

PML's joining the ARD was considered a coup of sorts because it meant that for the first time Pakistan's two largest parties had agreed to sit together. But this was not without opposition from within the PML. The anti-Sharif faction refused to go along with this move and parted ways with the party.

Sharif's exile to Saudi Arabia however jolted the ARD and now there are serious efforts underway to pull PML out of the alliance. If this pull-out materialises, it will weaken the ARD. This suits the military government fine.

Bizenjo says this must not happen, because only a strong ARD can mount an effective opposition against the military government. He argues that in the past parties of different ideologies have joined hands and there is no reason why this cannot – should not – happen again. For him this is all the more important because he hails from a smaller province.

These provinces feel their interests can best be served through such alliances because no single party or province can have a domineering role in them. On their own, smaller provinces and parties tend to get sidelined.

Multi-party alliances also allow smaller provinces to forcefully reiterate their demand for decentralisation of power. But isn't this what the military government is trying to achieve through empowerment of local bodies? Bizenjo disagrees.

He speaks for the ARD when he says empowering the local bodies means weakening the provinces, because in essence powers are being transferred from the centre directly to the grassroots level, bypassing the provinces whose functions will be reduced to that of a post office. In any case, he says, the recent elections were too complicated, and implementing the devolution plan will be next to impossible. "Ultimately these polls will fizzle out," he predicts.

The demand of smaller provinces and parties is a devolution of power to the provinces, who should then transfer it further to the local level. Bizenjo says except currency, defence, communication and foreign affairs, all other powers should decentralised to the provincial level. This will create a better and more effective system of governance for the country and ease the pressure off an overburdened federal government.

Grievances

It will also dissipate the long list of grievances that provinces have against the centre. In particular, the smaller provinces feel they are denied their rights, and resources, by an overbearing centre. Balochistan's leaders like Hasil Bizenjo complain that their province remains starved of funds and hence suffers from acute underdevelopment.

Bizenjo says there is not even 50 kilometres of metalled road in the Makran division, at the southern tip of the province, and even poultry in some of these areas comes from neighbouring Iran.

While all these grievances are genuine to a great extent, none of them is new. Governments both civilian and military stand accused of concentrating power at the centre and neglecting the development of provinces like Balochistan. These complaints have emanated from different platforms at different times, and are now resonating from within ARD. If ARD were to succeed in seeing off the military government, would it address these problems?

Real problem

There are no guarantees. And this is the real problem. Military rule may have its dwindling number of supporters, but political governments too have little to show for their stints in power.

Bizenjo was allied to the government of Nawaz Sharif (although despite promises he was never made a minister), but this did not enable him to prevail on the government to address the vital issues of concern to smaller provinces.

For these provinces, and for that matter for Pakistanis at large, the array of choices is not exactly impressive. In fact, most cynics are not wrong when they say th