Pakistan's unlikely heroes

When Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry from his position as the chief justice of Pakistan's supreme court on March 9, he was following a set pattern.

After more than 7 years in power as head of the country's politically ambitious and powerful military, in addition to being the president of Pakistan, Musharraf has shown a penchant for politically unsavvy choices.

Irrespective of the outcome of the case against Chaudhry in the supreme court, he has emerged as a potential heroic figure, who has earned himself a place in Pakistan's history.

Long after the present generation of Pakistani rulers are gone, the country's history will inevitably record Chaudhry's decision to defy Musharraf as an unusual act of bravery.

Similarly, there is the case of Imran Khan, the former cricket star turned philanthropist turned politician. Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaaf (movement for justice) party can best be characterised as a fringe political group whose lone voice in the parliament is just its leader.

His is another case of someone who has been turned into a historic figure, thanks to the ruling party's decision to ban his entry last month into the southern port city of Karachi. Khan was angling to visit Karachi, among other reasons, to pay his respects to some of the communities whose members were killed in encounters between pro- and anti- government activists on May 12, when Chaudhry came to the city on an invitation from Karachi's lawyers.

Consequent to the restrictions imposed on Khan, his case has received much wider recognition than it would have if he had not been treated this way.

The ruling coterie's decision to go for an overkill is indicative of two obvious trends. On the one hand, Pakistan's rulers are overcome by insecurity of the kind that only forces them to use oppressive methods, synonymous with using an elephant's foot to kill an ant. Insecurity characterises Pakistan today, with a regime which, with its overkill, has successfully given life to its opponents.

Natural outcome

On the other hand, the political circumstances are the natural outcome of the military's meddling in politics. For too long, Pakistan's generals have felt comfortable with seizing power at opportune moments, not to relinquish it till such time that their positions become untenable. The downside of this strategy, however, is that political parties and political trends cannot be manufactured, even under the compelling influence of a powerful military machine.

For Musharraf, the writing on the wall must be that his experiment to create a pro-Musharraf and pro-military political framework has practically failed. At a time when the Pakistani opposition's moves are gathering momentum, the lacklustre response from the public to the government is telling.

The more General Musharraf tries to enforce his self-defined political order for Pakistan, the more he is likely to fail in setting the course for a future that is subject to his own whims.

For now, given the General's passion for relentlessly forging ahead with his political plan with the backing of his handpicked ruling party, Pakistan is set to witness more turbulence in its politics. Just as there is no turning back for Musharraf, there is little prospect of turning back for Pakistan's opposition leaders who are seeing their ranks swell with the passage of time.

In the foreseeable future, Musharraf's best chance for turning around his political destiny is to embrace two vital options. On the one hand, he has to back away from his aggressive pursuit of the cases against Chaudhry. Indeed, withdrawing the presidential reference to the supreme court that saw the court begin its proceedings against Chaudhry, may be the least bad option among those available.

On the other hand, the time has probably come for the General to step down from his position as head of the military and continue only as a civilian ruler. After years of playing politics, Musharraf has still kept himself in charge of the military. But it's a post which creates the growing danger of sucking the military totally into Pakistani politics, making it hard for the country's generals to focus on their primary duties towards meeting the country's national security obligations.

Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.