Between the Military and the Politicians

With due respect you have conflated different issues/ aspects; thereby obfuscating their mutual relationship. Let me try to take each aspect separately. First of all thank you for informing me about the baton ceremony in the navy; but am sure, it is not the full spectrum pageantry the nation witnessed the other day. Forgive my impertinence, but the subversion of constitution is serious business; serious enough for you to lose your life; even if you only attempt it. Yet you have treated the issue in a cavalier manner. Let me assert and agree with you vehemently that, politicians are a shameless, unscrupulous, craven, greedy and a criminal lot. But before we ask them to look for the reasons of military take-over within themselves; let us back off a little. Who created this miserable lot of scumbags as politicians? Most of them were non-entities, picked up from the gutters and footpaths and turned into politicians by the military; Bhutto was an exception insofar, as he was a scion of a political family; but was groomed by a military regime. If you find the politicians to be ineffective, incompetent or their performance less than pristine then the blame rests on the military from whose womb these sub-human species were weaned. Coming down to the causes, let us start with Ayub, was there a civil war going on in Pakistan? Did the civil power requisition the help of army? Again what justification did Ayub have of toppling Mirza? And more ominously, why did Ayub hand over the power to Yahya, and not to the Speaker as per the constitution? What was Yahyas justification for taking over? None. I have no love lost for the tyrant Bhutto, but why did Zia take-over; specifically, when some sort of a political reconciliation was imminent. Musharraf had the least altruistic reason for toppling over the Nawaz dispensation. Suffice it to say, that it was to safe his neck after the Kargil catastrophe. And by the way, all this was meticulously planned and was not a spontaneous reaction as has been implied by his hanger-ons. Do you know that a company was SSG was cool its heels at the Damial Aviation Base, two months prior to the coup? You has empathetically spelled out a long litany of politicians cravenness and malfeance. I categorically agree with you. But then again, I would reiterate that, who created these dregs of society as politicians? Coming to brass-tracks, who foisted Zardari on this hapless nation? Was it not the NRO of Musharraf? It was done merely to perpetuate his rule. And it gave the chance to Nawaz to land back in Pakistan. At this point it is germane to take a quick overview of the results of the military rule during various periods; without going into details: Ayub

The disastrous and unnecessary war with India.

 The near-permanent stunting of the economy. The stunting of political and other institutions/ processes. Let me concede that Ayubs period, notwithstanding the above was better in some aspects; but in the final analysis, he did more long term harm than good; and laid the foundations of future deterioration. Yahya Zia

Loss of half of the country Foisting of Bhutto on the nation Suffice it to say that Zia was A zab-e- Ellahi on the nation. He was an unmitigated disaster and we are still enduring his diabolical legacy. He was instrumental in gifting us terrorism, sectarianism, heroin, Kalashnikov and Nawaz Sharif. He bestowed upon us the concept of political culture by doling out development funds to the MPA and MNAs. And he also gave us Hudood Ordinance and other repressive laws. He was also generous enough to gift us MQM, SSP and other entities of the same ilk.

Musharraf Kargil, with the potential of spiraling into a nuclear conflagration. Ceded territory to terrorists and helped them gain strength, due to lack of military ops against them. Gave unprecedented electoral victory and power to the mullahs and handed over the two western provinces to hard-line mullahs. Was complicit in the killing of 41 persons in Karachi in May 2007. If we claim to adhere to democracy, then let us follow its requisites. A non-performing government should be ousted by the people through elections. Army has no right to do what it has been doing. Its also a matter of commonsense our tin-pot generals cannot handle their professional duties, all war with India were instigated by our generals and they lost all of them= how could they handle the complex intricacies of statecraft? Therefore, before blaming the politicians (who fully deserve to be blamed for their shenanigans), it must be asked that who created them in the first place. And until and unless we learn to respect the constitution, the political process and the institutions, we are not going to get out of the morass of corruption and destabilization.