Why can't Pakistan's democracy be just like India's?
The recent BBC report, “Pakistan’s MQM received Indian Funding”, written by Owen Bennett Jones, has stirred up the Pakistani media with the statement that Karachi-based political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has been funded by Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India. India dismissed the report calling it “baseless”. The article said that, “authoritative Pakistani source” has told the BBC that the MQM officials had told the UK authorities that “they received Indian government funds”, ostensibly during the investigation by the Scotland Yard into allegations of money laundering.” Jones did not do much effort on personal investigation other than a trip to Islamabad. Recently, Alan Crockford denied about the documents saying, “... (They) are not the property of London Metropolitan Police”. Those alleged documents were the base of the above mentioned article published in the BBC.
Pakistani establishment has always been insecure by the democratic setup in Pakistan. Therefore, its relationship with the political leadership of Pakistan has always been shaky. Such report published against any Pakistani political party or against Pakistani politician in a foreign media is not new.
In 1996, Benazir Bhutto’s government was dismissed on the allegation of corruption and mismanagement. After few month of her government’s dismissal, the BBC released a documentary titled The Princess and the Playboy with the alleged corruption stories. The former president and her husband, Zardari was also highlighted as a corrupt man in that documentary. Soon he was known as “Mr Ten Per Cent” in Pakistan, which means that according to allegations he was charging ten per cent commission on every government project during his wife’s tenure. The documentary was picked up by the then print media of Pakistan which did Bhutto’s media trial through newspapers. Zardari was kept in jail for 11 years during two different regimes but state was not able to convict him in any corruption case.
In 1998, Nawaz Sharif’s last government was over threw by the former army chief Musharraf and he was sent in exile to Saudi Arabia after signing “a ten-year agreement” with the then army chief. In 1999, the BBC 2 released a documentary titled, From Pakistan to Park Lane in which the Sharif family was alleged with the charges of corruption and money laundering. During that period of time Pakistan did not have private channels and the source of information was only a state-run channel Pakistan Television and different newspapers. The Pakistani newspapers started publishing the stories of money laundering by Sharif, which included the affidavit about money laundering through Hudaibiya paper mills submitted by a member of Sharif’s inner circle and his kitchen cabinet member Ishaq Dare.
Both documentaries against political leadership were launched on the international media after toppling their governments.
The recent BBC report by Jones on the MQM is not the first report against the political party. In 2013, after Jones’ article was published in Guardian, BBC 2 launched a documentary against the MQM supremo Altaf Hussain. The 2013 documentary came right after the 2013 general election in Pakistan in which liberal, progressive, and secular political parties like the MQM, Bhutto's People's Party of Pakistan were continuously attacked by Pakistani Taliban to desist their election campaign. Dissimilar to the election campaigns of the right and religious-leaning Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The PPP could not secure their position in rest of Pakistan and was restricted to the rural area of Sindh, unlike the MQM, which secured their traditional seats of urban Sindh where the majority of Muhajirs (migrants after partition) reside. Since then, the MQM has been facing unpleasant events by establishment. Most of the actions against the MQM taken by establishment face the Pakistani mainstream media trail before the judiciary system.
In October 2011, the BBC aired two part documentary named Secret Pakistan in which they tried to prove the links of the ISI with the al-Qaida and Taliban. The BBC was then taken off the air in the country by Pakistan cable operators association and the then democratic government ruled by the PPP did not intervene to prevent this action. Here the international media should not become the part of the power play which establishment uses it against democratic political leadership and when it comes to cleaning their own house, Pakistani establishment wastes no chance in muzzling the voices, as aforementioned even the international media is not spared.
These actions show that Pakistani establishment engineered its own style of political leadership. The leaders who were maligned by the allegations of corruptions and money laundering were later brought back to the country after reconciliation agreement with the same military leadership. Zardari completed his full term of democracy and Sharif is serving as the third term prime minister of Pakistan.
Why can’t the Pakistani establishment let the democratic process runs smoothly in the country like it is practised in India? In the case of Lalu Parsad Yadav, after conviction in famous fodder scam and several corruption cases, he lost his parliamentary seat after a judicial trial. Instead of bringing the political instability in the country, a democratic process and judicial inquiry can remove corrupt politicians from the system. But Pakistani establishment has taken the line since decades of doing media trials of political leadership; and when the country suffers from the political vacuum they bring the same politicians back in the system. Such practices has weakened the judiciary on one side and distorted the image of military leadership on the other side.