Pakistan\\\'s \\\'seven deadly sins\\\'

In the October 22, 1925 issue of his weekly publication, Young India, Mahatma Gandhi warned: "Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, knowledge without character, business without ethics, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle" were the seven human failings which, if unchecked, had the potential to destabilise society. This belief never left him till the very end.
Twenty-three years later, he gave his grandson, Arun, a piece of paper on which the same warning was scrawled. Unknown to either of them, this was to be their final meeting as Gandhi was assassinated shortly afterwards.
Even though he had merely flagged the elements that eventually result in the decadence of society, the article has continued to prompt excessive and somewhat futile comment. Be this as it may, each one of these frailties, which in later decades came to known as the 'seven deadly sins,' is relevant to Pakistan. But it is the last of these, 'politics without principle' that lies at the heart of the seemingly interminable turmoil ravaging the political landscape of the country.
This nation of almost two hundred million people is crippled by the rapier wounds inflicted by its leaders whose ambitions are as ruthless as they are devoid of even a semblance of morality. It does not matter to these men that the country is at war because they are completely immersed in their own deadly skirmishes on the political battlefield.
Not one of them has bothered to rally public support for the officers and men of our armed forces who are fighting for the survival of the country in the rugged terrain of North Waziristan. Some soldiers have sacrificed their lives while others have been grievously wounded. An estimated one million people - men, women and children - have been uprooted from their homes and live in misery in pathetically inadequate camps for internally displaced persons.
But all this is yet to stir the deeper fibres of human compassion among any of the leaders. Only a few have bothered to visit the IDPs (internally displaced persons) in their makeshift shelters or the injured military personnel in hospital. On these rare occasions they ensure that the print and electronic media are around. The opportunity for self-projection is exploited to the full as television clips show them doling out largesse or announcing hefty donations for the IDPs.
The grotesque want of human compassion is all too visible and is encapsulated in the warning of the Quran: "O you who have attained to faith! Do not deprive your charitable deeds of all worth by stressing your own benevolence and hurting (the feelings of the needy), as does he who spends his wealth only to be seen and praised by men..." (2: 264, 4: 38-39).
Even worse, the assistance extended to the IDPs, which is shamelessly publicised as the 'personal generosity' of the leader, is actually appropriated from public funds.
Even then, whatever has been spent on the refugees is a pittance. This becomes apparent from the recent statement of the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) acting chairman, Shahid Hussain Asad: "The government will face a revenue loss of Rs42 billion because of the six-day Eidul Fitr holidays." He elaborated that the FBR rakes in Rs7.0 billion in taxes every single day.
Again it is the same insatiable lust for power, or, what Gandhi described as 'politics without principle', that has driven Pakistan's morally bankrupt leaders towards senseless measures that could imperil and destabilise the country. This applies as much to Imran Khan's million-man march to Islamabad on Independence Day as it does to Nawaz Sharif's decision to entrust the security of the federal capital for a three-month period, commencing from August 01, to the army under Article 245 of the constitution.  
The nervousness of those perched in high places is apparent from reports that month-long celebrations have been lined up to commemorate the country's independence. This harebrained idea, aimed at dousing the flames of Imran Khan's threatened march, is said to have emerged from Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Asif - the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the ruling PML-N. The extent of influence these courtiers have on Nawaz Sharif, the indecisive prince Hamlet of Pakistan, is uncertain.
But first Imran Khan, whose claim that last year's parliamentary polls were massively rigged is not corroborated by the findings of several foreign as well as local election monitors. His initial demand for a vote recount in four constituencies changed abruptly to a 100 per cent audit of the election results. He was obviously emulating Dr Abdullah Abdullah of Afghanistan.
The difference is that the Afghan leader was protesting the outcome of the runoff ballot within hours of its announcement while Imran Khan's agitation is against an event that occurred 14 months ago.
The relentless pursuit of power is a dreadful thing and destroys even a semblance of all that is decent. Its first victim is the truth. Imran Khan's devouring passion is to become the prime minister of Pakistan. His accusation that he was deprived of an outright victory in the 2013 elections is belied by statistical evidence that has surfaced in the last eight weeks.
The editorial in the July 25-31, 2014 issue of The Friday Times reveals that 410 electoral petitions were filed before election tribunals, and, of these, 301 had been decided by May 31, 2014. There is no evidence of discrimination against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). According to the journal, the "PTI has had a zero success rate in 37 petitions and PML-N only four successes out of 38; the tribunals have de-seated two PTI candidates and nine PML-N winners."
Instead of calling Imran Khan's bluff, the PML-N leadership has thrown in the towel, and by invoking Article 245 has admitted it is incapable of providing protection to even a small city like Islamabad, leave aside the rest of Pakistan. The explanation unabashedly advanced by the interior ministry was that the government had received "reliable reports" about the imminence of terrorist attacks in retaliation to Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
This was disingenuous indeed. Ordinary citizens were expected to believe that non-state actors had abandoned the fundamental element of surprise on which the hit-and-run tactics of asymmetric warfare is based. They had notified the government that starting from August 01, they would be targeting the federal capital for a period of three months!
Nawaz Sharif has the nasty habit of springing surprises on the nation. Even reputed analysts such as Hasan Askari Rizvi, have commented that this is "the first time in Pakistan's troubled political history that a civilian government has handed over the security of the capital city to the army...which will be immune from the writ jurisdiction of the superior judiciary."
If the prime minister and his minions expect the army to come to their rescue from the PTI's planned agitations, they need to mull over Articles 243-245 (Part XII, Chapter 2) of the constitution which deal exclusively with the military. It is the security of the country and not the survival of the civilian government from the consequences of its political blunders that is the only constitutional obligation of the armed forces.
Article 245(1) declares that: "The Armed Forces shall, under the directions of the Federal Government, defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war, and, subject to the law, act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so."
Under clause 2 the invocation of Article 245 cannot be challenged "in any court," while clause 3 rules out the jurisdiction of the concerned High Court so long as the armed forces are required to act "in aid of civil power."
What emerges from all this is that Article 245 can only be invoked in the event of 'external aggression or threat of war' or in 'aid of civil power'. There is no external threat as of now, which implies that the government has conceded that it does not have the ability to deal with the internal situation without the 'aid' of the army.
Had Gandhi lived isn contemporary Pakistan, he would surely have included 'leadership without competence' as the eighth deadly sin.
The writer is the publisher of Islamabad-based Criterion Quarterly. iftimurshed@gmail.com