IT is time for serious introspection and admission of mistakes that have driven the state to the edge of the precipice. Such a state of intolerance, violence, apathy, anger, lawlessness and despondency is tearing us apart as a nation. All institutions of the state and those at the helm stand exposed due to the machinations of power and devious means being adopted to subdue and annihilate those who question or raise their voice against tyranny.

During my career as a law-enforcement officer from 1973 to 2011, I served under many political chief executives and army chiefs who imposed authoritarian rules that were nasty, brutish and inhuman. Z.A. Bhutto took over as president and chief martial law administrator after Gen Yahya Khan was forced out of GHQ through the vocal protest of senior army officers. As prime minister, Bhutto, despite his democratic credentials, could be dictatorial in dealing with dissent. A number of his own party loyalists remained detained in a ‘concentration camp’, away from the jurisdiction of regular courts.

The military dictator who deposed the democratically elected PPP government proved to be a tyrant and a hypocrite. We saw political activists and workers of the party of the deposed political leader subjected to the worst state tyranny, torture, detentions, floggings, trials and tribulations. The 1980s was a decade of decadence. In 1984, as head of Quetta police, I witnessed a sham referendum wherein Gen Zia was ‘elected’ as president for five years through the stuffing of ballot boxes by hordes of soldiers that obeyed the command of their seniors in a rigged voting saga.

The 1990s saw a political ping-pong match in which the military establishment actually called the shots while the politicos tore each other apart. Both Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto incurred the wrath of undemocratic forces and were deposed one after the other multiple times. Nawaz Sharif eventually tried to sack the then army chief in 1999 but was himself deposed and incarcerated. Brave Benazir Bhutto challenged the same military dictator and lost her life to become, like her father, a political martyr for a cause. Her shrewd spouse took over the reins of the party and retains the clout to dethrone his opponents. The military dictator lost his relevance and was shown the door in 2008.

Strange things happen at midnight in this land, where vendetta and vengeance are rife.

Then followed another decade of democratic façade that saw both the PPP and PML-N in power and out of it due to the machinations of unelected institutions. A player of cricket, a national hero, was brought to power in 2018. His rise was based on an anti-corruption agenda against the leaders of two mainstream parties who had taken turns in poor governance. Imran Khan’s charisma and his bravado endeared him to the youth and educated urban class that wanted a change in the hackneyed political system. However, in his enthusiasm to become the chief executive, he became a beneficiary of political engineering. What followed has been a bitter lesson for those who seek power without principles.

The future of democracy in Pakistan is bleak. Sometimes strange things happen at midnight in this land, where vendetta and vengeance are rife. The Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court opened at midnight on the eve of the vote of no confidence in April 2022; the former taking suo motu notice, while the latter was perceived as preventing uncalled-for administrative brinkmanship.

Another bit of midnight madness occurred recently, when the acting president and chairman Senate, on advice from the federal government, issued an ordinance to prevent the actual president from stonewalling repressive measures added and reintroduced to the accountability law. The National Accountability Bureau is now allowed to detain suspects over ‘non-cooperation’ and to extend the physical remand period from 14 to 30 days. Earlier, this same government had reduced the 90-day physical remand limit to 14 days. Another amendment empowers NAB to arrest a suspect during the inquiry stage. These are obvious witch-hunting measures which are part of the process of political engineering.

Imran Khan finds himself in the eye of the storm due to his ‘defiant’ stance and his challenging of the perceived political role of the military establishment, including the above-the-law intelligence apparatus of the state. His arrest from within the Islamabad High Court by an army-led civil armed force was so blatantly illegal and brutish that violent reactions by his party activists and workers were expected to happen. The May 9 violence and attacks on military installations cannot be condoned under any canon of the law. However, seeing the crowd of protesters in Lahore move unhindered to the corps commander’s house was baffling. Why did the military authorities allow this security breach within the residence of the army commander in Lahore? Such an embarrassment should not have been allowed by the security agencies, including the police.

Our nation has become bitterly polarised politically in recent years. Rather than seeing other politicians and their supporters as mere adversaries, a growing number of people decry them as enemies, traitors or even terrorists. The mutual respect needed in a democratic polity is fraying at a dangerous speed. I agree with the recent reflections of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to shun differences and unite on a “national agenda and stick to it no matter who comes to power”. He said: “It’s never too late. So, wake up at least now and promise to refrain from infighting and point-scoring”, and added that “adversity can bring the best out of an individual as well as a nation if we overcome our fears and apprehensions”.

He must walk the talk. Can one dare to hope that all key stakeholders of the state will abandon their undignified defiance and tread the path of true democracy through free and fair elections, to be conducted by actually neutral caretakers?

The writer is former inspector general of police.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2023