Muslims and Liberals

By Mustafa Malik

WHILE THE PAKISTAN ARMY reels from public outcry over it highhandedness toward the press and public, a bribery scandal involving top generals has brought the army under international scrutiny.

Would this help bring the generals under civilian control and secure freedom and democracy in Pakistan, continually disrupted by military coups? Would the United States help that process by renouncing its traditional support for coup mongers in the Pakistan army?

The Washington Post, the Reuters news agency and other Western media organizations have put out a story about North Korea paying more than $3 million in bribes to top Pakistan army generals to obtain nuclear weapons technology from that country. The report is based on the publication of a North Korean letter to the “father of the Pakistani bomb,” Abdul Qadeer Khan, who claims to have served as the conduit for the bribe. Pakistan has confirmed the transfer of centrifuges and sophisticated drawings to North Korea but denies the bribery report.

Ever since the mid-1950s when the United States and Britain prodded Pakistan into the anti-Communist alliance then known as the Baghdad Pact, the Pakistan army has been serving on the front lines of America’s wars against its enemies in that region. At the behest of the Carter and Reagan administrations, the Pakistan army directed and facilitated the decade-long guerrilla war that rolled back the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  The Pakistan army has now spent another decade fighting America’s “war on terror” against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Unlike the armed forces of other Muslim countries such as Turkey and Algeria, those from what became Pakistan loyally served foreign colonial power, the British, while politicians and the public fought for national independence. Once politicians created nation, the Pakistan army became busy overthrowing one democratic government after another and establishing dictatorships.  While democracy flourishes in neighboring India, military adventurism has kept it from maturing in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the United States and Britain have coddled each of the four Pakistan army dictators, obviously as a payback for their support for Western strategic interests.

Times have changed, however.  The current generation of Pakistanis seems fed up with the corruption, swagger and lust for political power among the Pakistan army leadership.  Pakistani youth, along with news media, are vociferously demanding the army’s accountability, an unprecedented development in Pakistan.  Part of their ire against the military stems from its participation in the U.S. “war on terror,” which has cost the lives of 35,000 civilians and 5,000 army troops in Pakistan.  Polls have shown that more than 80 percent of Pakistanis, and the anti-terror campaign is a main source of their anti-Americanism.

Continued U.S. reliance on corrupt generals — and politicians — to promote U.S. foreign policy goals in the region would further inflame Pakistani public opinion.  And that wouldn’t work any longer.  The Pakistan army can no longer deliver Pakistan to America and the West. Open criticism of U.S. policy by traditionally pro-American Pakistani generals shows that they can no longer defy the public opinion to act on American bidding, as it has done for decades.

The Obama administration should be doing business primarily with Pakistan’s democratic government, renouncing its decades-old policy of bypassing civilian authorities to deal with the military.  That would facilitate civilian control of the military, a necessary step to promote democracy in and douse anti-Americanism in Pakistan.

• Mustafa Malik is the host of the blog Beyond Freedom: https://beyond-freedom.com.