Why Pakistan's Democracy should matter more to the US

Washington: The strongest proponent of democracy is strangely soft-spoken about the water boarding treatment democracy is currently receiving in Pakistan where an army chief openly warns of “grievous consequences” when called out on his back-handed moves against the government and where a former ambassador is hounded because he is a moderate.

True, the burden of nurturing and maintaining a democratic system rests primarily on Pakistani shoulders but the US Administration and other powers could be a little louder about defending democracy by adding their voices. A more stable Pakistan – which is in the interest of all – can only emerge in the long run if a duly elected government survives and another comes in through electoral means, not extra-ordinary ones. Not once but repeatedly until it becomes a habit.

But a coup by other means is well underway.

The US Administration perhaps doesn’t want to be seen interfering in the domestic affairs of Pakistan at a time when anti-Americanism is at a record high. But if it wants Pakistan’s democracy to grow from perpetual infancy into young adulthood, some help is necessary.

The State Department spoke out mainly when prodded by letters from senators and American academics expressing concern about the safety of Husain Haqqani, who was Pakistan’s ambassador until last November pleading the very special case of his country in the corridors of Washington.

Today he lives as a virtual prisoner without his passport. Haqqani has his critics, no doubt, but now the issues are larger than him and his personal history of having tasted water at every political fountain. He has been tried and judged guilty by sections of the media running on hyper energy and on talking points supplied by the ISI. And on the dubious claims of Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani American who decided he needed an “anecdote” to embolden his journalistic credentials with the Financial Times thus triggering “Memogate” last October and providing the Pakistan Army a perfect weapon with which to strike the government.

The same loud voices in the turbocharged Urdu media failed to ask why the commission that looked into torture and murder of one of their own – Saleem Shehzad – has come out with a tepid report. But a dead journalist is no competition to a bucketful of intrigue served free by uniformed men who do everything but their most obvious job.

As if Haqqani’s head wasn’t enough of a price for “Memogate,” the army is squeezing the civilian government on multiple fronts. The crisis, in which Haqqani denies any role, was created when a memo of uncertain parentage was delivered by Mansoor Ijaz to Admiral Mike Mullen seeking US help to prevent a coup in Pakistan. The Pakistani generals, reeling from the humiliation of the US raid to kill Osama bin Laden, feasted on the memo and became robust.

Over the past two months they have thrown multiple nets to snare the civilian government. They are said to be helping Imran Khan turn a corner from a fringe politician to a mainstream one and prodding the judiciary behind the scenes to take the civilian government on.

An activist Supreme Court is doing all it can to make life impossible for Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. It wants corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari revived in Swiss courts in light of its judgment that the National Reconciliation Ordinance was unconstitutional. The NRO was negotiated between Benazir Bhutto and former president Pervez Musharraf with help from the Americans to pave the way for Bhutto to return in 2007 by dropping of criminal cases.

Not a pretty picture of democracy by any means but Gilani and Zardari came to power through elections. And it is the people who should be allowed to dismiss them. But today the civilian government is under siege, Pakistan’s liberal voices threatened while the army engages in covert political games.

Yes, it’s a rerun but that’s no reason it should replay and make Pakistan backward bound instead of forward. This state of half democracy and attendant intrigues ensures precious national attention away from real issues – spread of jihadism, a faltering economy and making peace with India. Zardari – for all his faults – has tried to open doors to India only to be blocked by the army.

And what of Nawaz Sharif, who supposedly had matured into someone wiser? By trying to shame his competitor in power and petitioning the Supreme Court to demand the “truth” behind “memogate,” he has become the biggest pawn in the grand game. As things look now, Sharif and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, are busy being played by the generals with abandon.

Pakistan’s democracy may be a special case, but arrested development should not be its most telling symptom.

Seema Sirohi is a senior journalist based in Washington. You can follow her on Twitter @seemasirohi