The Secret Pact No One Knows Anything About

YOU remember Tashkent ? Mr. Bhutto  to tell us there was something fishy about the Ayub-Shastri  agreement there and that he would tell us all about it at an " appropriate time ".

          Unfortunately, for all of us, though, that " appropriate time " never arrived. Then Mr. Bhutto  himself went to Simla  and came back with an agreement with India . Now his opponents began to say that there was a "secret clause" to the Simla Accord, and that they would take the people into confidence at an " appropriate time. "

          After so many years, however, the Tashkent  and Simla  " secrets " still remain very, very secret. But there is another secret pact nobody knows anything about. I do, and I think this is as appropriate a time as any for me to take you into confidence.

          Here, then, is the secret pact in a nutshell. This secret pact was signed at secret place by the PPP  and the IJI  at a secret date somewhere in December last year. I have been able, with the greatest of difficulty, to secure a copy of this classified document. It reads:

Having been voted into power and after having had protracted discussions spread over a number of days on what to give the people in return for the confidence they had reposed in us, we came to the stark conclusion that we had nothing at all to offer to the nation.

This was a grave situation, which had to be met at all cost. Having considered all options, we decided that democracy was bad business. People who had voted us into high commands agreed that doing serious legislative work was a tedious and boring job, which must be avoided.

After having reached this happy state of unanimity, we decided to do nothing for the people. There was a general realisation at the meeting, of course, that this inaction, which had been mutually agreed upon, might lead to general disaffection.

The two high commands came to the obvious conclusion that they could not afford general public discontent. They decided, therefore, that under the circumstances prevailing, it would be advisable to create such a racket as would bemuse their voters into thinking that both our parties consisted of hard working, patriotic politicians who had nothing but the greatest good of the people at heart.

Having reached this conclusion, the two high contracting parties decided to take a number of steps to befuddle the people.

It was decided, accordingly, to start a slinging match without further loss of time. There would be mutual party-to-party and person-to-person mud slinging. There would be Press  conferences and statements, one statement more strident and more abusive than the other.

It was also decided to hold public meetings and organise processions all over the country to keep the people in a constant state of dazed ignorance of our mutual inability to deliver.

It was also decided to hold separate public meetings to celebrate the Golden Jubilee  of the Pakistan  Resolution in March 1990.

It was decided that the two sides should, with unlimited zeal and with all scruples thrown to the wind, try to undermine each other's governments in Islamabad  and at Lahore . For the purpose, it was agreed to give moral and political sanction to horse-trading and all other underhand means to hang on to power.

The two parties agreed that logic was on their side; because no matter who ousted whom, the families, which had ruled the roost since before the end of the Raj  would, remain in power. It decided to continue to let the people believe that when they voted, they voted for a set of principles and not individuals. Only thus would the masses be prevented from knowing that the PPP  and the IJI  were two sides of the same coin.

The two high contracting parties, parts of a single and indivisible whole, pledged that they would continue to keep the illusion of separateness intact so that they, in reality a single, well-knit entity, could perpetuate their stranglehold over the people.

There you are, then. It is for you to decide which is your " party ". There was this play staged recently at the Kinnard College called Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. Written by an African playwright, Ola Rotimi, it ends with this sentence: The greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the strident glamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

          This is true mostly, but not all good people are silent. Look at me, for instance. Every Friday morning I do my Muezzin bit but nobody listens to me, such is the deafening din created by the baddies.

          People want to be good everywhere but a handful of bad people prevent them from becoming good. There's money and power to be had if you are bad. Penury is your fate if you are good. Who is in the PPP  because it is a good party? Who is in the IJI  because it is a good party? Bad people run both parties for their own good.

          I think it is time the good people break their silence and form their own poor-to-middle class party in which there are no Syed, no Sardars, no Chaudhris, no Qureshis, no Bhatties, no Mians, and no Khars. We have had enough of them. Since we are having no politics at present, it should be called Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Siyasat. If you like the idea, get up and do something about it. As appalling as the silence of the good people in their in action.

          Come on, let us out shout and outwork the bad people who, I must warn you, are extremely efficient and vindictive. The vote is not only a right but also an obligation. He who exercises his right to vote carelessly or corruptly gets what the people of Pakistan  are getting now.

          I do not agree with that ancient aphorism: People get the social and political institutions they deserve. No, by God , that is not true.

          The people of India  deserved neither Rajiv Gandhi  nor yet V. P. Singh . They were duped into believing that those two were the Johnnies the Indians needed.

          It is often said that if you continue to hold elections after very three or four years, the bad people will automatically be weeded out from the corridors of power. Like the devil, indeed. The good people of India  do not deserve V.P. Singh  in this age of the microchip.

          There was a chance for us to create a new pressure group in the 1988 elections by voting for the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal , which was-going by its manifesto -the best party in the field, headed by a leader of great personal integrity, though totally without personal charisma. We in South Asia  generally tend to vote for the personal charisma of politicians rather than for their competence.

          Pakistan , at this point in history, requires ordinary-looking leaders with extraordinary vision. They will have to choose infinitely more carefully when the elections are held next. If they don't, the NA-99 bye-election will be repeated in every National Assembly  constituency there is, come 1993.

          The manner in which we are celebrating the Golden Jubilee  of the Pakistan  Resolution is a stunning indictment of the two main parties.

          Instead of using the occasion for a massive display of national unity, we are having separate IJI  and PPP  public meetings at the Minar-i-Pakistan . Shame on us!

          And do you know what? There was a proposal that President  Ghulam Ishaq Khan  should be invited to preside over the PPP  public meeting at the Minar-i-Pakistan .

          My Yahya Bakhtiar, a senior party leader, rejected this very sane proposal. Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan  had nothing to do with the Pakistan  Movement. He was a bureaucrat at partition time, Mr. Bakhtiar argued. Just imagine! The PPP  has its own quota of bureaucrats who had nothing to do with the struggle the party launched against President  Ayub Khan . Moreover, the PPP itself sponsored Mr. Ghulam Ishaq's candidature for President in preference to Nawabzada  Nasrullah Khan .

          In his present capacity, Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan  is a symbol of national unity and there is time even now for both the PPP  and the IJI  to reconsider their decision to hold separate meetings. This is ridiculous. Let the President  address a joint session of Parliament  and let there be some firework, or some such thing, on march 23 and let us be done with it.

          The money the two sides propose to spend on their mass rallies could then be diverted towards building a hospital or a college. I ask of both the parties: would the Quaid  be pleased by their antics were he alive today? I demand an answer.

          P.S.: I forgot to tell you the secret agreement I have just unrevealed was titled the Kohsar Pact . Suicide pact, if you ask me.

Friday, March 16, 1990