Television news on Saturday 28 August 2010 carried the surprising and shocking news that the Pakistan cricket team was engaged in match fixing. The only surprise in this matter was that the media purported to be surprised. Cricket is not a game of the masses in Pakistan. It is a game of the urban middle classes and as such it cannot help but be as corrupt and venal as is the government of Pakistan which also springs from these classes. While this bit of sporting trivia would not normally be of interest to readers of Policy Progress this news item is elucidating in providing an understanding of the problems America has had in pursuing its military and diplomatic objectives in Afghanistan.
I have previously explained how the US gave birth to radical Islam using the Pakistan Intelligence Services (ISI) and how it could not control the either ISI or the Islamic fundamentalist organizations it created. The problem, however, does not rest there as the level of corruption in Pakistan is such that it undermines the credibility of the very government that America needs most, in its fight against both the Taliban and al Queda.
A major factor in facilitating the rise of Islamic extremism in Pakistan has been the corruption of the ruling classes and government. Just as in the 19th and 20th century when poverty was seen as the ideal breeding ground for communism so to in the latter part of the 20th and into the 21st century poverty has been the natural spawning ground for Islamic extremism in Pakistan The corruption endemic in Pakistan’s ruling elites has ensured that the problems associated with poverty have never been addressed as the elite gradually became more and more isolated from the vast majority of Pakistan’s population
Corruption seems to have been a theme of Pakistan’s Government from its very earliest days. Even Jinnah, its legendary founding father, is alleged to have attempted to embroil the US state department in underhand dealings regarding the possible purchase of his own house as the site for the new US embassy. Minor though this one example may be it shows how even Jinnah who is revered as “Father of the Nation” was not above using his position in such a manner.
Over the last few decades Pakistan’s government has been shared between the Sharifs, the Bhuttos and the Military. Both of these families have sought to enrich themselves during their stints in power. Government has not been an opportunity to serve the nation, or to implement important national policies, rather government has been the occasion to enrich oneself and one supporters and to take revenge upon one’s opponents.
Pakistan’s most well known civilian politicians are the Bhutto family. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto founded the PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party) in 1966. His daughter, Benazir Bhutto took over the party after his execution in April 1979 and in an amazing example of feudal patronage, in December 2007, she nominated her son as her successor but with the proviso that her husband would rule in his place till her son came of age to take up the leadership himself. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is the current prime minister of Pakistan. The extent to which Benazir Bhutto and her husband have used their political positions to enrich themselves at the expense of their opponents and the poverty stricken masses is the stuff of legend.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was elected to power in 1970 on a radical reform platform which promised to curtail the power of Pakistan’s elite. An estimated 22 families were reported to control 70% of industry, 80% of banking and 90% of Insurance. The Economic Reform Order of 1972 nationalized the insurance and banking industries and also nationalized about seventy industrial complexes. However, the aim of the nationalization was not one of redistributing wealth to the nation or to the poor. Wealth was redistributed, but it was redistributed into the hands of Bhutto and his supporters. Rival politicians such as the Sharif family were particularly targeted in these ‘nationalizations’ and the Sharifs lost their steel foundry to the government. Such actions meant that when Bhutto and his supporters were removed from power those who had ‘lost out’ under that government used their period of influence to make up for lost time and amass as much money as possible in the shortest possible time.
Bhutto was removed from power in 1977 by the army under general Zia-ul-Haq. When Zia was assassinated in an Aircraft explosion in 1988 Pakistan temporarily reverted to a period of civilian rule with power alternating between the Bhutto family and the Sharif family. This was again a period of unrivalled corruption.
During this period Benazir Bhutto was in power on two occasions. By the end of her second period in power her marriage to Asif Ali Zardari had resulted in such massive personal corruption that foreign governments began to take legal actions against the Bhutto/Zardari partnership. Zardari, then Benazir Bhutto’s husband, but today Prime Minister in his own right, is alleged to have been paid 10 million dollars in return for awarding the sole rights to import gold into Pakistan to a bullion dealer in Dubai. In 1995 Zardari and a colleague are alleged to have orchestrated a deal with Dassault Aviation of France for $4 billion dollars worth of jet fighters upon the payment of US$200 million to Zardari and his colleague. In another instance of fraud a Swiss company is ironically alleged to have paid millions of dollars into Zardari’s off-shore accounts after being awarded a contract to prevent customs fraud in Pakistan.
It was widely acknowledged in Pakistan the Bhutto and Zardari had amassed a personal fortune in excess of 1.5 billion dollars. Eventually her intransigence and refusal to rein-in her husband led the president to seek army support and Leghari, the president, removed her from office and called for new elections.
Surprise surprise! The new elections returned to power Nawaz Sharif supported by his brother Shahbaz. It was Nawaz Sharif who appointed Pervez Musharraf to the position of Army chief of staff. Later in 1999 Musharraf overthrew Sharif and installed himself as the new ruler of Pakistan. Musharraf held this position till 2008 when, after a major political miscalculation concerning the sacking of the Pakistan Supreme Court chief justice, Musharraf was replaced as ruler by none other than Asif Ali Zardari.
While this pattern of corruption is widespread in many nations its importance to American foreign policy cannot be underestimated. Pakistan is the nation America sought to use to initially support the mujahideen freedom fighters, including the Taliban, so that they could be used against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Pakistan is the only nation that America can use in a geographic and political sense to help it in its current war in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan’s corruption coupled with the USA’s earlier policy of encouraging the radicalization of Islam and the formation of extremist groups has now resulted in a vast mass of poverty stricken illiterate, malnourished and unemployed Pakistanis who have proved to be excellent recruits for the new Islamic jihadist groups.
These combinations of Pakistani corruption and American interference have led to a situation where the Pakistan government is no longer in control of significant portions of its own countryside. The Taliban and other Islamic groups rule huge swaths of the countryside. The recent attacks by the Pakistan army in the Swat valley have been forced on the Pakistani government as it desperately tries to regain its own countryside from its own disenchanted subjects.
To what extent the current army attacks will succeed in destroying the Islamic extremists is very uncertain. Most analysts are currently betting that Barak Obama’s only hope of obtaining a pliant Pakistan is by negotiating with the Extremists and trying to force a division between those who the US government might find acceptable and those who they will not.
Given that the Taliban who where considered the most hateful, anti-democratic, vengeful and despicable group only a few years ago are now being considered as possible partners in this war, this is an excellent indication of the weak ground on which Barak Obama is trying to build the military foundations of his ongoing battles in Afghanistan.
It’s just not cricket.
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Bill Verrall graduated from Canterbury with a Master in History and Political Science in 1972. He then pursued a career in Education. His last 20 years were as Principal of Fiordland College in Te Anau. He resigned in 2008. He currently spends his time attempting to outthink trout on the waters of Fiordland, reading, and working as a summer ranger for the Department of Conservation.
Tags: Bhutto dynasty, corruption, cricket, Pakistan
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