By Nadeem A. Ansari
Pakistan's chief of the army staff, General Jahangir Karamat, submitted his resignation on the night of October 7 to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This resignation is a result of Sharif's effort to rule the country with absolute authority.
Two days before his resignation, in a speech to the navy war college in Lahore, Karamat called for a national security council to be set up at the apex of Pakistan's political system. He said that Pakistan cannot afford the destabilising effects of polarisation, vendettas and expedient policies.
Karamat also claimed that he had been resisting pressure and providing unequivocal professional advice in the best interest of the nation.
Karamat's blunt remarks stunned the political establishment. Pakistan has been ruled by martial law for half its 50 years of independence.
The major opposition Pakistan People's Party called these remarks a warning to Sharif and supported the idea of a security council.
But progressive elements like the Pakistan Labour Party (PLP) realised the threat to democracy in this suggestion and rejected the idea.
Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the PLP, said, "Karamat's resignation will temporarily strengthen Sharif's position, but the danger is not yet over. It is still possible that Sharif may not be able to complete his full term."
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) was elected in a landslide victory in February 1997. People were fed up because of corruption and nepotism of political leaders, and fewer than 40% cast votes.
Since his victory, Sharif has been trying to tighten his grip on power. He lost no time in passing two amendments to the constitutions.
The 13th amendment gave exclusive powers to the prime minister to appoint and sack army chiefs, and the 14th stripped the president's power to sack the government on serious charges. These amendments gave extraordinary powers to the prime minister and reduced the president to a figurehead.
Then Sharif engaged in a battle with the judiciary. At the end of 1997 he first rejected a list of five high court judges to be appointed by the Supreme Court.
Sharif finally backed down, but he succeeded in a battle with the Supreme Court chief justice president, both of whom resigned.
To control the judiciary, he has moved a 15th amendment in parliament to make Islamic laws the supreme laws of Pakistan. This is Sharif's bid to get support of fundamentalist Muslims.
If this amendment passes, it will sharpen the differences between two Muslim sects and different ethnic groups that are already in a state of virtual civil war.
Sharif is also getting ahead economically. Last month a British newspaper, the Observer, published a report from a former deputy director general of the Pakistani Federal Investigation Authority, Rahim Malik.
Malik was sacked and arrested when Sharif came to power. There was an attempt on Malik's life, but he managed to flee to Britain with his 200-page report, which he also submitted to the president of Pakistan.
The report claimed that Sharif's family has managed to send at least £85 million to Switzerland and to purchase four Mayfair flats in central London for more than £3 million.
The report also said that Sharif's Ittefaq group of companies grew at an astonishing rate during his first term in power in 1990-93 because it received billions of rupees in bank loans which have never been repaid.
The Observer also indicated that this report could be used to justify a military coup.
The president, appointed by Sharif, has rejected the report, saying that it is a bid to unsettle the government. The speaker of parliament rejected the opposition's demand for an investigation.
Sharif is also accused of wasting money on huge projects. While basic facilities are not available to a big portion of the population, the prime minister has ordered the building of a US$1 billion motorway between Lahore and Islamabad.
With that sum, Pakistan could build at 15,000 secondary schools or 200 medium range hospitals or a network of 50,000 kilometres of roads all over the country.
Although Pakistan is suffering from the economic sanctions imposed after its nuclear testing in May, Sharif has also approved construction in Lahore of a new airport complex, overruling a Civil Aviation Authority report that Pakistan cannot afford this terminal.
Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves had been reduced to US$600 million after the sanctions, but the government had to pay US$54 million as a first instalment to Daewoo Corporation towards its US$874 million loan for the motorway and US$15 million towards airport construction. These payments have reduced reserves to a dangerously low level of US$525 million.
The motorway and airport complex will benefit less than 10% of the population, because an ordinary Pakistani cannot afford the toll on the motorway and only the elite can afford to travel by air.
According to a report in a Pakistani newspaper, the News, key PML leaders and members of federal cabinet complain in private that they have never been consulted or briefed about important government decisions in the last 18 months. Key army officials say that Sharif is not taking them into his confidence over his deals with the USA and IMF on nuclear issues.
All these moves indicate that Sharif is trying to establish a one-man dictatorship. In these efforts, he is destabilising the political structure and providing excuses for the army to declare martial law.
However, Karamat could not get support from the army and resigned because of current economic conditions. The deteriorating economic situation works against an army coup because a civilian government is in a better position than the army to make deals with the USA and IMF, especially after the end of the Cold War.
Sharif has promoted the number three in the seniority list, Pervaiz Musharaf, as general and appointed him chief of army staff.