Virus a boon for PM?

Byline: Abbas Nasir

OVER the past five decades when autocratic rulers have appeared a bit shaky, the global environment has changed beyond anticipation and almost buttressed their chances of staying in the saddle.

After overthrowing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in July 1977 and even conspiring with the then superior courts to have the former prime minister sentenced to death, military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq appeared shaky and any street movement worth its name may well have dislodged him from power.

Initially, Ziaul Haq may have been seen as the umpire blowing the whistle and someone who pledged fresh elections within 90 days when the political game between the government and the opposition got rough during protests on account of rigging allegations against the incumbents.

Over time, his credentials started to get more and more suspect. People joked that the abbreviation (CMLA) of his title chief martial law administrator had changed to 'cancel my last announcement'. It was becoming abundantly clear to all that his ambition was fast changing and so were his plans.

Before the pandemic took the world in its grip what was the state of play in Pakistan?

Zia went from being a 'neutral umpire' committed to an election within 90 days to putting accountability, Islamisation and many other red herrings ahead of any possible polls. This started to cause some discomfort even among the political parties that had opposed Bhutto.

But then two things happened in 1979. Firstly, the year began with the Iranian revolution which saw the Shah of Iran overthrown and a clergy-supported government replacing him, which was hostile to the United States. The US had lost its policeman in the region.

Conveniently, Zia stepped into part of that role. He felt confident enough now to execute Bhutto and scrap all talk of restoration of representative rule in the country. And then the biggest boon came for the Zia regime.

Soviet tanks and troops rolled into Kabul, having crossed the Oxus, to stem the instability triggered by the infighting between the Khalqi and Parcham factions of the ruling Popular Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

The next nine years need no elaboration. Pakistan may have contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union by serving as the spearhead of the CIA campaign to give the Red Army a bloody nose in Afghanistan, but the cost to our nation was, and is to this day, incalculable.

It took a plane crash to change the face and the modus operandi of the dictatorship in...