Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar Kakar’s expensive and meaningless tour around half the globe has raised eyebrows, making people question the logic behind such an expenditure.
At the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, Kakar delivered a speech that could have been given by the foreign minister. No worthwhile meeting was organised for the PM in the UK, where the highlight was an address at the House of Lords or two meaningless sideshows at the Oxford University. Kakar’s trip to Riyadh was for his personal fun. Why was a temporary officeholder allowed to use a private jet to Paris, New York, London and then Riyadh especially at a time when money is a problem in Pakistan and the State is going round with a begging bowl in hand?
This is certainly not a simple case of a man holding a high office misusing its power. Pakistan’s army is keenly watching over the economy and would not be excited about civilian financial wastage unless they see it as a long-term investment with expectation of favourable results. Some sources that I spoke with feel that he was allowed the luxury because the military leadership want him to play a longer-term role in the new state that they are designing at the moment.
He will be one of the many new faces, who will be used to engage the world and play a role domestically. The position of Chairman Senate that is about to be vacated is one of the several places that Kakar may be parked. He certainly looks more important for the military-run system that the former National Security Advisor (NSA), who has been parked in a private university and used mainly for track-2 negotiations with India.
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New model of recruitment
Kakar’s trip serves as a reminder of how Pakistan’s establishment selects civilians who work beyond the political system, ensuring loyalty by sucking them into a cycle of bribery. Probably, drawing from history, the establishment has sought among its recruits another one who can avidly defend the establishment as Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto used to do but one without a political soul. Over the years, the criterion for recruitment has evolved.
It could possibly be that tired from their latest Imran Khan experiment, the generals want to invest in ‘technocratish’ politicians, those that are more bureaucratic than political. While Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari will be tolerated, the future investment may be in Anwar Kakar, Moeed Yusuf, Shahid Khakan Abbasi kind of men. The search now is for someone who is loyal to the establishment, articulate in English language, able to talk to an international audience, fairly groomed, and with no political bone in their body. The goal is to create a leadership that don’t let project Pakistan fail but without challenging the GHQ.
The interim prime minister’s interaction with the deep State likely dates back to 1996/1997, when I was introduced to him by a civil service colleague of mine posted in Quetta. Related to Kakar through a second marriage and very inclined towards money making and power, this officer had a role to play in facilitating Kakar’s handshake with certain institutional affiliates. He had also made it a habit to introduce Kakar to any noticeable visitor to Quetta, which may have been part of his training to engage with people, pick up ideas and terminologies that he could use later to impress people and pass himself off as intellectual.
According to sources, as Kakar proved useful—especially in turning around some key Baloch nationalists—he was awarded a Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PMLN) ticket to contest the 2008 elections that he could not win due to lack of support. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who had then recently taken over as the army chief and promised non-interference in civilian affairs and elections, hampered Kakar’s success.
However, Kakar’s continued hot pursuit of State institutions, that meant a struggle to get noticed, paid off when he got enrolled in the National Security Workshop (NSW) at the National Defence University (NDU). In 2015, he was made spokesperson for the Balochistan government, later he was made a senator, and then the prime minister of Pakistan. Kakar possibly drew greater attention as a member of the Senate Standing committee on human rights and foreign affairs.
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A bureaucratic polity
The new recruits, including Kakar, have been trained to believe in the establishment’s ideology. I remember a call from him around 2012 when he tried to teach me the new rules of civil-military relations.
Perhaps, the opulence Kakar enjoyed was deliberately staged to build an aura of success. This image could then be used to signal to potentially capable and semi-capable men and women to join the establishment’s ranks rather than turning to political players. In this respect, Kakar also indicates a new model of recruitment—it’s not going to be about individuals burdened excessively with political party affiliations and having to negotiate party rules, but those who can stand independently.
Pakistan’s establishment believes that the State cannot be left to politicians who are untrustworthy and insincere, as Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir recently stated. The formula also indicates how the State has turned more seriously into, what political scientists Mohammad Waseem and Saeed Shafqat always argued, a bureaucratic polity. The Kakar luxury trip advertisement is more for men than women as the establishment is highly misogynist and rarely gives powerful roles to female recruits.
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Lack of imagination
The urge to find new faces is understandable as those who are currently tasked with representing Pakistan seem to have run out of steam. From political parties to the deep State, there seems to be an utter lack of imagination in running foreign policy by men who are unable to grapple with changing contours of global geopolitics.
The interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani curtly denying possibility of Pakistan recognizing Israel even if other Middle Eastern states did the same will not take away space from the new government but also indicates inability to think beyond fixed ideology. Those representing Pakistan in Washington and at the UN are no different either.
The fact that Pakistan’s permanent representative at the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, recently defended the Taliban, who are attacking the country, just goes to show the inability to introspect. A clear headed journalist friend I spoke with calls them ‘the dirty old men’ because of their inability to perform while hanging on to important positions out of avarice.
The fault is not the individual’s but of the bureaucratic polity that is tardy, corruption-inducing and encourages mediocrity. The deep State is not prepared to question its logic and look at the world afresh. Without a realisation that what Pakistan needs is a new policy not new faces, the future remains troublesome.
Ayesha Siddiqa is Senior Fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. She is the author of Military Inc. She tweets @iamthedrifter. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)