The dialectic between contention and finding common ground was
manifest last week, in two significant remarks by the heads of the
judiciary and the military, respectively. Chief Justice Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry argued the pre-eminence of the Constitution
in the institutional structure of Pakistan.
The Army Chief, General
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, spoke of the emerging consensus on constitutional
rule: “We all agree that strengthening institutions, ensuring the rule
of law and working within the well-defined bounds of the Constitution is
the right way forward.” At the same time, the COAS did cross swords
with the chief justice by asserting that no one individual could define
the national interest. This was clearly a riposte to his view expressed
during the Asghar Khan case that the military leaders concerned could
not justify their unconstitutional actions of engineering the political
defeat of the Benazir Bhutto government in the 1990 elections, on grounds of the ‘national interest’. So, while the sparks are flying, a consensus is being forged.
General Kayani emphasised the importance of public support for the
armed forces of Pakistan. It may be helpful, therefore, to examine the
conditions under which citizens give their support to a particular
organisation of the state, such as the military. It can be postulated
that public support for the military hinges on the citizens considering
its organisational behaviour to be legitimate. The source of legitimacy
is the will of the people as embodied in the Constitution of a country.
So, public support for the military or any other organisation of the
state is forthcoming if, and only if, it functions within the scope of,
and in a manner specified by, the Constitution. So the military will
lose public support if it overthrows an elected civilian government or
intervenes in the process of elections or covertly attempts to
destabilise an elected government.
Anyone who has been in contact with Pakistan’s military officers (as I
have, teaching them during annual lectures at the Command and Staff
College and the National Defence University for many years) would
testify to their character qualities. By and large, they exude
discipline, a quiet confidence, a humility drawn from an inner strength
and a sense of honour. They would unhesitatingly give their lives in
defence of their homeland. Most citizens of Pakistan would be moved by
such sterling qualities. Why is it then that the army chief feels a need
to seek public support for the military? Perhaps, this is because as an
organisation, the military has frequently gone beyond the institutional limits
envisaged in the Constitution. From being an armed force exclusively
assigned by law to defend Pakistan’s territory, it has enlarged its role
to become a major player in the politics and economy of the country.
The identity of any state organisation is articulated by the
institutional structure within which it is located. Pakistan’s
Constitution is the foundation on which the entire institutional
structure and the associated organisational edifice of the state rest.
The central feature of the Constitution is that it stipulates a balance
between the various pillars of the state: parliament, the judiciary and
the executive with the free media being the fourth pillar. The military,
within this configuration, is simply a subordinate arm of civil
authority. The purpose of this separation of powers and the balance,
thereof, is to establish the necessary checks to arbitrary power. In this way, the freedom and the fundamental rights of the people can be ensured.
If a particular organisation of the state goes out of balance
relative to other organisations within the state structure, two
consequences ensue: first, the entire state structure is destabilised
and hence, state authority jeopardised. Second, if a particular state
organisation arrogates to itself disproportionate power, both its
identity and balance with other state organs, are eroded. Thus, the very
organisation that attempts to get extraconstitutional power, actually
gets weakened. As its identity and balance vis-à-vis other state
organisations is undermined, so too is its strength. Thus, the strength
of any state organisation as much as its public support is drawn from
the Constitution.