Submitted to: Miss S Article name: Musharraf Era: Martial Law and Major Reforms
Submitted By: Muhammad Ateeb Akmal(11053122-073) Akmal(11053122-073)
Wajeeh ul hassan(11053122-028) Hashim Jameel(11053122-09 Jameel(11053122-098) 8) Student of Electrical Engineering rd
3 Semester
Musharraf Era: Martial Law and Major Reforms
Introduction: Musharraf’s era started from 12 October 1999 and ended on 18 August 2008. These
almost nine years were very important in the history of Pakistan. Musharraf’s era had positive aspects as well as some of negative. We will discuss his Martial Law and his important reforms and its aftermaths. Musharraf’s
Takeover: (Martial Law)
12 October 1999 was the important day in the history of Pakistan. It was the darkest day for the democracy of Pakistan. This was the day; Musharraf took the charge of the country by enforcing Martial Law and ruled out the democracy. Imposing Martial Law is treason and violation of Article 6 of 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. This was all due to the hide and seek between that times Government and Army. Nawaz Sharif wanted to remove General Musharraf from the post of Chief of Army Staff and he tried to do this on that day. When Musharraf came to know all about, he was in Sri Lanka on official tour. Acting immediately, General Musharraf dashed for the Karachibound Pakistan International Airlines PK805 flight from Colombo, leaving at 15:45 local time. His Plane did not allow to land at the airport, his plane circling the Karachi Airport almost 200 minutes. At last his Plane succeeds to land at about 19:47 just before ran out of fuel. General Musharraf has since said that the plane had only seven minutes of fuel remaining. All the High Commands of Army did not accept the order of Musharraf’s retirement which was given by that times Prime Minister. At 22:30 the news came, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been dismissed and Martial Law had been imposed and the National Assembly and Senate had been dissolved.
Major Reforms and Achievements: The list of the Musharraf’s reforms is given below.
1. Nine world class engineering universities were developed. The cost of building these Universities was over Rs 96.5 billion. 2. In 1999-2000 there were 31 Public Universities. In 2005-2006 there were 49 Public Universities. Air University (established 2002); Institute of Space Technology, IST (established 2002); University of Science & Technology, Bannu (established 2005);
University of Hazara (founded 2002); University of Gujrat (established 2004); Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore (established 2002); etc. 3.
Literacy rate in Pakistan had increased from 45% (in 2002) to 53% (in 2005). Education was received 4% of GDP and English had been introduced as a compulsory subject from grade 1.
4. There were more than 5,000 Pakistanis doing PhDs in foreign countries on scholarship in Musharraf’s era. 300 Pakistanis receive PhD degrees every year, in 1999, the number was just 20. 5. Major Industrial estates were being developed under Musharraf’s vision: M3 industrial, Sundar industrial estate, Chakri industrial, etc. 6. In 1999 what we earned as GDP: we used to give away 64.1% as foreign debt and liabilities. In 2006, what we earned as GDP: we gave only 28.3% as foreign debt and liabilities. We were saving 35% of our GDP for economic growth at that time. 7. According to an IMF report, Pakistan was 3rd in banking profitability in the world. On the IMF chart, Pak istan’s banking profitability was on third position after Colombia and Venezuela. On the same IMF chart, India was on the 36th position and China was on the 40th position. 8. According to the Economic Survey 2005, poverty in Pakistan in 2001 was 34.46%. And after 7-8 years of Musharraf, poverty in 2005 was 23.9%. Thus, poverty decreased by 10.56%. Overall, 12 million people had been pushed out of Poverty in 2001 – 2005! 9.
The government was providing Sui Gas facility to areas of South Punjab at a cost of Rs 1.311 billion. A total of 1,138 kilometer gas pipeline was being laid. The districts benefiting from these schemes mainly include Multan, Khanewal, Bahawalnagar, Rajanpur, DG Khan, Vehari and Muzaffargarh.
10. The Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector of Pakistan had attracted over Rs 70 billion investments during the five years (2001-2006) as a result of liberal and encouraging policies of the government. 1,765 CNG stations were operating in the country, in 85 cities and towns. It provided employment for 30,000 people in the country. 11. The economy was the third fastest growing economy after China and India. 12. Five dams were built: Mirani, Subakzai, Gomalzam, Khurram and Tangi. 13. Seven motorways were completed or were under construction. 14. Gwadar, an advanced sea port, was developed.
15. The GDP per Capita in 2007 was $1000. 16. The industrial sector registered 26 percent growth. 17. A historic 100% increase in tax collection (amounting to Rs. 1 trillion) was observed. 18. Revenue collection in 2007/08 was Rs. 1.002 billion. 19. Exports in 2007 were worth $18.5 billion where Textile exports in 2007 were worth $11.2 billion. 20. Pakistan development programs in 2007 were valued at Rs. 520 billion. 21. Foreign direct investment in 2007 was $8.5 billion. 22. All key positions of various state institutions were assigned to military man-power. Masses or their representatives were never allowed to play their role in the administration of the affairs of the state.
Major events: In Musharraf era following major events occurs. Detail of each event is given below,
Support for the War on Terror: George W. Bush Musharraf allied with the United States against the Taliban government in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. He claims in his 2006 memoirs he was given an ultimatum after military threats "to go back to the Stone Age" by U.S. President George W. Bush through Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Bush and Armitage denied it. Musharraf agreed to give the United States the use of three airbases for Operation Enduring Freedom. In return for his support on the War on Terror Musharraf was among the 194 candidates nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. However, there are controversies that Musharraf's played a double game with the US in 0=the war on terror, and undermined US efforts to curb the Taliban and the extremist militants by funding and aiding several of the Al Qaeda leaders. A few months after the September 11 attacks, Musharraf gave a speech against Islamic extremism. He instituted prohibitions on foreign students' access to studying Islam within Pakistan, an effort which began as an outright ban but was later reduced to restrictions on obtaining visas. On 18 September 2005, Musharraf made a speech before a broad based audience of Jewish leadership, sponsored by the American Jewish Congress's Council for World Jewry, in New York City. In the speech, he denounced terrorism and opened the door
to relationships between Pakistan and Israel. He was widely criticized by Middle Eastern leaders, but was met with some praise among Jewish leadership.
Creation of NAB: During the Musharraf era the dominant rhetoric and slogan was to ensure public accountability across the board and to elimination of corruption. As a result of this rhetoric a powerful agency came into existence in 1999 and this agency was referred to as National Accountability Bureau. Furthermore, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was created under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 as the successor organization of Ehtesab Bureau. The military regime promised for accountability by which those who owe amount of banks and government are to be nabbed and corrupt elements will be weeded out. The rulers also asserted that they would go cleansing of politics. The institution was led by Lt. General Muhammad Amjad and later by other Lt. Generals Khaild Maqbool, Muneer Hafiez and Shahid Aziz. With the approval of the National Anti Corruption Strategy (NACS) in 2002, two new functions of awareness and prevention were also entrusted to NAB. Subsequently, Anti Corruption Operations (ACO) and Economic Crime Wing (ECW) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were transferred to NAB along with manpower, budget and workload. Indeed, in the beginning NAB played vital role in checking corruption and bringing to book the accused persons. NAB had been an effective instrument for the President and the establishment to sort out politicians if they try to act independent of the set of norms, set by the state functionaries. Moreover NAB had played a vital role in cobbling together the ruling Democracy and Governance in Pakistan coalition, headed by PMLQ, by threatening those politicians with dubious credentials to support Musharraf. Hence these politicians not only escaped accountability but got yet another opportunity to make hay.
Amendments in constitution of Pakistan: In the beginning Musharraf suspended the constitution and then on 24 December amended the constitution by bringing the seventeenth amendment in the constitution. The striking feature of the amendment is that it tilted the balance between the two forces: political force that is the people’s representative and apolitical that is the President.
Article 58 (2) (b) of the constitution was revived through which the President regained the power to dissolve the National Assembly according to his discretion. Similarly, according to article 112 (2) (b), the governors could dissolve the provincial assemblies which
would be referable to the Supreme Court within fifteen days of such an exercise. Furthermore, according to the original constitution, the president who is a toothless figurehead accumulated all the executive powers in his hands at the expense of the Prime Minister. Thus, a military dictator- turned-President subdued all the political system to one and only one person that is the President. Indeed, elections were held during his rule for the election of members of National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies but the process of democracy was a highly controlled one.
Nuclear scandals: Since September 2001 until his resignation in 2007 from the army, his presidency suffered with highly controversial atomic scandals than any other government in the history of the country. These scandals had badly affected his authoritative legitimacy in the country and in the international community. On October 2001, Musharraf authorized a sting operation led by FIA to arrest two physicists Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, in an amid connection with Taliban after they secretly visited Taliban government led Afghanistan in 2000. The local Pakistani media widely circulated the reports that "Mahmood had a meeting with Osama bin Laden where Bin Laden had shown the interests of building a radiological weapon." Later, it was revealed that neither scientist was not able to build such designs of the bomb and had lacked scientific knowledge of such weapons. The credibility of these two scientists was put in great doubts about their role in country's atomic bomb program. In December 2001, he authorized the security hearings of these two scientists and was taken into the custody of the JAG Branch where the security hearings continued until the early 2002. Another widely controversial scandal during Musharraf's presidency arose as a consequence of the disclosure of atomic proliferation by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, an insanely popular and famed national scientist in the country. Earlier in 27 February 2001, Musharraf spoke highly of Abdul Qadeer Khan in a farewell state dinner in Islamabad. He personally approves the appointment of Abdul Qadeer Khan as Science Advisor to the Government, also in 2001. In 2004, Musharraf relieved Qadeer Khan from his post and initially denied knowledge of government's and the armed forces role in nuclear proliferation, despite Qadeer Khan urging that Musharraf was the "'Big Boss'" of the proliferation ring. Following this, Musharraf authorized a national security hearing of Qadeer Khan which would be continued until his resignation from the army in 2007. According to Zahid Malik, Musharraf and the
military establishment at that time were in full mood to exercise rough actions against Qadeer Khan to prove the loyalty of Pakistan to the United States and Western world. US president George W. Bush and his counterpart President Pervez Musharraf address the media in Cross Hall. At the public circles, the debriefings of Abdul Qadeer Khan had severely damaged Musharraf's own public image and his political prestige in the country. Musharraf faced bitter domestic criticism for singularly attempting to vilify Qadeer Khan, specifically from opposition leader Benazir Bhutto who issued harassing statements towards Musharraf's role. On 4 July 2008, in an interview, Qadeer Khan laid the blame on President Musharraf and later on Benazir Bhutto for transferring the technology, claiming that Musharraf was aware of all the deals and he was the "Big Boss" for those deals. Abdul Qadeer Khan said that, "Musharraf gave centrifuges to North Korea in a 2000 shipment supervised by the armed forces. The equipment was sent in a North Korean plane loaded under the supervision of Pakistan security officials."Nuclear weapons expert David Albright of the ISIS agrees that Qadeer Khan's activities were government-sanctioned. After Musharraf's resignation, Qadeer Khan was finally released from house arrest by the executive order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. After Musharraf departed from the country, the successive Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Tariq Majeed terminated all further debriefings of Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Suspension and reinstatement of the Chief Justice: Judiciary is a very important organ of a government and democratic system its main function is to serve as the guardian of the constitution and ensure rule of law in a state. It safeguards fundamental rights of the people and it prevents encroachment on the part of different institutions by having a vigilant check over the organs of the state. On 9 March 2007, Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and pressed corruption charges against him. He replaced him with ally Acting Chief Justice Javed Iqbal. Musharraf's moves sparked protests among Pakistani lawyers. On 12 March 2007, lawyers started a campaign called Judicial Activism across Pakistan and began boycotting all court procedures in protest against the suspension. In Islamabad, as well as other cities such as Lahore, Karachi, and Quetta hundreds of lawyers dressed in black suits attended rallies, condemning the suspension as unconstitutional. Slowly the expressions of support for the
ousted Chief Justice gathered momentum and by May, protesters and opposition parties took out huge rallies against Musharraf and his tenure as army chief was also challenged in the courts.
Lal Masjid siege: Masjid had a religious school for women and the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, which was attached to the mosque. A male madrassa was only a few minutes’ drive away. The mosque often attended by prominent politicians including prime ministers, army chiefs, and presidents. The Lal Masjid administration had been in an escalating conflict with government authorities since January 2007. Government officials accused the mosque leadership of organizing a vigilante "vice-squad" which conducted raids against brothels, kidnappings of corrupt police officers, and suspected prostitutes. In early 2007 students at the LAL Mosque's two affiliated seminaries launched a campaign for Shari'a, occupying a nearby children's library and embarking on vigilante raids through the capital to stop what they called "unIslamic activities," such as DVD vendors, barber shops and a Chinese-run massage parlor that they accused of being a brothel. In April 2007, the mosque administration set up its own Islamic court in violation of government sanctions. In July 2007, a confrontation occurred when government authorities sent officers for demolition of the mosque under the pretense that it was created illegally. This development led to a standoff between police forces and students (mostly female). Mosque leaders and students refused to leave the mosque and the children's library. They remained within the mosque to prevent the demolition. The situation was only defused after the authorities backed down and offered talks. But government forces did not back down. Pakistani troops stormed the building which led to a bloody siege that ended with the deaths of more than 100 people.
Resignation from the Army: On 2 October 2007, Musharraf named Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Kayani as vice chief of the army starting 8 October. When Musharraf resigned from military on 28 November 2007, Kayani became Chief of Army Staff.
Emergency rule:
November 2007 Musharraf declared emergency rule across Pakistan. He suspended the Constitution, imposed State of Emergency, and fired the Chief Justice of the Court again. In Islamabad, troops entered the Supreme Court building, arrested the judges and kept them under detention in their homes. Troops were deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels went off air. Public protests mounted against Musharraf.
2008 Elections: General elections were held on 18 February 2008, in which the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) polled the highest votes and won the most seats. On 23 March 2008, President Musharraf said an "era of democracy" had begun in Pakistan and that he had put the country "on the track of development and progress. On 22 March, the PPP named former parliament speaker Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani as its candidate for the country's next prime minister, to lead a coalition government united against him.
Impeachment movement and resignation from presidency: On 7 August 2008, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) agreed to force Musharraf to step down and begin his impeachment. Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif announced sending a formal request or joint charge sheet that he step down, and impeach him through parliamentary process upon refusal. Musharraf refused to step down. A charge-sheet had been drafted, and was to be presented to parliament. It included Mr. Musharraf’s first seizure of power in 1999 at the expense of Nawaz Sharif, the PML(N)’s leader, whom Mr. Musharraf imprisoned and exiled and his second last
November, when he declared an emergency as a means to get re-elected president. The charge-sheet also listed some of Mr. Musharraf’s contributions to the “war on terror”, Musharraf delayed his departure for the Beijing Olympics, by a day. On 11 August, the government summoned the national assembly. On 18 August 2008, Musharraf resigned. On 19 August, he defended his nineyear rule in an hour-long speech.
