Academic

Fixing Pakistan's Broken Constitutional and Political System

By Robert Justin Lipkin

In the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto's assassination last week in Rawalpini, one complex solution emerges to the problems endemic to Pakistani political and social organization. Without reform of the military, intelligence, and security forces in Pakistan, the democratization of Pakistani is unlikely to take root. What does this mean? First, these agencies, especially the military, must be brought completely under civilian control. If the military maintains its veto power over Pakistani politicians, its corrupt control of Pakistani politics will persist. Second, a national purge of the terrorist sympathizers within these agencies must begin in earnest. Military and intelligence services remaining independent of civilian control will prevent democratic institutions from playing their appropriate role in a society aspiring to democracy. While there's still time for change in Pakistan, the doomsday clock is ticking inexorably. International assistance is essential to the transformation of a quiet (and not so quiet) dictatorship into a republican democracy or any kind of democracy at all for that matter. South Asia, the United States, and the rest of the world are depending on the stability of Pakistan. Should these poisonous institutions persist, permitting and even advocating political assassination, Pakistan's on the road to becoming terror central. True, civil society has taken route in Pakistan. But that is not an antidote for terrorism. A major error in this calamity was invading Iraq diverting troops and money from one required war to a discretionary war. Coming to terms militarily with the virtually independent tribes in Northwest Pakistan that provide safe-haven to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban must be the critical priority for both the Pakistani and American governments. And that means ending any significant presence in Iraq. Perhaps, the next president can remedy a catastrophic mistake that need not have happened.

Full post as published by Essentially Contested America on December 31, 2007 (boomark / email).