State Formation in the Era of Good Governance
General Pervez Musharraf served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. He had been brought to power through a military coup in 1999. His governing policies were a clear move from Structural Adjustment Programs to the good governance paradigm as “structural reforms cannot be successfully implemented if quality of economic governance remains poor”.[1109] This ‘governance’ compliance was bolstered post-9/11 by the U.S.
connection and its involvement, both politically and economically.[1110] The American threat, for an alliance in the U.S. war against terror, for Musharraf, was a threat of de-modernization, that is, to be sent back to the stone ages. Income inequality was not an issue and could be fixed by the right policies. He did not blame the International Monetary Fund for governance issues in Pakistan. In 2004, he appointed Shaukat Aziz, a Citibank employee with a humble ‘middle class’ background, as Prime Minister; Dr. Ishrat Hussain, who came from the World Bank, as the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan; and a local industrialist Razzak Dawood as the Commerce minister.[1111]For General Musharraf, the prior democratic regimes were “autocratic, usually plutocratic and lately kleptocratic”, with parties centred on the shifting coalitions of clans and tribal leaders which led to poor governance when they come to power. Political parties were “no more than family cults, a dynastic icon at their head”, such as Benazir Bhutto.[1112] He wanted a ‘sustainable democracy’, democracy that should be tailored according to the needs of a nation. He also had a populist side, “I am no socialist, yet I share these ideals”.[1113]
Musharraf passed a Local Government Ordinance in 2000, which he called a silent revolution. Later, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam was formed with the help of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Intelligence Services of Pakistan.
General Musharraf established NAB, declaring its mandate to as being to control corruption and improving major economic issues.[1114] The U.N. reported that Rs.100 billion was lost to corruption in Pakistan each year and Transparency International ranked Pakistan twelfth in 1999 on the Corruption Perception Index.[1115] The U.S., U.K. and Swiss governments showed their willingness to help NAB fight against corruption.[1116] NAB’s rapid and ruthless pace horrified the business community and Finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, had to assure the business community they would not be harassed by the Bureau.[1117] Shortly after, the Bureau sent a message of confidence to the business community for out-of-court settlements.[1118] General Khalid Maqbool, Chairman of the Bureau, promised to pursue business-friendly policies to avoid any negative impact on the trade and investment climate.[1119] By pacifying and terrifying different fractions of the landed and capitalist elite through corruption cases, all the actors of the historical bloc (including the metropolitan bourgeoisie, landed and capitalist elite) came back in anew ‘institutional arrangement’ with the old structure intact. This time, ‘civil society’ also shared a place in this class formation under the banner of ‘rule of law’ and ‘good governance’. Where was the judiciary in this?5.3