Image source – youtube
by M. A. Sofi 19 August 2023
One wonders what upon earth has bestowed upon the Pak army the carte blanche to throw its weight around everywhere in their country and keep its vice like grip on every single institution including, in particular, the media, judiciary, police, the security apparatus and not excluding the educational institutions in that country which are being dragooned to do its bidding as and when it wills. Though entirely unconscionable and unconstitutional, such capitulation of the institutions to the dictats of the army is sought in return for guaranteeing safety and security of the life and property to those of them who are in charge of these institutions, whereas noncompliance of the orders is deemed to attract retribution in the form of abduction, murder or imprisonment of them as has sadly been the case involving many of those who dared to ignore the script and follow their conscience.
All of this has to be seen as part of its “greater” mission to win what has taken the shape of a war like situation but where the victory is doomed to be unwinnable as the battle lines are being drawn against none other than their own people who are rallying behind Imran Khan for his vision of a genuinely free Pakistan. That war was launched sixteen months ago when the army had used the disgruntled politicians in the thirteen party conglomerate of opposition parties (PDM) to topple the Imran Khan government by resorting to the foulest means possible. How starkly does their desperation to win this latest war against its own country compare with the many wars that it has fought since the birth of their country but that it can’t blame itself having won a single one of them! So much for their valour, bravery and the much touted professionalism that, one learns in hindsight, were blown out of proportion as these qualities are seen to be conspicuous by their absence from their ranks as is in witness right now.
Here it is pertinent to point out a peculiar commonality in the ethos and culture of the country in question and its western neighbour who share this propensity for intolerance of principled, value-based politics that in recent years has gone for a toss in the two countries. Despite our strong reservations regarding the way he had handled the K-issue before and after the Partition, Pandit Nehru has been an icon, a national hero who had presided over the independence and building of a modern nation state from a scratch as it were, including an impressive array of world class institutions that bedeck and define the India of today On the other side of the border, the naked, brutal, and shameless manner in which their national heroes are being treated and humiliated is a resounding testimony to that. In their insatiable lust to slight and harm him in all possible ways, they have stooped so low as to get the PCB to remove Imran Khan’s name from the country’s cricket museum where he would previously figure as the greatest cricketing legend of his country. It’s worth noting how in a brazen violation of the law of the land, Khan has been treated and framed in countless but fake, frivolous, ludicrously cooked up cases and sentenced twelve days ago to a 3-year jail term while debarring him from contesting elections, lest he run away with elections where his landslide victory is being looked upon as a foregone conclusion. In their bid to nail him down while condemning him to languish in a C-class cell in the Attock jail which is actually meant for the hardened criminals and terrorists, the idea has simply been to humble him and bring him down to the knees in the hope that the Khan would be forced to climb down from the high moral ground that perches him several notches above the rest of the clan. The thoroughly illegal confinement in the cell with no access to proper food, bed, light and open air after a sham trial in a district court in Islamabad where no one including his lawyers is being allowed to meet him is part of the same great game playing itself out in close nexus with the big brother across the Atlantic. And all this despite the fact that by virtue of his status as an ex-PM, he remains eminently entitled to better living conditions in jail including access to newspapers and home food apart from other amenities as provided under law.
Equally sordid is the spectacle that has been shaped by the actors in the theatre of the absurd who have otherwise been arch rivals, and even sworn enemies, but are now thick as thieves and united by their common cause to see Imran Khan eliminated from the political landscape of Pakistan. Right now it’s the criminal mafia comprising the thoroughly corrupt, drug peddling, murderous gang of politicians in cahoots with the equally corrupt crooks in the army top brass who have captured power after dislodging the Imran Khan govt. by engineering defections in his party through a cocktail of deceit, deception and moral depravity. Their singlemost desire has been to win the ongoing war that in essence boils down to taking on the one-man army called Imran Khan because he had the audacity to call their master’s bluff, never mind the fact that he represents the aspirations of the 80% populace of his country which the army has ended up pitting itself against.
Behind this treachery and the macabre display of naked muscle power, however, is a bigger, far more dangerous ploy at work. All that has been going on in Pakistan right now is being manipulated to provoke Khan’s diehard fans and supporters across the country to react, and react viciously, to precipitate a situation that would lead to bloodbath and massive damage to public property and vital army installations to create a civil war like situation that would engulf the country in a monumental crisis. An earlier similar plot that was weaved to lead to a massive backlash from the people on May 9th had somewhat backfired as the developments in the run up to the events on that day revealed their hidden hand in precipitating the crisis and to place the blame for it squarely on the PTI leadership. The ongoing countrywide crackdown followed by unprecedented torture and persecution of supporters or sympathisers of Imran Khan is a telling testimony to these dirty machinations. While it’s possible that such a scenario may not necessarily materialise, the coming about of it is expected to pave the way for the power hungry army to grab power with the intention to stay put for at least as long as their predecessors in the army establishment had managed in the past by sheer fraud, deceit and subterfuge. The naked disregard and the flagrant violation of the apex court orders to hold elections in the two states of Panjab and KP as required by the constitution is proof enough of their evil designs and of those in power who are working as scripted by their overseas masters right now. A repeat of a similar disregard for the constitutional propriety is not to be ruled out involving the elections to the national assembly which are otherwise due within the next three months.
Marked as the current system in Pakistan is by deep corruption, chicanery and deception, the evil nexus comprising the army establishment, judiciary, media, police and most importantly the politicians comprising the PDM conglomerate-which had been in power over the past sixteen months and which has now yielded space to the caretaker government at the centre -have together ganged up to use their own versions of political engineering as new instruments of governance that has plunged the country into a serious, existential crisis that is threatening to break it into bits and pieces. More than their evil designs and devious intentions, it’s the monumental stupidity and bottomless mediocrity that defines the institutions of that country, and more pertinently, those supine, low intellect individuals who are at the helm of affairs in these institutions. It’s this deadly confetti of all such traits that define the Pakistan of today that has been pushed to the precipice by those boasting of such awfully nauseating worldview of a nation state that they fancy shaping out of the blood and dead bodies of their citizens who are doomed to be consumed in the on-going conflagration.
The question that stares us in the eye is this: what after all gets the army to go hammer and tongs in its desperate bid to get rid of Imran Khan against all odds even while courting controversies and earning extreme revulsion from the people across the board that were in awe and adoration of the Pak army not long ago? The answer has to be sought in an equally consummate desire of the American Establishment to see the Khan out of reckoning from the political landscape of Pakistan, only because the Almighty America is not used to take a no for an answer as was surely the case when Khan, the then prime minister, had intoned that famous laconic two-word syllable “Absolutely Not” in response to a question if his country would provide airspace to the latter in their bid to fly drones to chase down the Taliban from there.
Be that as it may, the American cat is now finally out of the bag! After sixteen long months since the ouster of Imran Khan government was brought about by the army in cahoots with the PDM and the active behind-the-scene support and the wherewithal provided by the US despite the latter’s consistent denial of being involved in the conspiracy, the ugly skeletons have finally tumbled out of the American cupboard involving its role in dislodging the Imran Khan government. It’s amusing how its role as an international policeman is being packaged as part of the US “geopolitical agenda”, which in essence is a pursuit of its objectives of global dominance. In an article in the prestigious media house “Intercept” that has appeared some days ago, the finer details surrounding issuance of a cypher – a coded secret diplomatic cable – demanding the Pak army to dislodge the Imran Khan government, “or face consequences”, are now public. This latest leakage of an important classified document surrounding the US foreign policy brings forth how, in pursuit of their foreign policy objectives, the Americans have consistently played dirty by presiding over regime change in no fewer than seventy countries in as many years. A dispassionate reading of America forcing its hand in the internal affairs and dictating the course of events in other countries provides sufficient grounds to wonder how injustice as an axiom is embedded in the Western idea of world order! The following excerpt from a recent article by Timofey Bordechev (Aug.1st, 2023) reinforces that view.
“Under these conditions, the rest of the international community is faced with a difficult choice, which in part dictates its behavior. Since the injustice of the world order is axiomatic from the West’s point of view, the struggle of the rest to extend their rights becomes a challenge to the natural order of things. In other words, if Russia, China or anyone else in the world does not accept the monopoly of the strongest, then for the West and for thinkers around the world who think in this frame of reference, it is a confrontation with the very nature of international relations. And those who have the dominant power for the time being naturally seek to protect the world order, which is natural in its injustice.”
The current scenario as shaped by the US foreign policy and playing itself out in all its deviousness and ferocity in Pakistan has certain important takeaways for all of those who are directly or indirectly impacted by these developments. And that would call for a tectonic shift from the current scheme of things if it’s sought to break free from the status quo and hope for a truly free Pakistan to emerge. These include, among other things, a collective will and a well-defined roadmap to restructure the polity of Pakistan where the role of the army would completely eliminated, or at least be minimised. That would ensure genuine democratic process to flourish by putting paid to the possibility of weak governments being installed by the army, a strategy that is long known to have facilitated the army’s stranglehold on power during its long history that dates back to the times when that country had come into existence. Also minimised would be the prospects of weak, incompetent, spineless individuals holding high offices in the government and other institutions who would get there exclusively by virtue of their proximity to those enjoying absolute power without accountability. Right now, it’s this closely knit mafia of the deep state in league with the highly compromised institutions of governance in Pakistan that have been working in tandem in conspiring to subject the tallest and the only genuine leader of their country to unspeakable indignity and humiliation with the sole aim to present him as the villain of the piece so as to further pin him down on that while deluding themselves to get away with it, that they won’t!