PAKISTAN Beyond the Obvious

Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

To visionary leaders and nation-builders, national goal and dreams encompass power of ideas, commitment and continuous movement to achieve them and make them come true in the real world affairs. There are others who claim to be leaders but lack knowledge, honesty of purpose and compelling foresight to offer any scenarios of change and development to the nation. Such people are driven by ignorance and wishful thinking to view the future as an illusion of the unknown. Pakistani nation appears to be torn apart by various visions of the corrupt and selfish people who failed to lead the masses to any pursuit of tangible goals. Their political goal does not go beyond the self and egoistic empowerment of the future. When leaders lead the people and build foundations for change and development, they value its role and importance to goal setting and accomplishment of the national dreams of freedom, progress and prosperity for the people. Those with no plans and achievements will have little or no value to dismantle the structures or abolish it altogether for their own greed and political power. Pakistan was established as a homeland for the Muslims in colonial India to ensure freedom, human rights, dignity and justice for the Muslim nation. The dream and its realization were undone by the military take-over some fifty years earlier and subsequently, by the leaders who could not lead anybody. Failure to manage the man-made crises has enlarged the scope of social and political instability. Corruption and dishonesty to the national interests are the emerging traditions of the Pakistani version of the democratic politics. Some call the politicians “kanjars” – the agents of prostitution business. If you were to ask who is not corrupt in Pakistan? The answer is short and simple except the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohamad Chaudhry and other Judges of the Supreme Court, the rest are definable and working entities of the institutionalized corruption across Pakistan. Easy to sell, easy to buy.

Comparatively, the Western nations elect lawmakers and political leaders with distinct goal and to deliver the political promises for a better world than the past. With almost fifty years of the stolen time and opportunities for change and development of the Pakistani nation, there is no systematic accountability to hold any thugs or political thieves to accountability. They have all defied the legal and political scrutiny. Latest being, General Musharaf, former friend of the US President George W. Bush lives in $1.4 Million mansion in London under the conveniently arranged British security protection. The dead Miss Benazir Bhutto and her husband Aisf Ali Zardari (the current self-made president of Pakistan), bought several palaces with stolen Pakistani wealth in UK, Switzerland, France and Dubai. The Swiss money laundering case of $60. Million is still, pending in the court but its whereabouts are denied by the Bhutto-Zardari gang members with complacent military Generals. Saeed Qureshi, a distinguish journalist from Pakistan wrote “ Ministers or Gangsters” to elaborate the institutionalized corruption in Pakistan. There is a notion of democracy but it is far the people, buy the people and off the people. Problems deserve solutions. Crises have crippled the thinking modes and positive energies of the masses. But there are no THINKING people in Pakistani politics to THINK of the workable solutions. Most prefer adjustment to the existing affairs, status-quo and trends of business like politics. They are experts to negotiate the self for certain rewards. Bush claimed that he invested $10. Billion in General Musharaf to wage war against the Islamic fundamentalists and Taliban in Afghanistan. Now, the present military rulers make frequent trips to Washington and Kabul, and the nations know what trades-in must have been under discussions. The US is well known to buy people for its strategic goals and priorities. If you were to question the current political gangsters about their plan for the nation, you will have difficulty in getting any rational answers. Mr. Babar Awan, the Law Minister denied knowledge during the Supreme Court hearing that Mr. Zardari had $60. Million dollar money laundering case in Switzerland. The facts speak for themselves, that Mr. Zardari and his dead wife Benazir Bhutto were indicted by a Swiss Law court on the money laundering scheme and also by NAB, the Pakistani agency looking after the criminal activities. Surely, they know what goals are to be followed in public and in private. They have traded-in the nation and its strategic interests under the American led “War on Terrorism” in return for foreign bank accounts and continuous political support by the American agents of influence.

Pakistani nation is experiencing daily bloodbaths arranged by the superfluous Islamic militancy and paid in cash by the US dollars. This complements the US death squads working without any checks. Muslims defending their homes and honor are described as “insurgents and terrorists”, whereas, the real terrorists like the US and Brits waging the terrorism of wars are defined as promoters of freedom, liberty and justice in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Media reports indicate that in 2009, 12,900 civilians were killed by the internal conflicts across Pakistan. 3 million people were displaced deliberately from the Swat valley to create the problem of Islamic militancy and engulf it with reactionary terrorism. The daily life of the innocent civilian is in ruins. Commerce and trades are at standstill. All the national economic productivity is lost. General Musharaf and Zardari have sold the body and soul of the common Pakistanis to be known as “terrorists” in global mass media imagery.  The US policy has made Pakistan a beggar nation surviving on its charity that most often is not even delivered to the benefecries - the few military Generals and Pakistani politicians working under Zardari and others. Is there any legal accountability mechanism to check these corrupt political schemes of things to build a better Pakistan?

Who would arrest Zardari from his lavish presidential palace and bring General Musharaf back from UK to legal hearing and the ruling “kanjars” (agents of prostitution) of the Pakistani politics? Perhaps the nation waits for an unknown deliverer- someone from the new generation, someone from the junior ranks of the armed forces or a combination of both to clean the mess and to put the scoundrels before firing squads. Pakistan is in desperate NEED of CHANGE, but there is NO political system in place to bring about viable political change. The change must come from the new generations of educated, proactive and honest people with vision and commitment to serve the interest of the people of Pakistan and make Pakistan a better place for Islam as away of life-the foundational roots of the nation. If it remains disconnected, it will dry up, lose essential lifelong linkages and die on its own. This is the real problem that the THINKING people of Pakistan must THINK and plan for a navigational Change and address and find out workable solutions for the future. Those parts of the problem cannot be part of the solution. The Generals and Bhutto family have stolen the future of Pakistan. All the vital components of the body of Pakistan appear dismantled and institutionalized corruption has left-over the skeleton to float around on its own without much life-giving resources. The so called military and political leaders have a history of running away to foreign countries with stolen wealth and Zardari gangsters are no exception. Otherwise, if nobody listens to the voices of reason, Pakistan and its future could be undermined by its Generals, politicians and the foreign agents of influence. They are actively pursuing their goals and Pakistan is the real victim of domestic and foreign strategic conspiracies. The role of life-giving goal, priorities and dreams require change and new visionary leadership which none of the current political establishments are capable or worthy of substantiating to the body and soul of the Muslim nation.

The small Islamic groups have diminished their role and importance through inaction and missing energetic leadership. They live in closed circuit domains, not open to voices of reason and learning of the facts of human life. The US led club of Western nations would love to see Pakistan warped-up and inserted back to the old Indian concept of “Mahabharata.” Is that is what Mr. Zardari had in mind when recently he stated that Pakistan does not have any conflict with India. Pakistan had enriched ties with Iran, Turkey and the Arab world. To stun the nation, the current PM Gilani announced this week that Pakistan will comply with the US demands of imposing sanctions against relations with Islamic Iran. What a naïve and tragic mindset it reflects. Iran has not threatened anybody except to enhance its nuclear capacity-building, the US and Britain have been waging wars against Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Who are the real aggressors? The Western club of powers practices racist policy behavior when it comes to the Islamic world. They have masterminded the proactive force of power to dictate the beggars and to ensure convenient compliance. How dare Pakistan change its centuries-old friendship and relations with Iran and Turkey? Do these so called Pakistani leaders have any sense of the prevalent realties on the ground? Or is it they remain bootlickers of the Western nations for all the times to come? Why are the national assembly and other political institutions (if any still in tact) and activists not raising a hell against these stupid and self-centered political actors? Mr. Gilani and Zardari are not the leaders nor do they represent the national interest of the Pakistani people. They are not aware of their disgraceful end and departure from the crises ridden nation succumbed by the political greed and ignorance of the few. Pakistan needs a non-partisan government of national unity replacing the Zardari regime. It deserves new-age visionary and proactive young generation leadership to make the future come true. To make Pakistan better and sustainable, it desperately needs intervention and cleaning-up operation of the political mess accumulated by the PPP gangsters.

Allah has promised to change the conditions of the besieged people to favorable future if they wanted a change and were working to make it happen: “Allah does not change the condition of people unless first they change themselves.”  (Al-Qura’an, Surah Al-Raad.).

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution, and comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of many publications including Muslims and the West; How America Lost the War on Islamic Fundamentalism; To America and Canada with Reason; “Pakistan: Enigma of Change”, “Pakistan: Leaders who could not lead”, “Pakistan: how to make sense out of nonsense”,  “Pakistan at Crossroads”,  “ The Bogus War on Terrorism-How the US and Britain are Defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan?”, “To President Obama-War is War, Not Peace.”