Pakistan in Search of Change and New Leadership

Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

American friendship is more dangerous than its publicly defined animosity. Rejecting cynicism but pondering on the US rationale of “war on terrorism”, there are ample similarities of the blueprint what happened in Iraq, the same fate could be waiting for Pakistan. 

Nobody would cry nor would the sky fall if the corrupt Zardari regime is ousted by the voices of reason and a much desired non-partisan government is put in place to re-arrange the affairs of the nation……. The recent Wikileaks documents reveal how some of the Generals and the PPP politicians are accomplice to conspire against the interest of the people of Pakistan. Their mindset and behaviors belong to draconian age full of poisonous backdoor conspiracies for continued power sharing governance. The so called PPP operated democracy does not have roots in Pakistani society; it is a mere foreign illusion to destroy the nation by it sown agents. The political gangsterism has ruined the life of ordinary Pakistanis. These agents of foreign rule have no sense of fear and shame that emboldens them to commit any wicked and cruel crime against the freedom and security of Pakistan.

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For decades Pakistani people are living in tormenting uncertainty. The reason being that Pakistan is an object of planned conspiracies and its political governance is managed by wrong people with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things under the guise of democracy.  The creative energies of the nation have been drained out by the axis of military-political collaborative conspiracies to rule the Muslim nation by foreign thinking and strategic agendas. Change has been stalled forcibly by the egoistic and cruel rulers. Freedom from the British colonial rule failed to produce institutionalized viable system of freedom from tyranny, human rights and security for the new Muslim nation. At the dawn of the freedom, there were two-tier political system, one reserved for the wealthy landlords- the collaborators to the British control over the public resources, the other for the ordinary folks to be reactionary and actively opposing the foreign sovereignty over their lives and lands and demanding freedom from subjugation. That critical process of change and reformation of the old guard simply did not materialize as the nation was taken over by the few authoritarian military rulers and their political accomplices, born out of the colonial generated and guided system of governance. Those at the helm of the powerhouse had little or no relationship to the culture and ideological manifestations of the people of Pakistan. Like the foreign rulers having good time in a foreign land. This history flourished for 50 years and Pakistani nation appears lost in its search for a better future out of the crippled hopes for better economic and social wellbeing and exhaustive in its strive for political freedom from the neo-colonialism. The corrupt and incompetent rulers engaged the nation in struggle for bread and butter and drained out all the positive talents and energies of THINKING and ACTIONS for planned change and development.

Goethe, the famous German poet and philosopher (“Wilhelm Meister”- much admired by Allama Mohammad Iqbal - the poet and philosopher of Pakistan), would call it “an age of woe.” Pakistanis live woefully and with restless groping to think of survival.

Nobody would cry nor would the sky fall if the corrupt Zardari regime is ousted by the voices of reason and a much desired non-partisan government is put in place to re-arrange the affairs of the nation. Pakistan faces multiple crises of missing credible leadership, dismantled public institutions, unaccountable political governance, killings of the civilian population under the false pretext of “terrorism”, failed and unproductive economy, unplayable IMF debts of $64 billion and most importantly, torn apart by its corrupt rulers supporting the US led “war on terrorism.” American economy is linked to global wars and manufacturing and supplies of arms and weapons to the world. To America, war is business as usual and it means to kill other people, not the Americans. The concept assigns more human values to American life, and others viewed as digits and numbers to be counted as collateral damage.  This policy aim needs stooges committed to follow the American political dictates all over the globe. Pakistani military Generals and the neo-colonial politicians were conveniently available entries at the US owned stock market of global domination. The US led war has transformed its egoistic urge into a monstrous situation of unwarranted deaths and killings of the civilian population under the bogus guise of terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. American policy makers follow a double-edged strategy: they classify “Pakistan as the most dangerous state breeding terrorism” (Foreign Policy, 01.2011), and continue to accelerate terrorism of war on the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan to create more terrorism as substance for the policy rationale.  At the end of the 2010, the US failed strategies and military losses in Afghanistan look for face-lifting measures. The New York Times reported (12/21/2010) that senior American military commanders – meaning Gen. David Petraeus and his colleagues at ISAF – are pushing for raids into Pakistan aimed at capturing Taliban commanders and bringing them back to Afghanistan for interrogation. The intensification of drone attacks inside Pakistan has devastated the civilian lives in the border region. The corrupt Pakistani regime under Zardari has allowed the US forces to invade and kill its own people. One of the major aims of the US policy (as indicated by the NY Times), is to “disrupt the whole enterprise in Pakistan, including the civilian government”. Political opponents of the existing government would be “screaming for blood”, and the military would feel that it had to act against the government. The global news media and the NY Time (07/2007) made it known that “Pakistani Generals are paid to do the job.” These assignments included killings of their own people and destruction of the institutions and infrastructure to seek insane justification that US friends are doing the job in return for cash payments of paper dollars.

One of the major beneficiaries of this cruel scheme of things was General Pervaz Musharaf and some of his military-political comrades working agents of influence to counteract the US- British engineered “Islamic terrorism” in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Former President Bush claimed to have invested $10. Billion in General Musharaf to contain the Islamic militancy. If Condaleca Rice (the former US Secretary of States in Bush administration), is to be believed, General Musharaf provided to the US Government all the secret information on the Pakistani nuclear arsenals. The US needed these preemptive measures to guard their short-long terms political and military interests and enhance the failing economy with new wars. General Musharaf now lives in $1.4 million bungalow in London protected by the British security services. Unimaginable as it was, he was supposed to be working with Benazir Bhutto (twice dismissed as PM on corruption charges) to rule the Pakistani nation for some time to come. Ms. Bhutto was killed and Asif Zardari took over the next reign of power as President of Pakistan, although never elected by the people of Pakistan. Prior to her death both Miss Bhutto and Zardari were charged with 12-15 criminal cases of money laundering and corruption in Pakistan and overseas. Both were indicted by Swiss court and Pakistani NAB agency. How strange that such indicted criminals should be part of political governance in Pakistan.

American friendship is more dangerous than its publicly defined animosity. Rejecting cynicism but pondering on the US rationale of “war of terrorism”, there are ample similarities of the blueprint what happened in Iraq, the same fate could be waiting for Pakistan.  Saddam Hussain was a paid FBI agent for two decades but once he challenged the US orientations and interests, a friend became an enemy and the US attacked Iraq under the false notion of WMD, occupied its wealth of natural resources and hanged Saddam Husain and so far, massacred more than three million civilian Iraqis and destroyed the social and political habitats across Iraq.  Isn’t the same blueprint in place working for Pakistan? Oh well, recall, there were 22 Iraq Generals with families (friends of the US and conspirators of Iraq) that the US occupation forces airlifted from Baghdad airport when Saddam was removed and gave them asylum in the US. Now, under the Obama administration, the US government has intensified its strategy to engulf the Pakistani nation with military and psychological terrorist activities. There is Blackwater Security and other phony NGO’s death squads active in many parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the NY Times (12/21/2010), the policy being pursued by the Obama administration, tends to insulate it from such warnings of potentially disastrous consequences of an aggressive U.S. military role in Pakistan. The administration increased the number of CIA drone strikes in northwest Pakistan over that of the Bush administration – a policy requiring that it discount the political fallout of the drone campaign in Pakistan. The CIA has also set up “fusion centres” with the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, aimed at making the Pakistani military more dependent on U.S. intelligence and less likely to be responsive to public opposition to U.S. military activities in Pakistan.  The Petraeus proposal as quoted by a “senior American officer” stating, “We’ve never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across.”

The PPP Government comprises of several indicted criminals who continue to hold high offices in the country. General Musharaf even dismissed the Chief Justice of Pakistan to ensure his own power and survival. None of these people were worthy of leadership or suitable to hold any office of public responsibility. The common folks of Pakistan were dealt a cruel blow to their hopes for change and a promising future. None of theses perverted and sadistic rulers enriched with cancerous ego and divided consciousness feel any sense of guilt in their public behavior. In 2009, the international media reported that 12,900 people were killed in Pakistan for the insane satisfaction of the US led warmongering. In 2010, 3,000 innocent civilians are known to have been killed because of the US drone attacks in North-South Waziristan. The real figures could be multiplied as no credible data is maintained by the aggressive parties. The war on terrorism has crippled the nation across the board in social, economic, political and public life. The net beneficiaries are the Generals, Bhuttos and Zardari while the Pakistani nation is entrapped and being strangulated by the few. Pakistani nation wants to hold these criminals to accountability in a court of law. The recent Wikileaks documents reveal how  some of the Generals and the PPP politicians are accomplice to conspire against the interest of the people of Pakistan. Their mindset and behavior belong to draconian age full of poisonous backdoor conspiracies for continued power sharing governance. The so called PPP operated democracy does not have roots in Pakistani society; it is a mere foreign illusion to destroy the nation by it sown agents. The political gangsterism has ruined the life of ordinary Pakistanis. These agents of foreign rule have no sense of fear and shame that emboldens them to commit any wicked and cruel crime against the freedom and security of Pakistan.

Conscientious and thinking people of Pakistan must strive to workout freedom from exploitation and death squads operated by these so called democrats. A dire sense of reality would ask for change and reformation of the cancerous political governance. Pakistan desperately needs a new government of non-partisan people to disengage its status-quo of collaborative warmongering and to determine a new policy to end the collaboration with the US War and demand immediate withdrawals of the US-British troops from neighboring Afghanistan and to stop drone attacks and incursions into the Pakistani tribal belts of Waziristan and Baluchistan province. The war engagement is killing the people of Pakistan and eliminating its future as a stable nation. This is a clear conspiracy to dismantle the Muslim nation from within. The rulers have lost the sense of reality and accountability to the people. It is a problem of institutionalized corrupt political governance and betrayal to the principles of Islamic system of life –the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There are superficial tensions guised under the “war of terrorism” to engage the citizens of Pakistan toward bloodshed and continuous animosity to kill each other. The US drone attacks in Waziristan are linked to this goal of domestic strife and collapse of the nation. If there is a new non-partisan government under new and intelligent leadership dedicated to the service of the people of Pakistan, these problems can be addressed based on the strategic interest of Pakistan and with favorable outcomes.

Plato noted that “thinking is man’s natural instrument for problem solving….any problem could be solved by thought.” The thinking people of new and educated generation must have opportunities to perceive, plan and play a defining role in the rebuilding the future of Pakistan. So far, the young generations have been deprived by the influential feudal lords dominating the political landscape. The bogus set-up of the National Assembly and Senate and federal governance is disconnected joint of Pakistani politics. They reflect a burden on people’s conscience. There is no honorable role for Bhuttos, Zardaris, military Generals and Sharifs to be part of Pakistan’s future. They are all dead entries with no relevance to the prevalent realities of living Islamic Pakistan. Pakistan NEEDS a new government under new and intelligent proactive leadership having confidence of the people and a foreign policy to detach itself from the US warmongering and show publicly a shifting metaphor of freedom from the foreign dictates. Pakistani nation looks for change and new and politically responsible leadership and the answer rests with the vision and honest commitment of the new educated generation to serve the people of Pakistan and safeguard its future. The educated Pakistanis living abroad could be resourceful to enhance this much needed stance and national aim. The PPP governance is clearly in defiance of the democratic values and have no vision for the country, while corruption and political gangsterism in on the rise. The rulers are disconnected with the masses and the nature of Pakistani cultural values and aspirations of the people. Chris Hedges (“Freedom in the Grace of the World”: 07/2010, OpenEd, USA) makes a logical observation: “Nature always extracts justice. Defy nature and it obliterates the human species. The more we divorce ourselves from nature, the more we permit the natural world to be exploited and polluted by corporations for profit, the more estranged we become from the essence of life.”

(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 at Crossroads”,  “ How the US and Britain Lost the Bogus Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?”, “To President Obama -War is War, Not Peace”, “ Can Obama Remake America?”,  “ Pakistan Strategic Delusion”, “President Obama and the US Generals in search of navigational Change” and “Pakistan- why the Nation is Governed by Dead-ended People?.”.