Pakistan: The Treason of the Rulers

Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.

The unfolding of Osama bin Laden killing plan exposes a much hated and embittered sadists and insane gang of Pakistani rulers at the helm of decision making.

“Death to America”, “death to Zardari”  “death to General Kiayani”  read the posters transmitting volatile voices of protest and anguish originating from the masses across Pakistan and other parts of the Arab-Islamic world. The rulers would have hard time in justifying their innocence and inaction at a time when the US elite forces were carrying out the Obama’s sponsored cold blooded political murder of Osama bin Laden and his households including women and children.

Did President Obama and his Pakistani complacent agents ever considered the consequences of such a blunder? America is known to be a nation dedicated to legal system of justice, not political terrorism against the innocent and destitute. There is ample credible evidence available in the US to suggest that 9/11 was an insider job effectively planned and carried out by the official agents to wage new wars against the oil riched Arab-Muslim nations. The major thrust of the US legal system defines an accused person as “innocent” until proven guilty. There were no legal charges registered against Osama bin Laden in any US based Court of Law. If Osama bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 tragedies, was it not appropriate for the US Government to charge him with crimes in a US court according to the US Constitution? In all intents and purposes, it appears more understandable that killing of bin Laden was meant for political reasons. Obama’s popularity is deceasing below 42%, US is financially, morally and political a bankrupt nation, its superpower image and role is open to question and it is fearful of being replaced by other emerging nations of Asia such China, India or combination of small economically viable and productive nations. It is that FEAR of the unknown that alludes behind the sickening thinking and military actions against others across the globe. Abdus Sattar (“Has our civil military leadership failed totally” The International News, May 3, 2011) makes the point:

“If Osama was considered a terrorist by the Pakistani government just because of being convinced by Washington’s propaganda, then why was not he apprehended by our own forces? He should have been tried and sentenced here if he was doing anything in violation of the law of the land.”

Undoubtedly, the US is at the losing end and operationally a defeated party in Iraq and Afghanistan. These were bogus wars launched by the Bush administration against the Islamic people to grab and exploit their natural resources. Despite public overtures of reaching-out to the Muslim people and bridging the political gaps, Obama has continued the madness of killing innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. An estimated three million people have been killed by the US led war in Iraq. Millions of habitats and lives are continuously destroyed in Afghanistan. About 12,900 civilians are reported to have been killed by the US increased drone attacks in Pakistan. Who are the real terrorists? War is killing others, not peace-building. Obama’s actions refute his own words and commitment to global outreach and peacemaking. This is the US politics. All contemporary politicians are stage actors pretending to be doing good to the interest of the people. Men who are universally hated and feared claim to have achieved success at the cost of wrong thinking, ruthlessness, and treason against humanity. Their so called fantasy of success can never flourish except leading to degeneration, viciousness and self-destruction.

In July 2007, the NY Times, published front page article that “Pakistani Generals are paid to do the job.”  That was General Mushraf and comrades, exposing the insanity of the “war on terrorism” that Pakistan embraced and the Generals made millions.  After the Raymond Davis case, this latest episode left no doubt that indeed Pakistani Generals and Zardari gang are paid by the US Government to do the job. The terms of reference clearly shows that the US intelligence network and the political leadership have full control over all the major affairs of governance in Pakistan.  Zardari and the Pakistani Generals are the stooges at the US conducted political chessboard. What kind of future is waiting for theses people? Abdus Sattar reinforces the prevalent reality:

“The Pakistani leadership might have thought that it would pocket more dollars in exchange for the latest shame earned for the nation. But in reality Pakistan might soon find itself between the devil and the deep sea. Instead of getting dollars, the whole world has already started discussing Pakistan as the epicenter of terrorism. And what al-Qaeda and Taliban would do with Pakistan is anybody’s guess.”

Do the Pakistani military and civilian rulers have any justifiable explanation to offer to nation? What if India and Israel would come-in as did the US intruders to attack the nuclear installations? Would they be ignorant of such an unthinkable intrusion into Pakistan’s sovereignty? The rulers are the absolute power in Pakistan. There is no democracy, no political accountability and there is no political system based on any known legitimacy. The Pakistani rulers have acquired indifference to the public interest and insanity and they are victim of their own obsession - their removal or death will bring no deliverance to the nation. Pakistan needs a new political system of governance to be articulated by the new educated and proactive visionary generation of the people. Zardari and the Generals belong to the dead past, and cannot be a hope for the future. Pakistanis live in a domain of vicious circle with a terrible sense of helplessness lacking political imagination and new ideas for the future making. The present rulers deserve a jolt to open up new avenues for change and hope for the future.

Colin Wilson (The Criminal History of Mankind), offers an historical perspective quite befitting to the Pakistani rulers:

“The history of Rome contains more crime and violence than that of any other city in world history……the Romans were slipping into violence by a process of self-justification and once a nation or an individual has started down this particular slope, it is impossible to apply brakes. The Roman people were too unimaginative and short sighted to realize that once murder has been justified on grounds of expediency, it can become a habit, then a disease.”

Is there a way out of the Pakistani sell out to the US?  The Pakistani military Generals and political rulers are part of the problem; they cannot be part of the solution. The solution must come out of the NEW THINKING and NEW VISIONS of the young people and new generation of Pakistani scholars and intellectuals not afflicted by political corruption and crimes against the interest of the masses. This approach deserves an inward EYE on the objectivity and purpose of political change and reformation of the neo-colonial dominated governance, an eye not merely to  change the political faces but FOCUSED on the PURPOSE of political change institutionalized development, holding the current rulers accountable to their crimes and treason to the nation, and rebuilding new political institutions with an instinctive recognition gradually transforming the obsolete and corrupt governance to new and responsible system of democratic governance. Surely, history will judge the Pakistani rulers by their actions, not by their claims.