Pakistan’s Withering Heights

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

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 national government of unity is put in place to re-arrange the affairs of the nation……. There is no honest and accountable politics in Pakistan. The so called politicians and their mindsets 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. How soon would the Pakistani nation facilitate a NEW BEGINNING under educated and intelligent leadership of the new age?

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This week another Prime Minister was dismissed on corruption charges. If you think of politics, you will certainly ask who is not corrupt in Pakistani politics? Politics is the cynical game of the few in Pakistan without any systematic relationships to the aspirations and interests of the masses. Pakistan faces multiple crises without seeing any end to tormenting uncertainty. Wickedness knows no bound. Corrupt and incompetent politicians tried to enforce a system of governance that was based on the fragmented ruins of the previous violent destruction by General Musharaf. Emotionally charged people engage in shouting matches, bewildered cries unparallel in contemporary history, hardly hit the minds of the self-centered and mostly corrupt political rulers. Often the besieged masses avoid encountering tough questions to realize their problematic status-quo. Who are we?  Some may respond with a frightening allegory as people have lost rational thinking, objectivity and purpose of being Pakistanis. Over the decades, the incompetent and corrupt authoritarian dictators and their political accomplices have dismantled the fabric of Islamic Pakistan and its public institutions of freedom, honesty and accountability and what were most cherished principles, values and strength of the foundation of an independent Pakistan.  

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. One gets the impression as if foreigners come to rule Pakistan and once they encounter opposition, they leave the nation in ruins and escape with all their stolen wealth and possessions. 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.

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”, crippled and unproductive economy, unpayable IMF debts of $70 billion or so 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. 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 across 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.

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 Condeelica Rice (the former US Secretary of States in Bush administration), is to be believed, General Musharaf provided vital secret information on the Pakistani nuclear arsenals to the US Government. 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.

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 over two decades but once he challenged the US policy 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, facilitated a culture of violence and killings 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? 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.”

General Musharaf even dismissed the Chief Justice of Pakistan to ensure his own power and survival. 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. These so called leaders must be held accountable in a court of law.. 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 forces 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. The Western intelligence agencies have added another self-centered actor Tahir-ul- Qadri, the one who lived in North America and UK on their financial support to operate as their agents of influence in issuing false judgments - “fatwas” on Islamic injunctions. He will parrot their interests and priorities wherever he will go and lower the human conscience to listen to his sermons.  Such people have no leadership capacity - moral or intellectual to contribute for the good of the people of 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 and Pakistan’s lifeline to envisage, implement and enhance this much needed vision and national aim. The PPP governance is clearly in defiance of the democratic values and has no vision for the country, while corruption and political gangsterism and killings of the innocent people are on the rise. Pakistan NEEDS ANEW Beginning, New Constitution, New political institutions and New educated and competent leadership to facilitate anew FUTURE in waiting.