Pakistan:  Looks for New Leaders

Mahboob A. Khawaja

After half of a century of the military rule, martial laws, broken dreams of democracy and freedom, dismantled public institutions and continued disconnected governance by thugs and crime riddled people like Zardari and his gangsters, how should the world view the Pakistani nation – its moral norms, political culture and integrity? What tragic picture comes out of the widely corrupt social and political imagery of the Muslim nation?  (“Pakistan: where corruption and politics are the same.”, 06/2012,  by the same author)

Pakistani nation is victim of its own spiritual, moral and intellectual stagnation coupled with a terrible sense of helplessness and being unable to see itself in the mirror and to think of the challenging future. Political failure resulted from almost five decade old military take-overs generating naïve leadership and catastrophic consequences for the national integration of cultural and intellectually diverse people. Military dominated politics is one of the root causes of democratic blunders. All military rulers were selfish, sadistic and insane people to incapacitate the Muslim nation of its intellectual and political imagination for the future. Time and history point out the embittered egoism of the few.  Who derailed the established democratic process in the newly established Muslim nation. The question must be addressed in its rational context. 

Who killed Liaquat Ali Khan, the first visionary, highly talented and intellectually impressive leader of Pakistan?  Most Pakistanis believe, it was Ghulam Mohammad and Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani in concert with some of the top civil servants who conspired to kill the first PM of Pakistan. Nobody was held accountable for this crime. At a critical juncture of the making of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan was a genius enriched with vision and political imagination for the future of a strong democratic Pakistan. Imagine, Roosevelt, the then US President received him in person at the Washington airport and offered all the moral and political support for the development of Pakistan.  Dr. Robert Mackay was a former Canadian UN diplomat and Professor, I heard him saying that Liaquat Ali Khan made a lasting impression of intellectual foresight and friendship on St. Laurent, the then Canadian Prime Minister when he visited Canada and addressed the House of Commons. The Canadian parliamentarians were fascinated by his vision of a futuristic Pakistan. British PM Winston Churchill and Lord Attlee were equally impressed by his leadership role in outlining Pakistan’s vision for development and support for the British Commonwealth of nations.

Comparatively with newly created Pakistan, India was better known to be a land of wonders enriched with Islamic history- Taj Mahal- Jamia Masijid Delhi and the Moghul Empire, the people of Pakistan were emerging as forward looking nation of honor and progress for the future. Undeniably, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-e-Azam and Liaquat Ali Khan were the forebears of this political value. Liaquat Ali Khan was a history-making politician and revered by so many global leaders of the time.  Did anybody replace Liaquat Ali after his political murder? Not so, the course of history was reversed and Pakistan’s future entangled by the few dictators who had no sense of time, history and politics or the interests of the common people of Pakistan. Under wrong people with wrong thinking and  wrong actions, Pakistani nation lost great deal of honor and integrity.

Crises refresh memories of good and bad events. The trend was set to deprive the people of Pakistan from a democratic system of governance. The few Generals will select well known feudal landlords and ex- British colonial cronies readily available to be used to further incapacitate the thinking and intellect hub of the educated and informed masses. Greed of power, treachery and vindictiveness will overwhelm General Yahya Khan to oust General Ayub Khan from power in 1969. General Rani - a prostitute so entitled and so many others will become the powerhouse for all the official work. Nobody would dare to think out of the box if the nation was set on a destructive course of history. The Indian planned aggression to occupy East Pakistan and to make Pakistanis surrender in December 1971 is almost forgotten by most political and military leaders. A shame that will continue to haunt this nation for ever. Pakistan and its national integrity were left to cruelty and killing, not defended by its military and political leaders. Dr. Ishtiaq Qureshi, (Editor of Urdu Digest, Lahore) had produced a remarkable factual critique for the future generations: “Skooth Dacca say Purdah Utatha Hay” – the unveiling of the facts of surrender at Dacca. Dr. Qureshi made it known that: Yahya, Bhutto and Mujib were all striving to grab the power. But in the process Pakistan lost its lifelines. Yahya and Mujib stabbed Pakistan and Bhutto will stab the body of Pakistan with another dragger.

Bhutto family enjoined a cancerous ego for power and influence even after the planned surrender to India. These political monsters in collaboration with the few military Generals turned their maniac ego into absolute perversion to assume power and commit crimes against the people of Pakistan. ZA Bhutto met his ambitions and was hanged for the killing of an opposition politician. In India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi who was passionate to see Pakistan surrender in East Pakistan and to carve-out Bangladesh, also met her ambitions and was killed by a Sikh soldier as a revenge for the killing of a Sikh leader striving for Khalistan- an independent Sikh Homeland in Punjab.  There are striking similarities how Liaquat Ali Khan was killed and how the plane crash of General Zia ul Haq happened in August 1988. Most observers believe, it was the Bhutto family who conspired to arrange the killings of General Zia ul Haq, again using some agents from within the Pakistan armed forces.  No one was held accountable for this tragedy. General Musharaf, Miss Bhutto, Zardari and Nawaz Sharif were all the by-products of this stagnated political instrumentalism which continues to govern the masses of Pakistan. The dead-conscience people who often glorify their own dead mindset to entrap the present and future of the Muslim nation.  The question is, could dead people make any difference in rebuilding the nation?  Is there any cure to the political and intellectual cruelty inflicted to the interests of the people of Pakistan?  Why the Pakistani nation failed to bring forth new, educated and intellectually credible people to assume the leadership role in politics?  Was it pre-determined that Pakistanis should live and breathe in a corrupt and filthy culture of governance dominated by the few?  How strange, the people and nations of the 21^st century world are fostering change, new ideas and creativity across all the major domains of human affairs but not the Pakistanis?  True or false, American policy makers believe that Pakistan is a century behind the norms of modern change and development agenda. Where would the change come from if Pakistanis are living in the dead past - the world of fantasy that cannot appear in the mirror?  Sharif lacks vision and integrity to re-emerge in politics. Twice dismissed PM on corruption charges and further he will continue to enlarge the spectrum of institutionalized corruption and backdoor conspiracies. Sharif will have confrontational behavior toward the military hierarchy and other new political activists. It is hard to imagine what else will be new with Sharif.

To rethink and imagine the true purpose and meaning of the freedom of people of Pakistan and to rebuild the moral and intellectual capacity of the nation, Pakistan needs a Navigational Change for the future. Such an ideal and real world priority can only be imagined by visionary, educated and intelligent leaders, out of their rational thoughts and strategic plans for societal change and future-building.

Nation-building is not the work of military Generals, Bhuttos, Zardaris, Sahrifs and Chaudris. These are dead entries in the junk history. More precisely,  dummies evolved over certain period of time by the foreign masters to continue their control and domination over the mind and positive thinking of the people of Pakistan. The thinking hub of the new and educated generations of Pakistanis must overcome this backlash of thinking divides, sectarian crises and foresee their future beyond and above the obvious horizon infested by theses political draculas. Planned Change for future must envisage unity of the people under a new political system of governance and avoid the sectarian bloodsheds and restore trust in the Unity of Faith and One Nation, working together to rebuild its much dismantled capacity for new thinking, change and a promising future. The masses must comprehend that absolute power corrupts absolute ruler. The people must know, understand and appreciate that Pakistan is meant for them, not the dummy ruling elite. All the systematic structural changes must demonstrate that the purpose and clarity of the meaning of Pakistan is absolutely dedicated to the service of the masses, not the few feudal barrens set-up by the colonialism.

In “Pakistan- political curse needs urgent cure” 2/2012, the author offered this staunch reminder to the besieged people of Pakistani:

The Pakistani nation must see the mirror – look at itself straight, candidly and with fullest sense of responsibility:    who they were, where they are and where they are heading to - or the Nation stands no chance for the recourse or coming out of the deadly political stunts of the few, time killing legal battles and the historical graveyards. If the nation was not complacent in all of these sadistic misfortunes, the Generals, Bhuttos, Zardaris and Sharifs would have never had opportunities to molestation of the moral, intellectual and spiritual culture and values of Islamic Pakistan.