Pakistan: How to Revisit Political Darkness?
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Emerging naïve
religious activism, daily sectarian bloodbaths and curfews depict lawlessness,
degeneration and favorite perversion of the divided consciousness overwhelmed
with sadism of underdeveloped sense of national unity and purpose. The Pakistani
nation faces a crisis of identity and failed to understand who there were and
where the history has pushed them to be? The political monsters called leaders
with borrowed time and paid ballot boxes follow a foreign propelled agenda as
pawns being used on a foreign dictated chess board to determine the future of Pakistan in
chaos and more deaths, destruction of everything viewed as holistic and
valuable. Pakistanis need no distance to travel searching for more enemies,
they need to see the mirror, the enemies are within, not elsewhere. When people
live in darkness for too long, they lose sense of rational thinking and
direction. All and everything is fighting for survival of the fittest. No
wonder, why educated and intellectually informed and conscientious Pakistan find
no place to stand on their own in the political culture and reclaim lost human
dignity and self respect as members of a valued Nation. The Law of Nature
points out if you are respected within your family, you will be seen with
dignity outside too. Are there any
intelligent people left in the body of the nation to sort out what went wrong
and why and how to change it into something normal and politically workable? Do
contending sectarianism and widely pouring bloodshed of the innocent people
make Pakistanis a better nation or a nation at the top of the cliff?
Pakistani nation
was born out of crises and is no stranger to life-threatening self-generated
crises of catastrophic consequences even to dismantle half of the country in
1971. Those who envisioned the evolution of a new Muslim nation out of the
British colonial India,
surely had political imagination – how to progressively move into the future
for a promising new beginning of nationhood. But those who followed the
pioneering leaders of new Pakistan
had scheme of ‘backdoors” intrigues-run politics to ensure the hegemonic
control of the few families over the entrenched political powerhouse. These few
dreamed of ever lasting political discourse and glory as kings and queens of
the neo-colonial dominated Pakistan – the sadistic and terribly naïve and
uneducated feudal lords and their accomplice disrupted few military Generals -
the egomaniacs also served as a discrete portal for political criminal gangs to
undermine the much acclaimed freedom of the Muslim nation and its sustainable
future. Their planned darkness viewed the people- the citizens of Pakistan as immature children and common folks
acted like innocent children supporting the neo-colonial class domination
leading to collapsed integrity of Pakistan, readily shrouded with
bloodshed, hatred, fear and societal collapse in all directions of Pakistani
political culture. For over six decades, the world has gone through superb
changes and adaptability to a better future-making but Pakistan and its people
continue to breathe air in conflicting
time zones unable to recap their own identity on a road of moral and
intellectual darkness with no immediate end insight. It happened as the naïve
rulers wanted to keep the masses in a box of ignorance locked-up for long time
to come. Suspicious and paranoid as they might appear to be, Pakistani people
still have no idea where they are and what direction are they heading to? In conventional wisdom, all strategic
planners emphasize that we must know where we are in order to go somewhere or
to move in a right direction.
The ruling elite
in Pakistani politics is well protected, fattish and flourishing in highly
advanced culture of peace and tranquility, good weekends, no curfews, no high
rising cost of wheat flour, honey, eggs and butter are readily available and no
restrictions of movement and assured freedom for all the times to come. Who
does not want to live in Islamabad or in a new emerging
colony of senior executives and top officials daily occupied in dance and
drinking of all and everything conveniently imported from London
and Washington? They see the agitating and shouting people as
serious challenge to their enshrined happiness and higher standards of living-
where all fair is foul - all foul is fair. The egomaniac elite enjoy the
sensation of power as if there is nothing wrong when all is on fire.
How should the global community
view the emerging Pakistani political democracy of the few full of conspiracies
of power and corruption of crime riddled leaders for over half a century? They are a failure on all the major
frontlines of global political affairs.
The bogus war On Terrorism has harvested so many new political agents
out of the nowhere labels of parties and the few Generals who blame General
Musharaf to try him alone for treason of the Constitution would be unfair and
ridiculous or simply put one-sided immoral episode. What happened to the
Islamic foundation and values of Pakistan? Were the Bhuttos, Zardari, Sharif and other
Generals not equally responsible for the moral and political demise of the
nation? History shall judge them by their actions, not by claims. They were all
naïve, opportunists and clearly worst enemies of Pakistan and its people. It is just
that complacent groups avoid seeing the history as is. Learning from history is
tough to many egoistic politicians. Every new political ruler attempts to carve
and paint a new picture of purity and
righteousness as if they are stranger to inept politics and institutionalized
corruption and treachery to the interests of the nation. Pakistanis know well
all politics is corrupt and filthy. None seem to know and understand the
meaning and spirit of democracy but all claims to be leading the democracy. Leaders
manage the crisis when facts of life warrant change and adaptability to the
future. Often crisis unity people of reason but not in the context of Pakistani
politics. Notwithstanding the requisites of reason and honesty, many Pakistani
politicians are paid cash by the Master and are collaborating with the US-led
warmongering against many Muslim nations. Time will tell how some of these so
called political traders and traitors called leaders deserve the wrath of God
for supporting the bogus War on Terrorism. There are no public institutions of thinking
for a navigational change and no leaders to lead the besieged nation out of the
political chaos and mismanagement except individualistic absolutism performing
at the theatre of absurdity. One wonders, why the earth never felt any weight
of the contemporary Pakistani politicians.
In a recent article, Andrew Gavin
Marshall (“Imperial Eye on Pakistan-
Pakistan in Pieces, Part 1 -
Global Research: 5/30/2011) attempts to point out how the Us policy is
shifting to see Pakistan
go down in few years.
“America has, in recent
years, altered its strategy in Pakistan
in the direction of destabilization. In short, Pakistan is an American target. The
reason: Pakistan’s growing
military and strategic ties to China,
America’s
primary global strategic rival. In the ‘Great Game’ for global hegemony, any
country that impedes America’s world primacy – even one as historically
significant to America as Pakistan – may be sacrificed upon the altar of
war………. Pakistan will very likely continue
to be destabilized and ultimately collapse. What is not mentioned in these
assessments, however, is the role of the military and intelligence communities
in making this a reality; a veritable self-fulfilling prophecy.”
In view of the unstoppable cycle
of political killings and daily bloodbaths across Pakistani towns and poor
neighborhoods, it is becoming evident that Pakistani rulers and the masses live
and breathe in conflicting time zones and are being unable to see the rationality of
people-oriented Islamic governance, the worst is yet to come, surrender to
foreign forces as there are no leaders to think of the future. Are the foreign
dictated rulers and their armies - the known killers - the only task they are
accustomed to do? Borrowed weapons and corrupt and failed rulers do not extend
moral or intellectual security. The question is how to decode treachery, greed,
incompetence and dead conscience to tell the world - the real story of the Pakistani
growing democracy managed by dead Bhuttos, few Generals and now left-over
Sharif to do the rest. The embittered and treacherous politics of the few
lacking moral and intellectual leadership and legitimacy gives people a
terrible sense of helplessness with frightening consequences of their past
complacency and resulting futuristic viciousness- yet to come for a complete
breakdown of all that was precious and valuable to a common Pakistani. More and
more a nation lost with moral and spiritual power of unity find itself
stranglehold by its inner generated conflicts of dark mindset and perverted
priorities. What about situations where all is deliberately ruptured by
insanity of the few, shattered apart, disintegrated to enrich few cruel
monsters into extended governance - that is contemporary Pakistan? How to change the worst
into best?
In a knowledge-driven 21st
century global culture of change and human development and given the abundant
resources of Pakistani’s educated classes enriched with forward looking visions,
intellects and zeal, lot of ills can be diagnosed into workable solutions only
if people with proactive thinking and dedicated energies were engaged in an
organized scheme of things to pursue such vital national priorities. Critical issues demand urgent care and cure,
not national curse to those who claim to be the political linchpin of the
country. Many divides exist between what
is said officially by the crime- riddled administration of the few and what the
thinking masses experience in daily despairs, social, economic misfortunes and
political horrors, street bloodbaths and foreign drone attacks, killing of the
civilians, non-productive commerce and trade, nothing moves in any rational
direction to make their survival come true - a gruesome portrayal of so called
democracy at work. The in-house tragedy of vices and ruins so apparent, rather
than finding solutions within the political activism, they continue to blame
others. The truth is that enemies are within and actively engaged with lot money
and weapons poured-in externally at warehouses for continuing bloody sectarian
massacres and encouraging more deaths and destructions of life, freedom,
commerce and all that could be imagined as relevant and important for survival.
For sure, if Allama Iqbal, Mohammad Ali Jinnah-Qauid E- Azam and Liaqaut Ali Khan
were alive, they would have disowned this disdained prevalent Pakistani culture
of hatred, fear and vindictiveness.
After more than
half of a century of continuous failure and disintegrated political culture,
Pakistani nation must realize the political triviality and viciousness
contributed by ZA Bhutto, Ms. Bhutto, Zardari, Sharif and Musharaf and opt out
of the terrible sense of helplessness and imposed insanity of the few.
Foreigners will not come to help Pakistan in crises but try to capitalize to
crush its will and spirit to survive, their plans are working for long time to
disintegrate Pakistan. Andrew Gavin
Marshall “Imperial Eye on Pakistan- Pakistan in Pieces, Part 1 (Global
Research: 5/30/2011) states that “in December of 2000, the CIA released a
report of global trends to the year 2015, which stated that by 2015,
“The war in Afghanistan
is inherently related to the situation in Pakistan……….Pakistan will be more
fractious, isolated, and dependent on international financial assistance.”[1]
Further, it was predicted, Pakistan:
Will
not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement,
divisive politics, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction. Nascent
democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an
entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties.”
In “Pakistan:
Political Curse Needs Urgent Cure” 2/15/2012), this author attempted to offer
the following assessment and shared grave concern for the future of Pakistan’s
freedom, unity of the people and integrity and search for a sustainable future:
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.
Sharif has
proven to be indifferent and incapable to change the corrupt political culture
of which he is an integral part. If he had self- respect and consciousness of
his own strength and weaknesses, he would not be assuming the office of Prime
Minister. There is nothing common between the two entities. The public
elections brought no positive outlook at the working of the national assembly
to foster any change. Insane sectarianism rages and cruelty of violence is robbing
the life and commerce of the nation. Pakistan desperately needs morally and
intellectually enriched people of new generation with passion and commitment to
change and reformation, social harmony and New Ideas, creative foresight and
moral strength to prepare the Nation for a New Beginning and workable solutions away from the corrupt
political and military absolute authoritarianism. Pakistan needs a navigational change
out of the sadistic political culture but there is no political system to
facilitate durable political change on its own in a peaceful manner. Another
military take over will not solve any problems but create more. The optimism
for change and reshaping ANEW Pakistan
rests with the new educated and intelligent young generation of
Pakistanis. All segments of educated,
informed and conscientious Pakistanis have genuine interests and should feel
priority to rebuild a strong foundation for the unity of the nation. The
strength and forces of unity rest with Islam as a powerful and unifying force
of One Ummah for change and sustainable development of the future of Pakistan.
|