No Way Out for Pakistan?

The pretender to Anne Patterson’s throne

So far as Pakistan is concerned the WikiLeaks’ disclosure of our rulers’ sell-out to the Americans appears to have been a bubble that burst all too soon. Initially frightened out of their wits, the Americans have dropped any pretence of showing respect towards their factotums who occupy the highest offices of state in Pakistan.

Cameron Munter, the new pretender to the throne vacated by Anne Patterson, has bluntly told the Pakistani puppets installed by the USA that the Americans will interfere in Pakistan’s “financial and governance” matters because, he boasted, the US was Pakistan’s largest aid provider. He said nothing, of course, about the terrible destruction wreaked on Pakistan by the Americans’ insane pursuit of their political objectives through warfare. The so-called “aid” is mere peanuts compared to the human and material losses suffered by Pakistan as a direct result of America’s nefarious activities in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Cattle, Puppets and Puppeteers

You might think that that the reaction to Munter’s humiliating remarks would be an outcry in Pakistan’s National Assembly and strident calls to the nation to unite against the American arrogance. Nothing of the sort happened. Pakistan’s Mafia-like leadership of criminals and fraudsters, whose darkest secrets are known to the American CIA, simply slunk away with bowed heads, their tails between their legs. In fact, the top dog dutifully flew all the way to Washington to attend a memorial service – and deliver a typically sycophantic eulogy – for Richard Holbrook, an oafish American diplomat who used to take particular delight in visiting Pakistan and bluntly giving a piece of his mind to the puppets who presented themselves before him.

The gentlemen and ladies who sit in Pakistan’s National assembly mostly owe their privileged positions to the patronage of the leaders of their respective parties. The MNAs dare not oppose any decision of their leader, however inimical to the interests of Pakistan, for the simple reason that the leader has the power to sack them on the spot. In practical terms, these “leaders” are the effective owners of the political parties they lead. Last summer these “leaders” conspired to give themselves autocratic powers by changing Pakistan’s constitution by means of “the 18^th amendment”. This was a complex amendment which introduced several changes to the constitution, some good, some bad and some totally repulsive. In the last category fall such monstrosities as revoking the clause that requires political parties to hold elections, and allowing convicted criminals to stand in national elections! The way is thus open for revolting individuals such as Z and NS to remain party leaders for life and to pass on the succession to members of their families irrespective of what crimes they may have committed. It is said that the 18^th amendment, which contained over a hundred amendments, was nodded through without discussion, the entire process taking no more than a couple of hours!

The sad fact is that Members of Pakistan’s National assembly are little better than a herd of cattle. They merely go where they are goaded by the puppets who, in turn, have their strings pulled by the puppeteers sitting in Washington. Democracy, Pakistani-style, is merely a form of dictatorship mixed in with unbridled corruption and abuse of power.

Way forward : the path of Iqbal and Jinnah

We need to look at any system of government and make an effort to understand how it operates. Thoughtlessly mouthing slogans such as “democracy” hides the monstrous fact that the Jamhoori Tamasha, the Democratic Circus, we have in Pakistan is one where layers of dictatorship exist, the uppermost layer being the dictatorship exercised from afar by the Americans, who determine the rulers of Pakistan and the policies that they are going to follow. Iqbal:

جلال پادشاہی ہو کے جمھوری تماشہ ہو

جدا ہو دیں سیاست سے تو رہ جاتی ہے چنگیزی

Absolute power of a monarch, or Democratic Circus, both are equally futile;

There will be just tyranny and oppression if Deen is separated from politics.

To Jinnah, “Deen” was a Code of Conduct that we had to follow in life – see Dialogue with a Giant

Pakistan’s Jamhoori Tamasha پاکستان کا جمھوری تماشہ

All Pakistani political parties that pay homage to their Americans masters - refer to WikiLeaks to identify those parties - agree that the current PPP government, up to its neck in unbridled corruption, must be allowed to complete its 5-year term of office because that is the wish of their masters sitting in Washington! At the end of that term Washington will presumably award points for good behaviour, and one of its stooges will be selected to rule Pakistan for the following 5 years.

This Jamhoori Tamasha, the Circus of Democracy, must be brought to an end if Pakistanis are to be released from the grip of corrupt thieves and robbers controlling the reins of power. Toppling the government is straightforward because of the wafer-thin majority it has in Parliament. However, none of the political parties represented in National Assembly will dare to upset the apple cart for fear of offending their masters in Washington. So, we have the macabre political dance being performed by the likes of Nawaz Sharif (the creator of the disreputable 'Friendly Opposition', which guarantees the survival of Z & Co), Altaf Hussain and Fazlur Rehman. What, then, is the solution?

A solution which could spark a constitutional crisis

At this critical juncture in Pakistan’s history, the Supreme Court could play a decisive role. In view of the indiscriminate murders and targeted killings of Pakistan’s citizens that the PPP government is powerless to do anything about, galloping inflation and no-holds-barred corruption of the rich and the powerful, the Supreme Court could declare that the government is unable to fulfil its obligations under the constitution. Apart from the government’s inability to maintain law and order, it seems to be gripped with paralysis when it comes to implementing the Supreme Court judgments relating to the ex-convict who happens to be the president of Pakistan. The Supreme Court could conceivably dismiss the government for sheer incompetence and drag Z, kicking and screaming, before the Court to answer criminal charges against him. This would pave the way for mid-term elections and the formation of a new government.

Should the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, take the bold step outlined here, the one thing that can be forecast with absolute certainty is a flood of damning articles by heavily bribed Pakistani hacks in a section of Pakistan's English language press. Expect endless talk of the judges exceeding their powers and creating constitutional chaos.

Seems to me that a revolution, Tunisia-style, could be another possibility. Are the people of Pakistan ready to explode? The sooner we end the bastardised parliamentary system we have in Pakistan the better it will be for the nation.

نہیں ہے ناامید اقبال اپنی کشت ویراں سے
ذرا نم ہو تو یہ مٹی بُہت زرخیز ہے ساقی

Tailpiece

Religion, as commonly understood, is a mix of ideas and rituals, including unhealthy influences which defy common sense. Invariably, “religion” branches out into a multitude of sects headed by hidebound clerics at war with each other. Al-Quran speaks of Islam as DEEN, which I wrote about in the very first post in my blog. I ask my readers to read it, please, by clicking this link

 http://sakibahmad.blogspot.com/2009/10/islam.html

The religious parties which are so active in Pakistani politics today had, in fact, opposed the creation of Pakistan. More, they had declared both Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam to be “kaafir”/infidel. One particular party stooped so low in its disparagement of Jinnah that it attached the label “Kaafir-e-Azam” to him. These religious parties deserve nothing but contempt from the people of Pakistan for their mischief making.

What we need in Pakistani politics is honesty, justice, and courage to resist tyranny and oppression. That was the DEEN or CODE OF CONDUCT that Iqbal and Jinnah talked about. Without that quality in politics we will end up with immoral political systems such as those we have in the USA and Pakistan. In some ways the USA political system is worse than Pakistan’s, because it denies genuine democracy to nations which are not yet considered “developed” and it allows the American government to launch murderous attacks on them, killing hundreds of thousands of their citizens with its hi-tech weaponry.

THE DAY OF THE VAMPIRES

Crunch time for Pakistan


December 16, 2009 was a day of celebration for Pakistanis. The 17 judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court had unanimously struck down the abominable presidential ordinance NRO, popularly known as the National Robbers Organisation though its creators, the wretched Musharraf in collaboration with his foreign backers, had given this national disgrace an altogether more lofty title. People rejoiced as they sensed deliverance from the clutches of corrupt and greedy rulers, the blood sucking vampires who wallowed in obscene wealth and luxury amid the widespread poverty of Pakistan. Following the Supreme Court’s decision the vampires looked shaken and ashen faced as they sat hugging their seats of power.

The question that was uppermost in people’s minds was one of justice being seen to be done. Is it possible for an accused minister to prosecute himself fairly? The expectation was that all those accused of criminal acts would resign and defend themselves in court - they would resume their duties only if they were declared innocent.

A few days later the situation looks quite different. Sensing the discomfort of the vampires who faithfully serve American interests, the American ambassador in Pakistan is said to have swung into action. The Pakistani press has commented on the meetings she has held with various politicians - possibly to breathe new life into the anaemic vampires and fortify them with a potent dose of fresh blood. We now hear that our billionaire president and ministers have declared themselves to be innocent and they are casting aspersions on the motives of the Supreme Court judges. No one is resigning, and it is implied that the Supreme Court’s decision to declare the corruption-sustaining ordinance null and void is a politically motivated act!  

Pakistan’s second largest political party, which had campaigned for an independent judiciary earlier this year and had played a pivotal role in the restoration of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is strangely silent. It is said that it now regrets having campaigned for an independent judiciary, which has turned out to be exactly that: truly independent, above politics and beholden to no one. The opposition leader is said to be fearful that if he lends his support to those who seek fair and open trials for the vampires in powerful government posts then those vampires will hit back and give him as good as they get (yes, his reputation for similar orgies of blood sucking in the past refuses to lie down).

Things seem to be heading towards a mighty showdown between the judiciary and the government. This is the last thing we need at a time of grave danger to the very existence of Pakistan when terrorist acts of the utmost savagery are common and Pakistan’s armed forces have their hands full fighting foreign-backed rebels and mercenaries in Swat, South Waziristan and the adjoining tribal areas.

In the meantime, the Americans are piling on pressure for Pakistan to “do more” when it is already fully stretched and is hardly in a position to fight the Afghan Resistance against the Americans. The USA forces have lost fewer than 1000 lives in Afghanistan while Pakistan’s army has lost well over 20,000 officers and javaans. The wave of terrorism in Pakistan’s cities in the last two months alone has resulted in 500 deaths while the spate of illegal drone attacks in Waziristan has caused the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands, of innocent citizens. According to Jeremy Scahill, an American investigative journalist who revealed the covert CIA/military operations in Pakistan in his breathtaking article ‘Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan’, “drone strikes are sometimes done with very little regard for how many civilians may die in the pursuit of one ‘bad guy’ - in fact, my military intelligence source said to me if there’s one guy we’re trying to hit and there are 34 other people in the building, 35 people are going to die that day.” Can you imagine anything more chilling than this? So much for the “civilized” and “humanitarian” Americans! Pakistani lives are dirt cheap while a great hue and cry goes up each time an American soldier dies in Afghanistan in pursuit of the selfish designs of the USA government!

As a result of revelations by American investigative journalists, and the evidence collected by Pakistan’s army in Swat and South Waziristan, there appears little doubt that the USA and India are pursuing a policy of destabilising Pakistan. Another journalist, Seymour Hersh, has gone so far as to say that a team of American commandos is already in Pakistan with the sole object of taking possession of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal once the country is sufficiently destabilised.  

Any remaining doubts about American designs on Pakistan have been removed by Declan Walsh’s article in ‘The Guardian’ on 21 December, 2009. The article recounts the revelations of a former NATO officer talking about the USA military’s clandestine raids on Pakistani territory. Walsh quotes his source as saying, “The Pakistanis were kept entirely in the dark about it. It was one of those things we wouldn't confirm officially with them"!

In addition to the ongoing war between the Pakistani state and the collection of rebels and mercenaries known as ‘Pakistani Taliban’, trained and funded by foreign powers, two further scenarios of immense importance to Pakistan appear to be taking shape:

1.  1.  A confrontation between Pakistan’s Judiciary and the Executive, the latter enjoying the support of foreign elements.

2.  2.  A two-fold confrontation between the USA military and Pakistan’s armed forces: one, as the American drones attack a major city, Quetta, allegedly to wipe out what the Americans call “the Quetta Shura”, there will be tremendous pressure on our armed forces to shoot down the drones; two, as the USA’s “troops surge” translates into raids into Pakistani territory, Pakistan’s armed forces will be forced to retaliate.

Pakistanis with dual nationalities

Amreekani sues Pakistani newspaper 

 

Pakistan’s ambassador in the USA, Husain “Amreekani” Haqqani, is suing one of the most respected newspapers in Pakistan, The Nation, for Rs. 1 billion. Amreekani alleges “defamation” by The Nation for simply regurgitating a report  published in a USA magazine, possibly with Amreekani’s collusion. The Nation got wind of that report and revealed the details to Pakistanis – which was too much for the “USA’s ambassador in Pakistan’s embassy in Washington”. So the American publication is spared but The Nation will be hounded with a billion rupees legal suit!

You can read the full story here: http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=863

Haqqani, I think, holds USA nationality in addition to Pakistan’s. He is far from an isolated case – Pakistan’s High Commissioner in the UK, and a number of ministers in the Pakistan government, are in the same boat. I would have thought it is downright common sense that appointing people with divided loyalties to highly sensitive posts is most unwise. Since they will be in a position to influence national policies, their flawed judgment will inevitably lead to a dilution of Pakistan's interests.

The horror stories of the damage that Pakistanis holding dual nationality have inflicted on the country are well known. These people have exploited their influential public positions and are believed to have siphoned off billions of dollars from Pakistan’s treasury and institutions and stored them in safe havens abroad.

Vohi jin ki tegh se ban gaya mera shehr maqtal-e-khoo.n fishaa.n


Sar-e-aam deeda-e-num liye vohi log noha-garo.n mein thay !