Pakistan: People’s Revulsion against Political Insanity
Mahboob A.
Khawaja, PhD.
People Against Political Corruption
Observers
interpret events and political challenges as they see fit to their imagination.
But prevalent realities speak their own language loud and clear. Nawaz Sharif
will put to shame all the egoistic men called politicians and disgraced puppets
who operated on foreign myths and encompassing agenda. Reviewing the politics
of Pakistan
for the past half of a century, if there were men of moral and intellectual
conscience, the masses would have stood on guard to respect and honor their
much desired qualities. Not so,
Pakistanis were not fortunate to have educated, honest and accountable
politicians at the political powerhouses. Assuming power whether through
self-generated intrigues, military coups or backdoor conspiracies, they
practice absolutism devoid of political interactive dialogue to demonstrate
flexibility and respect for the will of the people. The curse in Pakistani
political strife is in need of urgent and workable cure. But all factors
embedded in making the politics indicate a denial to public revulsion against
the political curse. The dilemma of political legitimacy and accountability to
the people cannot be ignored. For more
than a month, millions of common folks appear to be engaged in shouting matches
outside the parliament challenging political indifference and insanity in Islamabad. Nobody can predict the outcome for political
change, justice and accountability. Sharif brethren have lost amicable
opportunities to come to terms with the overwhelming realities demanding
political change and legal justice.
They missed the
opportunity to see the mirror and accept masses demand for political change and
law and justice. Out of several public demands few deserve special
mention: (1) Accountability for the stolen
wealth and purchase of properties in London and business enterprise in Saudi
Arabia; (2) Rigging of May 2013 national elections and getting into power as PM
while Nawaz Sharif was already twice dismissed on corruption charges; (3)
killing of 14 members of the Minhaj ul-Quran academy- Dr. Al-Qadri group at
Lahore and injuring 80 protesters by Shabaz Sharif-the Chief Minister of Punjab
and police prevented to register the FIR for the bloody acts of the people in
power. You would burst with laughter or
cry at the political nuisance, the response given by Sharif brethren to these
critical issues involving life and death situations of Pakistani politics. If Sharif brethren had a cause and courage,
they should have come out in public to respond and defend themselves. They
demonstrated a dehumanized gutted culture of naïve politics, be it inside the
National Assembly or in news media that make no sense in a 21st
century knowledge-based age of reason and political accountability. People’s tormenting pains,, political agony
and continuing sufferings cannot be transformed into a single portrait to show
to the global audience. Would another military coup address the masses charge
sheet against Nawaz Sharif? The Generals
are cautious to foresee a puzzling future without genuine political remedies.
How and where the feasible solutions to crime-riddled politics will come from? At a glance, Pakistan appears to be reaching at
a dead-ended political discourse. The masses gathered at Islamabad would not compromise the outcome on
matters of principles. The political deadlock needs a high power jolt of
intervention to pave a smooth way out of the stagnated political culture of the
few. People are the legitimate force for change if there is any glimpse of
democracy still operational in Pakistan.
Need for Political Change and Democratic Norms
To silence the
voices of REASON for political dialogue and peaceful change, Sharif brethren
relied on police force. It strengthen the resolve of the people to stand in
unity and encounter the unthinkable obstructions of free movements, freedom of
expression and calls for legal justice to see the Sharif brethren arrested and
to face legal accountability for their crimes. Is Pakistan a morally and
intellectually broken nation that cannot question the few criminals in
power? Sharif continues to govern as if
there is no world outside the PM well guarded House or the secluded parliament. Those occupying the seats inside the National
Assembly failed to demonstrate legitimate sensitivities to the interests and
priorities outlined by the people. Their demands if not all but some do have solid
legitimate grounds to ask for political accountability and legal justice. The mayhem at Islamabad continues to haunt the present and
future of freedom, public accountability of politicians, and the normal
requisites of law and justice available to the ordinary people. Pakistani
people have learned from the distractions of time and history how few have
robbed the nation under false pretexts and egoistic exploitation.
Democracy is a
strange phenomenon in Pakistani political culture. Pakistani nation faces many
critical perils in its search for a peaceful democratic future. No wonder, why Islamabad is under
continuing siege by the political activists –one group is led by the new
generation leader Imran Khan, the former captain of Pakistani cricket team. The
other by a religious scholar Dr. Tahir -ul -Qadri, whose Lahore Minhaj
ul-Quran Center
was brutally attacked by the police resulting in massacres of 14 peaceful
participants and wounding hundred of others for no obvious reason. It is hard
to imagine how rationality could overcome insanity being perpetuated by the
Sharif brethren at provincial and national levels over the Pakistani
nation. None appear to signal the
scenarios of peaceful transformation of serious issues into workable solutions.
Lacking political imagination and legitimacy, Sharif brethrens have used power
to deal with sensitive issues of public communication and result-oriented
political dialogue. Political failure
and corruption allegations are nothing new to the profile of Nawaz Sharif. He
was twice dismissed as Prime Minister on corruption accusations. The 1999
hijacking of an incoming PIA flight from Sri Lanka with 250 passengers and
former General Pervaiz Musharaf on board. Mr. Sharif wanted to assassinate all
in a plane crash as the plane was not allowed to land at Karachi international airport. He wanted to
install a new Chief of the Army Staff to replace General Musharaf. Even Sharif
asked the pilot to go to India
but it was refused. After the military coup, Sharif was tried in a public court
on terrorism charges and exiled to Saudi Arabia. Now wonder in
Pakistani politics how such a criminal made comeback and got elected by rigging
the 2013 election to reclaim the office of Prime Minister.
When pretension
and stingy greed give life to politically manipulated leadership, treachery and
oppression become the rule of political governance in which people are seen as
the eggs and chickens, conveniently broken and slaughtered and politicians are
akin to assume the above normal role play lacking legitimacy and
accountability. Pakistani politics regrettably as is, a venture of intrigues,
self-engineered conspiracies and dead roll calls to explain the history of this
beleaguered nation. Feudal lords are the political masters, and Bhutto family
with complacent army Generals, has been one of them to unfold a naïve and
destructive chapter of the Pakistan’s
political misfortunes. Mr. ZA Bhutto, the leader of the PPP, his daughter
Benazir Bhutto, two of her brothers, all are dead but they still ruling the
country by imposter Asif Ali Zardari as the past president. Alive or dead,
Bhutto family has been the centre of political intrigues and destructive
problems in Pakistan.
How irrational and untrue it seems that dead people are leading the living
masses of Pakistan? Since 2008, Sharif has been in collaboration
with the Bhutto family to continue the political curse as determining factor in
Pakistani politics.
Leaders Who Could Not Lead
The military dictators, Bhuttos, Zardari and Sharifs
could never have come into power unless the whole nation had lost the sense of
rationality, PURPOSE and MEANING of its existence. These sadistic and cruel
monsters have institutionalized chaos and fear, demoralization of a moral
society and dehumanization of an intelligent nation and have transferred these
naïve traits and values to the psychological-social-economic and political
spheres of the mainstream thinking hub of the nation. Why should we care - many
will assert at the cultural levels. Are there any concerned thinkers,
intellectuals and proactive political activists to safeguard the national
interests of the present and future generations of Muslim Pakistan?
Pakistani politics is operated
by those of whom the great majorities have absolutely no qualifications to be
at the helm of political power – yet they are continuously engaged in
systematic degradation of the educated and intelligent young generation of Pakistanis
who are deprived of opportunities to participate in the national politics. The
contemporary history of political degeneration includes few generals, neo-colonial
feudal lords, members of the assemblies, family-vested few houses of political
power, ministers or prime ministers; they have the distinction of all acting in
unison against the interest of the people of Pakistan. Political Power is aphrodisiac. Do the people
belong to this mad scrum overwhelmingly
witnessed at the Islamabad
freedom march? To an impartial observer the scene is clear that wrong people
are conducting the political governance where reason and legal justice are
outlawed. This contradicts the essence of the Freedom Movement of Pakistan. It
appears logical to think that
at some point soon, those who are
fit to lead must take over from those who are misfit to govern with
credibility. It could be a bloodless coup - or it could be a bloody insurrection.
One way or another, the process of phasing-out the obsolete and phasing-in the
fair and much desired and deserving must happen. Are the demonstrators approaching the point
of no return? Is Pakistan’s
freedom and futuristic integrity being sacrificed for few dumb and dull
criminals who wish to extend their power beyond the domains of reason and
honesty? It will be extremely harmful
and deeply flawed and dangerous ethos to the interests of the people if Sharif
brethren are allowed to continue the crime riddled political governance while
their legitimacy is under sharp questioning. The path to peaceful change and
political success requires the wise and informed to establish an organized
council of responsible oversight to move-in to the void once the despots are ousted.
That is an essential component of any public uprising determined to manifest
genuine and sustainable political change and legal justice.
Pakistan urgently needs a savior. A military takeover is not the solution
but General Raheel Sharif- the Chief of the Armed Forces and his conscientious
colleagues could take a moral stand for the best of Pakistan. There should no
neutrality when Pakistan’s
freedom and integrity is undermined by few authoritarian rulers. This means,
Nawaz Sharif must take leave of absence or step down to clear the allegations
of 2013 election rigging, killings of the protesters at Lahore
and Islamabad
and transfer of money to foreign assets. If cleared by a court of law, he
should resume his office as PM. If not, the he must face the ultimate legal
consequences. The use of security forces and power against the people will not
resolve the problems - the absolute power, a draconian strategy to dispel the
notion of freedom. It is shameful for a functional democracy if any and as
harmful in short terms as deadly and anti-freedom in long terms for the
sustainability of a free nation. Recently, this author (Pakistan:
Emerging Democracy or Hall of Shame.” The Cyrano’s Journal Today, USA: 9/04/2014), offered the following remedial
strategy to deal with the current crisis in Pakistan:
The nation’s capital is under
siege for over two weeks. People want political change and justice to their
grievances that is nowhere to be seen. The demonstrators are not hired
agitators but real people standing for hard core moral principles and
democratic values. Islamabad
depicts chaos, extreme insecurity and frightening trend of political
mismanagement and failed governance. PM Sharif was already on a life support
system of his own making. Now, the oxygen tank is fast running out of the life
maintaining system. Nawaz Sharif has lost sense of direction and political
maturity to see the mirror and to resign from the powerhouse gained by rigging
the 2013 elections. Undoubtedly, Sharif lives in a matrix of lies. He does not
have the courage to encounter a truthful statement. Informed Pakistani masses
can tell the difference between the truth and a lie…..The
ruling elite and the people live in a conflicting time zone being unable to
understand the meaning and essence of the Pakistan Freedom Movement. Nawaz
Sharif must go. The allegations of election rigging must be investigated. What
is the cure to the current problems? It will complement the interests of the
nation if a new Government of National Unity is formed under a non-partisan-non
political leader of moral and intellectual integrity for a period of two years;
a New Constitution is framed with new public institutions under leadership of
the new generation educated people and then a new election could be meaningful
to transform the ideals of a legitimate functional democracy.
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