The Pakistan Elections
The Pakistan elections scheduled to be held on February 8th, 2024, are fast becoming a farce. Some reports from Islamabad suggest that the elections may not go ahead. It’s an open farce for the world to see. It’s so obvious that any nation cognisant of its honour would feel ashamed and perplexed with trepidations but not so the Pakistani deep state. Nawaz Sharif, a former Prime Minister and reputed to be one of the most corrupt politicians, who has been disqualified from standing in elections by the country’s supreme court has been allegedly brought back from exile amid fears that he has been given the blessing by the military and will “win” elections outright. The speed with which his ‘crimes’ have been forgiven and receives protocol wherever he goes casts doubt on the validity of the elections. “It would be better,” analysts and politicians say, “to simply appoint Nawaz as the Prime Minister instead of spending billions on a farcical election.”
The caretaker government, which has now passed its sell by date according to the 130 days limitations imposed by the constitution; is viewed as partisan, vehemently opposed to Imran Khan and PTI. The caretaker Prime minister has denied allegations of his government’s involvement in the rejections of nomination papers submitted by PTI candidates. From the statements that he has made against PTI and Khan the allegations seem credible.
According to public opinion, Mr Sharif appears to be the most unpopular leader in Pakistan. “How can anyone living abroad and having massive property abroad can claim to have moral authority to govern Pakistan?” I have heard many such comments from potential voters. Imran Khan came across as the most popular leader but is currently in prison, widely believed to be on trumped up charges. He has hundreds of cases listed against him which in themselves point to an insidious conspiracy to keep him out of elections. Zardari, another politician said to be corrupt, and head of Pakistan Peoples’ Party is complaining of lack of level playing field in the elections. Ironically PMLN leadership is also claiming that they don’t have level playing field in the election even though the army generals have reverted the country to a two-party system and have annihilated the most popular political party, PTI, to a considerable extent. Senior PTI leadership was arrested on trumped up terrorism charges and then released when they resigned from PTI. PLMN leader, Mr Sharif, defied Court and did not return from the so-called platelets gate order untilafter 4 years, but still received an unprecedented level of welcome and VIP treatment. Other parties view this with trepidations and claim that Mr Nawaz Sharif is the establishment’s ladla and will be crowned on 8 February. The PPP’s narrative is that the country’s powerful military establishment has already selected Nawaz Sharif to be the next Prime Minister, notwithstanding the due election process.
The Pakistan military or its’ intelligence wing, the ISI, has been credited with interference in the electoral process since the military coup of Gen. Ayoub Khan. There have been several martial laws in the country with dire consequences, including the loss of Eastern wing of the country, East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. It’s a fact that the Bengalis like Suhrawardy, Bahshani and many others, aided Jinnah in the creation of Pakistan and have been loyal to Pakistan but not so some generals. General Ayub Khan, an army dictator is reputed to have asked the veteran politician Wali Khan, now deceased, to help him in “getting rid of the Bengalis.” This shows that some Generals have not been loyal to the newly born nation and set it on a path of self-destruction, culminating in the creation of Bangladesh and surrender of thousands of troops.
Unfortunately, it appears that some Generals and the politicians have not learned from their sordid, egotistical errors and continue the old Machiavellian status quo leading to the erosion of civil liberties and control of the press and media resulting in killing of a well-known journalist, a Mr Arshad Sharif. A commission setup to investigate the murder of the journalist in Kenya seems impotent to solve the heinous crime. Continuation of the mafia style politics may result in the creation of the republic of Baluchistan and republic of Sindh with KPK annexed by Afghanistan and Punjab and Kashmir going to India. Pakistan needs true democracy, where rule of law prevails and civil rights are respected; the state diligently acquiesces to the constitution, where justice is not only done but seen to be done, and fair and free elections are held without fear or favour.
The caretaker prime minister talks of respecting the institutions and running Pakistan in accordance with the constitution, yet his own government is now unconstitutional as it has passed the sell by date laid down in the constitution. The provincial caretaker governments are out of date too. Many Pakistanis are held in prison without trial. Trumped up charges are never investigated. Police is one of the most corrupt institutions in existence. Between October 10th and December 4th, 2023, I was stopped around ten times in a rental car asking for papers. Upon production of the papers, I was told that they were not ‘genuine’. The papers were in order. They made several excuses just to extract money. I refused to pay and after making me wait for half an hour they let me go. Many people pay up just to get rid of them and avoid physical assaults. Imran Khan and his party are facing unprecedented injustice following the exposure of the institutions and the army of wrongdoing, especially after so-called May 9th events. Sane people in Pakistan and abroad do not believe the PDM’s version of events when the PTI leadership is clearly seen to be warning the crowd not to enter the military installations. Some sinister elements were seen beckoning the crowd towards the commander’s house and yet they have not even been arrested. More disconcerting is the fact that the military installations were not protected. Videos show some windows broken and fire raging even before the crowd entered the house. A BBC article also sheds doubt on the PDM version of events.
There are some serious mistakes being made and have been made since 1947 by Pakistani leadership, both military and civilian. But Imran Khan’s ‘mistake’ of visiting Russia just before the Ukraine war cost him his premiership. Many analysts believe, he was setup by the military, especially by Gen. Bajwa as at that time Mr Khan was not listening to the military and their “understanding” had changed to a disastrous misunderstanding. Some analysts believe the military wasn’t in favour of holding OIC meetings in Pakistan and so getting Muslim leaders to sit together was Mr Khan’s another big mistake. Some hostile countries around the world don’t want to see Muslim leaders getting together. They fear political Islam. Caliphate is a no-go area. If 58 Muslim countries get together to form a political and/or economic alliance, then it can be a force to reckon with. Bhutto tried it and paid with his life. The world knows he was hanged unjustly. It’s widely believed to be a combined military and judicial murder at the behest of foreign powers. Ironically, when the army general in power at the time grew out of his shoe size, he was also blown to smithereens.
Trying to get Muslim countries together was Mr Khan’s last ‘mistake’. Hostility from some countries towards Pakistan’s nuclear capability is such that they don’t want to see Muslim countries getting together, especially with a visionary leadership in Pakistan at the helm. The Army’s control over Pakistan is such that, Gen. Bajwa was able to execute an unbelievable task of forging an alliance between 14 parties who were not only considered corrupt but each other’s arch enemies, to oust Mr Khan from power and imprison him on trumped up charges. Tosha khana case, cipher case, terrorism case and what not are all fictitious in my opinion and bear no resemblance to reality. Mr Khan did make some very serious mistakes, like boycotting the national assembly and dissolving the provisional assemblies of the Punjab and KPK provinces. The question is: did he receive advice? If so from whom? And which senior colleagues of his advised him to take such damaging actions? It is said that these actions showed that he lacked political expertise in mouk mukka politics. Most Pakistani politicians are experts in mouk mukka politics; after 26 years in politics Mr Khan would’ve seen such politics in action, i.e. Gen. Musharaf’s NRO. We all know Mr Khan isn’t an enthusiast of NROs or mouk mukka politics- this just means: “you keep your loot and I keep my loot and we start again.” Mr Khan maybe anything but he’s not corrupt and would not be interested in mouk mukka politics.
Apart from the military and judiciary, the other most dangerous institute that is head over heal opposed to Mr Khan and his PTI party is the election commission under the current chief election commissioner, Dr. Raja, who is considered to be PMLN’s inside man. Whether true or not I personally do not know. But what is clear is that the election commission is hell bent on denying Mr Khan and his party a level playing field in the forthcoming general election. Excuses about PTI’s internal elections -ignoring other parties’ elections. Removing election symbol, the cricket bat, returning Officers rejecting over 70% of nomination papers presented by PTI are some of the tricks of the EC that they used against PTI. It is also feared that the PTI’s already weak leadership (with Khan in prison and others like murad saeed, Swati and afreedi in hiding) has been infiltrated by the establishment’s and opposition parties’ agents who are further weakening the party internally, mainly by giving wrong advice and information to Mr Khan and adopting non-visionary candidates to fight the elections, thus alienating the visionary party workers.
From the information currently available, it can be concluded that after 8 February, Pakistan again will be in the clutches of non-visionary leadership and will sink further economically and morally with further erosion of civil liberties and Kashmir issue will suffer because of the same old setup. There will be no chance of any meaningful legislation being enacted for the foreseeable future other then to change the constitution and enact laws to benefit the corrupt to maintain the status quo. One thing is certain: in my humble opinion, there will be no progress in Pakistan’s economy or infrastructure for the foreseeable future. Pakistan will continue to serve the interests of foreign powers as whatever is happening in the country and why it is happening is an open secret. Last but not least, my country, Jammu and Kashmir, and its long-suffering inhabitants will continue to suffer at the hands of short-sighted and uncaring Pakistani rulers and their counterparts, the Indian fascists. I pray that Allah SWT grants freedom to oppressed Kashmiris and Pakistanis and removes injustice and tyranny from world and restores Justice, rule of law and civil liberties. Ameen.
This article is an opinion and a political comment on the current affairs. ©2024. Sufi A Aziz. Email: admin@aziz4justice.co.uk www.aziz4justice.co.uk