The writer is an analyst and commentator.
Just looking at the tone and tenor of the political discourse in our country, one gets the sense that India is a very lucky ducky. It isn’t every day that one is gifted an adversary too busy eating itself to take advantage of an existential weakness.
Whilst innocent Kashmiris in Srinagar and across the valley suffer the indignity of an occupation whose brutality blows hot and cold, India’s strategic community must LOL at the circus that Pakistan’s prime minister, army leadership, cabinet and political opposition are presiding over. Any fears India may have had of having Pakistan get in the way of its regional and global ambitions have been swiftly put to bed over the last month, as Pakistan has taken every opportunity to come to blows with itself. The sights and sounds of our latest political crisis have been among the ugliest in memory. Let us count the ways.
First, a top secret national security meeting’s details were provided to one of our finest journalists. This breach of confidentiality is largely said to have come from the elected leadership – which is funny, because all the benefits have flowed in the other direction. What was unfunny was the placement of Cyril Almeida on the Exit Control List, the show of bravado by the interior minister, the multiple press releases from the PM’s office, the desperation of the ISPR and the military leadership to seek accountability and the way Parvaiz Rasheed was thrown under the bus.
A story that should have served as an example of the maturity of Pakistan’s political system and its seriousness in addressing major policy lapses has been converted into evidence for Pakistan’s enemy to use as Exhibit A in the case against Pakistan as a serious country. Bravo, all.
Second, over 60 police cadets were murdered mercilessly in Quetta. Both the prime minister and the army chief showed up for the funeral, which is more than what can be said for this country’s city-centric, fact-free, and yuppie-worshipping news media. The blood stains have not yet dried on Sariab Road, but already the security and intelligence lapse in Quetta, the epic failure of governance in Quetta, and the grieving mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in Quetta and across Balochistan are forgotten. The word ‘beghairat’ is thrown around a lot in Pakistan, but rarely has it fit our national character better than in the aftermath of Quetta.
The children of poor Pakistanis are fed to the slaughter of terrorists now with such disregard that one is forced to look into the claims of left-leaning ethnic nationalists, and ask ourselves how we would feel, if we belonged to the marginalised communities that they claim to represent. Handing the lives of young police cadets to the enemy is bad enough, but handing the narrative to those that watch us suffer with glee? Bravo, all.
Third, the legacy of an army chief that has no peer in memory, is being actively tarnished on a daily basis. In terms of clarity and aggressiveness, the younger brother of Nishan-e-Haider Shabbir Sharif has done nothing but take back Pakistan from the clutches of the TTP. There have been many mischievous attempts to make the story of his time as the de facto field marshal of the Pakistan Army about him. Almost no one believes that he himself either sought or seeks anything more than the prayers and thanks of a nation forever indebted to his military acumen, his bravery and his patriotism. Yet here we are, four weeks from bidding him adieu and the story is, allegedly, that the military has helped stoke the political confrontation between the prime minister and Imran Khan.
A country that cannot create and sustain heroes has no chance of winning wars, either at home or abroad. Those who have tried to make the last few weeks of General Raheel Sharif’s time as COAS controversial have helped rob Pakistani memory of an unblemished hero. They exist both in our military and our civilian apparatus, and their handiwork is the misfortune of Pakistan. Questions about an extension have likely never existed for the chief. He will retire with great honour at the end of November. The way a heroic general should. But for contaminating his last few weeks? Bravo, all.
Fourth, the obduracy of the prime minister in mishandling the Panama Papers issue from day one – and thereby smothering his government with the toxin of opacity. The questions that the leaks from Mossack Fonseca’s files have raised are not trivial. They go to the heart of the most basic and fundamental principles of fiduciary responsibility in executive offices in a democracy. In short, no country can afford to have its top leaders and their families embroiled in financial opacity and expect to enjoy sustained sovereignty.
Imran Khan might be wrong about a million things, but he is right to be apoplectic about the contempt with which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has brushed aside the Panama Papers – as if an electoral mandate and robust performance in building infrastructure makes him immune to the laws of the land, the laws of nature, and the laws of democratic governance in the 21st century. Rather than serving as a check on the personalised nature of governance under PM Sharif, his PML-N colleagues have slavishly played along. Bravo, all.
Fifth, the disgraceful info-ops of mudslinging as political currency. It is beyond tragic that some of the most robust information operations Pakistan has ever conducted have happened to be against its own. And it isn’t all one-sided. Sure, there are the retired former soldiers, and airmen that grace our televisions, as they indulge in complex narrative construction and propagation against an elected prime minister. There are also the incorrigible elected civilians who so often seek to make a point by responding to the twitchy umpire’s fingers with various digital stimuli of their own. This was not always the case. There was a time that the capacity for political manipulation by the military was irresistible.
Advocates of civilian supremacy see the evolution of assertive elected leaders as a step forward – but those less convinced of a patient approach to nation-building, and democracy aren’t wrong to be sceptical. Just because civilians now enjoy a less uneven playing field in the arena of constructing narratives about the military and its engagement in politics doesn’t necessarily mean Pakistan is better off. How many extra billions have been added to the GDP as a result of pointed speeches by the likes of Raza Rabbani and Parvez Rasheed? How many ‘baaghi’ speeches does it take to build highways, or train science teachers, or arrest mobile phone snatchers? How do citations of Faiz and Jalib help free the bonded labourers of this country from the clutches of oppressive capitalists?
Of course, we should reserve our most searing contempt for the peddlers of the ‘Modi ka yaar’ narrative that has been used to tarnish the prime minister. In the midst of a serious flare up with India, only the vilest minds can conceive that Pakistan’s national interest is served by accusing the prime minister of being in league with a vast ‘Indo-Israeli lobby’ to damage Pakistan. Smearing elected leaders may be a standard operating procedure in this country, but it doesn’t make it okay. Bravo, all.
Finally, and perhaps the ugliest of all the violations of public trust that have simultaneously rocked Pakistan for the last several weeks is the cynical and calculated attempt to dislocate an elected government through the manufacturing of an irresistible crisis. Imran Khan has successfully mobilised a meaningful and important section of Pakistani opinion against the callous and self-centred governance approach of the traditional power elite of our politics. In this way, he is channelling a relatively pure and pristine sentiment. Yet, the purpose for which he is channelling and the methods he has consistently employed reflect a base, cynical and cancerous approach more suited to the snivelling idiot politicians of the 1990s than to the self-proclaimed voice of Pakistan’s youth.
Khan is unapologetically libellous when he speaks of journalists whose reporting he does not like. He consistently fabricates or manufactures narratives of the PTI’s victimhood, and worst of all, he deliberately chooses times, themes and tones that mesh with the military’s alleged attempts to upend civilian leaders. His conduct and approach represents a threat to the country’s hard-won democratic order.
This order is likely to survive the latest instability. Imran Khan’s popularity, the prime minister’s Panama Papers-stained political empire, and the army’s dominant (but illegitimate) role in shaping the national interest, will all survive this instability too. One thing, however, will outlive all of them. The stench of national failure and the disgraceful collective conduct of those responsible for Pakistan’s well-being. No matter what happens on November 2, our discourse will reek of this stench for a long, long time to come. Bravo, all. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/161435-Serving-Pakistan
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