The Occupied Pakistan and its Failed People

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The Army occupation

Pakistan is under the brutal occupation of its own Army. The occupation started in 1958 and continues in its overt and covert forms. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif came to power only as the protegee of the Army Generals like Ayub Khan and Ziaul Haque. The Army has repeatedly shown its incompatibility against democracy, justice, and basic human rights. Every attempt of civilised rule in Pakistan was dismantled by the Army. The Army has developed a brutal khaki fascism and gave birth to Punjabi tribalism.

Such tribalism stands fatally vitriolic to the core concept of Pan-Islamism -the ideology that united Muslims of different provinces of India to create Pakistan. Since such moral disease is infectious, it gave birth to other brands of tribalism in other provinces. As a result, Pakistan stands bitterly fractured along the ethnic and linguistic lines.

The Pakistan Army failed to defend its border against its arch enemy like India in 1948, 1965 and 1971. The part of Kashmir and Gilgit that are now the parts of Pakistan were not won by the Pakistan Army but by the local Islamist mujahids. Such Islamists are now called terrorists by the ruling elites of Pakistan.  In fact, in 1948, Pakistan Army hesitated to engage in a war against India to liberate the whole Kashmir. In those crucial days, the head of the Pakistan Army was a British. Thus, it missed the golden opportunity of liberating Kashmir. The Pakistan Army has shown its success only in occupying and persecuting the defenceless people of Pakistan.

In Pakistan, only guns and canons decide the politics. Now these guns are again seen on the streets. Scores of people have already been killed in recent days. More than 7 thousand people are now in prison. So, the Pakistan Army is again in a war on its own people. However, in this war on people, the Army is not alone. They have made a coalition with the most corrupt politicians of the country. Like foreign forces, they are now raiding on people’s homes. Even women are being tortured and abused. Since they have guns in their hands, they can do whatever they like. They enjoy full impunity.

The People’s enemy

The Army has shown that it has no love for a civilian-made constitution that gives kingmaking powers to the common people. This is why General Ayub Khan threw out1956 constitution to the garbage and paved the way for the constitution crisis that dismembered Pakistan in 1971. Now, the country is not ruled by any constitution, but by the wishes of the Generals. The Supreme Court ruled that provincial elections should be held on 14 May in Punjab to comply with the constitutional requirement. But the ruling clique installed by the Army defied the Supreme Court verdict and survives after the blatant contempt of the court. As a result, the province of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa –almost two-third of Pakistan are now ruled by the unelected cronies of the Army. This is indeed an Army occupation.

The Army repeatedly showed its deep distaste against the independent judiciary. Hence, an independent judiciary no longer survives in Pakistan. The Supreme Court judges stands hostage to the Army. In the past, the Supreme Court judges had no option but to legitimise every Army occupation. So, General Ayub, General Zia and Musharraf didn’t face any punishment for their criminal acts of robbery in the republic. They were above law.

The Supreme Court judges also showed their real colour. They are ready to swallow every humiliation and abuse. Their only concern is to receive a fat salary. The contempt of the court applies only to the powerless civilian; the Army and its ruling cronies are immune to it. So, the leaders of the ruling clique could freely ridicule and abuse the judges standing in front of the Supreme Court. And they go unpunished.

 The rule of the mercenaries

 Pakistan has utterly failed to pakistanise its Army. On 14 August 1947, all the members of the Pakistan Army happened to be the recruits of the British kuffars. They were recruited and trained to serve and protect the imperialist interest of the British raj -not only in South Asia but also in the Middle East. In 1917, these mercenaries went to Iraq and Palestine to fight against the Khalifa and establish British rule in the Middle East. General Ayub Khan, General Yahya Khan, General Tikka Khan, General Niazi, General Yakub and other big icons of the Pakistan Army were among those mercenaries. So, what an irony that Islamic State of Pakistan was ruled by those mercenaries who were raised and trained by the kuffar. Indeed, most of the failures of Pakistan -especially its dismemberment in 1971 owe to these mercenaries of the kuffar.

In fact, on 14 August1947, the Pakistan Army was entirely created by British trained mercenaries. Since then, the Army continued to work as the most secularized institution in Pakistan. The cantonments worked as the protected islands of western secularized culture -totally alien to the culture of the common people. The people were forced to pay for their wine till the mid-seventies.  Still now, the poor people of Pakistan bear the expenses for building luxurious residential enclaves in most expensive areas of the capital cities. This is total and brutal coercion by the Army. In no other civilised country in the world, people are forced to pay such heavily for the luxuries of their own Army.

Failures of the people

But the people of Pakistan too have their own failures. The Pakistan Army is not stronger than the US Army or the former Soviet Army. But 240 million people of Pakistan have proven to be weaker than 30 million Afghans. Here lies the real crux of Pakistan’s problem. Most of the Pakistani people play a cowardice role. They stay out of politics -the highest ibada in Islam. Politics is the only tool to clean up societies. It is the only tool to enjoin justice and to eradicate the evil forces. Muslims have been labelled as the best ummah on the planet by Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala only for this greatest ibada -as revealed in sura Al-Imran verse 110.

This is why Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) engaged in politics and stayed as Head of the State for 10 years. More than half of the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) sacrificed their life for that cause. As a result, Muslims could emerge as the number one World Power in the contemporary world.  But this greatest sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) doesn’t survive in most people’s lives in Pakistan. The same is true for other Muslims, too. This is sheer cowardice. And the cowards always pay the penalty by being ruled and persecuted by the worst criminals. Pakistan is an exact showcase of that. Only the brave people deserve freedom, honour, and human rights; cowards are not fit for that. 20/05/2023