Is Pakistan in its Terminal State?

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The judiciary: a tool for committing injustices

Mr. Imran Khan – the former Prime Minister and the most popular leader of Pakistan is now arrested and has been put behind the bar in a notorious prison cell in Attock. A district court judge  of Islamabad found him guilty in a Tosha Khana case and gave him 3  years’ imprisonment and five years’s disqualification from politics.  Mr. Imran Khan bought a wrist watch from the treasury called Tosha Khan -which he received as a gift while visiting a foreign country. It was alleged that he sold the gift to a buyer. Imran Khan told the court that he has committed no crime as he bought the watch as per the Tosha Khana rule and sold it as his own purchased property. Even a judge of Islamabad court found the case ingenuine to pursue and dismissed it from the proceedings. But the case was resurrected by another district judge only to use it as a tool to punish Imran Khan.

Now General Asif Muneer -the Chief of Pakistan Army and his cronies find enough reasons to celebrate the judgement. The judgement helped General Asif to put Imran Khan out of politics. The previous two assassination attempts on Imran Khan’s life failed. Imran Khan blamed the Army generals and the ruling elites for the murderous attempt. Now he has no chance to escape any future attempt. Moreover, the generals have their ideological cousins like Abdel Fatah Sisi of Egypt to share his experience in annihilating political opponents. Dr. Mohammad Morsi, the first elected President of Egypt had to die an engineered death in prison. General Asif may take the same formula for Imran Khan.     

It is worth noting that even the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court is helpless to implement his judicial verdict. Recently the Chief Justice and his bench could not execute their ruling for holding a provincial election in the province of Punjab in 90 days. Because, the judgement stood against the agenda of the country’s occupying military rulers. So, the Supreme Court’s ruling survives only in papers. The government executives backed by the Army showed their utter defiance against the Supreme Court verdict. Therefore, they didn’t face any punishment for such ugly contempt of the court.

Does such contempt of the highest judiciary of the country ever happen in a civilised country? By law, all state executives are duty bound to implement the court ruling. Any defiance is a punishable crime. If the executive branch does not comply with the judiciary, the whole judiciary fails. The rule of law then disappears. The state then becomes a jungle. Exactly that has happened in Pakistan. As a result, police can kill anybody without fear of prosecution -as happened in the jungle. After the incident on 9 May, more than 20 people were killed. But not a single killer was brought to face justice. More than 10 thousands workers of Imran Khan’s Tehreek-i-Insaf party are now in jail without any trial.

In Pakistan, the judiciary itself stands hostage to the military mafias. It is in a state of constant abuse to punish the political opponents of the ruling elites. Judges are compelled to follow only the dictates of the armed forces and not the law. Imran Khan’s conviction clearly proves that. Therefore, while the Supreme Court fails to execute its order, a petty district judge of Islamabad succeeds. He could arrest the most popular leader of Pakistan in minutes.

The question arises, if buying gifts from Tosha Khan is a crime, then why are Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Mariam Nawaz and many others not punished for the same crime? Nawaz Sharif, Mariam Nawaz and Asif Zardari took costly bullet-proof BMW and Mercedes cars from Toshakhana. Since they are the coalition partners of the ruling military mafia – they do not face any prosecution. Even General Bajwa and many generals took many foreign gifts. But they do not face any prosecution either. So the judiciary in Pakistan is very selective. It is used as a tool to punish opponents.Those who have power, they are above the law.

The internal enemies

Pakistan doesn’t need any external enemies to destroy the country. The country has enough internal enemies to do the job more effectively. Pakistan was not created by any general or a king; it was created by the Muslim people of the subcontinent by their votes. The people aspired to create an ideological state to practise their Islamic faith. Creating such a state is indeed the highest ibadah in Islam. Every step in making such a state is part of jihad. Those who get killed in making such a state are labelled as shaheed. All successes and failures of the Muslims indeed owe to the success and the failure in making such a Islamic state.

Now, Muslims have millions of mosques and madrasas in the world but that didn’t help them to become a significant World Power. Because, they do not possess a single Islamic civilisational state. Mosques can’t be the substitute of an Islamic state. Absence of an Islamic state is indeed the most important single cause for Muslims’ current failures. Making an Islamic state is in fact the greatest sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Such a state helped Muslims to become the most powerful World Power in the contemporary world and could help raise the best civilisation in the whole human history. The visionary thinkers like Allama Iqbal, a great political leader like Mohammad Ali Jinnah and many Muslims scholars thought of creating such an Islamic state in South Asia – the seat of the largest number of Muslims in the world. So the slogan raised by the Muslim League workers was: “Pakistan ki matlab kiya: La ilaha illallah”.

Islam could effectively motivate and unite the people of different Indian provinces to create Pakistan -the largest Muslim country on the planet in 1947. But any ideology that takes people away from Islam is lethal against such an ideological state. Such toxic ideology breaks its backbone. In fact, ideologies like secularism, communism, nationalism and tribalism already proved that. Unfortunately, the Pakistan Army – because of its creation at the hand of the British colonialists is the most secularised institution in Pakistan. This is why the Army proved to be the most inimical to its Islamic and democratic values. All known icons of the Pakistan Army were recruited by the British only to fight for the British interest. The concept of fighting for Islam, defending democracy and promoting human rights never existed in their job description. So they could easily turn their guns against Islam, democracy and human rights. The Pakistani people are still the worst victims of their own Army. In fact, the largest number of Pakistanis are killed not by any foreign forces, but the Pakistan Army itself. More than 70,000 were killed  by the Army during its war on Islam as the partner of the US Army. Their atrocities in East Pakistan are now a history.

The war on the state of Pakistan and on its people

The war on the state of Pakistan and its people was firstly started by its own Army. It was a long war on people’s democratic rights. General Ayyub Khan killed democracy in 1958 to deprive especially the majority Bengalis of their legitimate role in Pakistan’s politics. He was a proven Bengaliphobic. He even asked his law minister Justice Muneer to incite Bengali leaders to secede from Pakistan. Justice Muneer has mentioned it in his book “Jinnah to Zia”. Ayyub Khan sowed the seed of the destruction of Pakistan by abolishing parliamentary form and introducing presidential form of government. He made a constituency of 160 thousands union council members for Presidential polls: 80 thousands from each province. They were called basic democrats. This way the common people were deprived of taking part in electing the President. Such an imposed parity between the two provinces was itself a big disparity and injustice against the people of East Pakistan. During his 11 years of rule, Ayyub Khan  engineered huge economic and military disparities between East and West Pakistan.

President Ayyub Khan talked a lot about the economic development of his time. But the development he boasted as his achievement didn’t satisfy the people of East Pakistan. Instead, it generated huge mistrust against the ruling politicians of West Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan wanted due democratic share in running the country. The people wanted ownership and esteem, not mere development. But Ayyub Khan effectively blocked that. He united the 4 former western provinces like Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan under the banner of West Pakistan to encounter the majority Bengalis. He also implemented an unjust parity of constituencies between unequal East and West Pakistan. That was his grave misdeed and criminal intention that lethally damaged the integrity of Pakistan. This way General Ayyub indeed succeeded -as per his criminal intention in making a deep political division of Pakistan. Later-on,  power-hungrey Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto played the same game of “idhar ham, udhar tom” to divide the country. After the break-up, he could easily become the ruler of the left-over Pakistan. 

President General Yahiya tried to correct the misdeed of Ayyub by re-installing the former 4 provinces in West Pakistan; but it was too late to undo the harm that has already been done. Because of the break-up in 1971, Pakistan lost its political size and weight in world politics. The Bengali Muslims lost too. Ultimately the Muslim Ummah heavoily lost and the Indians won massively. This is indeed the ugliest failure of the Pakistani politicians. They are still paying the price for that.

President Ayyub Khan and his close cronies didn’t believe in a united Pakistan. Hence he has no concern about the defence of East Pakistan. In fact, he engineered the destruction of united Pakistan by making visible injustices and exploitation against the East Pakistanis. Before him, Pakistan had three Bengali Prime Ministers in 11 years; they were Khawja Nazeemuddin, Mohammad Ali Bogra and Hussain Shaheed Sharawardi. In those days, the Bengali Muslims enjoyed the ownership of Pakistan. In those days, the Bengali Muslim were feeling proud that they are playing a role in the largest Muslim country as well as in the third largest county in the world. But President Ayyub Khan killed such a sense of ownership and belongingness among the Bengali Muslims.

Ayyub Khan was focused more on quick exploitation of resources of East Pakistan. During his rule, disparity between the two wings of Pakistan became utterly visible. In those early days, jute of East Pakistan was the number one foreign currency earner for Pakistan. It used to be called golden fibre. The governmental budgetary expenditure always generates income for the people. So it must be done equally in all provinces and all areas with visible honesty. Otherwise it is a huge crime. Ayyub committed that crime by ignoring development in East Pakistan.

In those CENTO and SEATO years of the cold war, Pakistan received hundreds millions of dollars of USA aid. This money was spent to  construct a brand new world class capital in Islamabad and to build many mega cantonments in West Pakistan. While most people were still living below the poverty line. These were indeed built at the expense of the unity of Pakistan. This was literally the death sentence for Pakistan. This new capital and the mega cantonments couldn’t save Pakistan.

In 1971, about 90 percent of Pak military forces were stationed in West Pakistan. In March, 1971, only one division force of about 14 thousand soldiers were stationed in East Pakistan. Later on in mid-1971, the number was increased to about 45 thousands to face 250 thousand Indian soldiers. So, the defence of East Pakistan was intentionally ignored. Thus, the Army planned and engineered for the break up of united Pakistan. In 1971, the Pakistan Army didn’t fight for the defence of East Pakistan, rather planned for a quick surrender.

Surprisingly, the Pakistan’s non-Bengali intellectuals, politicians and pro-Islamic political leaders not only failed to diagnose such a suicidal process of Pakistan, but also become complicit in the process through criminal silence on injustices done against East Pakistan. Such silence could only enhance mistrust and disappointment in the mind of the East Pakistanis. It helped enormously to make the job of the embedded enemies easier.

Now it is a history that a secular army can never be a protector of an Islamic country. Pakistan bitterly proved that. In this regard, the leaders of Islamic revolution in Iran showed their sagacity. They correctly understood the danger of a secular army. So they raised a Islamic revolutionary guard force from day one of the revolution. So the secular enemies could not do the harm.

The land of injustices

Hazrat Ali (r.) has rightly mentioned that a country under a kuffar regime can survive if justice is practised; but a Muslim country will face destruction if injustices become the rule. By being defeated and divided, Pakistan proved that. Human history repeatedly proved that injustices, exploitation and absence of the rule of law make it impossible to have peaceful co-existence even among siblings of the same parents -leave alone the people of different ethnicities, languages and faiths. This is why justice, the rule of law and equality are indispensable for unity and integrity of a country. Unfortunately, such things do not exist in Pakistan. Rather, utter injustices have become an overwhelming norm in this country created in the name of Islam.

Pakistan is now under the full capture of the secularists, tribalists and nationalists. Only Imran Khan has a pan-Islamic cum pan-Pakistani identity. His politics is not limited by provincial boundaries. But he is now put in jail and removed from politics. Such a step can only appease the enemies of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army, Nawaz Sharif of Muslim League, Asif Zardari of People’s Party and Maulana Fazlur Rahman of Jamiat-e-Ulama do not possess any pan-Islamic or pan-Pakistan identity. They are tribal; their politics are based on their provincial and linguistic identity. The Army too, represents a secularist as well as Punjabi capture. So the Army is unfit to uphold Pakistan’s own Islamic and pan-Pakistani identity.

An ideological state can’t survive under such a spell of toxic secularism, tribalism and nationalism. Secularism takes people away from Islam. And, tribalism promotes tribalism. Secularism, tribalism cum nationalism work together to destroy an Islamic state. Because of that,  in 1971, the Bengali secularists and nationalists won and Pakistan heavily lost. But the Pakistan Army has learned nothing from that humiliating defeat. So the Army is heading towards another defeat. If the current state of tribal occupation of Pakistan continues, the Pathan, the Baluch, the Sindhi and Punjabi nationalists will definitely win. And Pakistan will be the ultimate loser. The US strategists have already embarked on a plan for dividing Pakistan into 4 states. Such a plan is already published in the US journals. India, Israel and many other states want the same dismemberment.

In 1970, General Yahiya Khan did everythings to ensure electoral victory for Shaikh Mujib. Because, Mujib promised him a post of constitutional presidency. Mujib was clever. He knew the generals’ greed for power. Hence by giving false promises to General Yahiya, he used the whole Army administration in his favour. Mr. G.W. Chowdhury, General Yahiya Khan’s Federal Minister for Communication cum political adviser writes about such a deal in his book “The Last Days of United Pakistan.” The Governor House under Admiral Ahsan in Dhaka became a tea-party centre for senior Awami League leaders and the governor. Admiral Ahsan’s daughter while studying in a UK university told that to one of her fellow Bengali students. So, the fascist Mujib was given a wide leeway to rout his political opponents on the streets. Those who were in favour of united Pakistan were tortured and even killed by Mujib’s political cadres.

For example, on 18 January 1970, there was a Jama’at-e-Islami meeting in Paltan ground in Dhaka. Maulana Mawdoodi was scheduled to address the meeting. Awami League thugs killed 2 of Jamaat workers and injured hundreds. But none of the killers was arrested and punished. In the same ground Mr. Nurul Amin of Pakistan Democratic Party and Mr. Fazlul Qader Chowdhury of Muslim League was not allowed to hold meetings by Mujib’s cadres. Thus, Awami League could carry out its terrorist campaign against pro-Pakistani forces all over East Pakistan. Thus the election was rigged on the street before the day of election. This time too, the Pakistan Army is on the wrong side. It had made alliance with the secularist, nationalists and tribalist forces -the known ideological incompatibles of Pakistan.

The terminal state and the issue of palliation

But unfortunately, the Pakistan Army generals -being heavily intoxicated with intense greed for more power and more money are steadily driving the country down the same route. The Pakistan Army never had any cure for Pakistan; it could only expedite the speed of its debacle -as it did in 1971. Recently, the Army showed its intention to attack the Taliban to protect its own forces on Pakistani soil. Recently, Mr. Bilwal Zardari -the young and inexperienced Foreign Minister of Pakistan also declared the same intention. As if, the Pakistan Army is stronger than the British, the Soviet and the US Armies!

The arrogant Pakistani generals must take history lessons -especially on Afghanistan. All those armies of the Super Powers were defeated in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Army couldn’t defend its own border in the past, how can it dare invade a country like Afghanistan? That will be their own graveyard. These greedy generals are real the spoiler of the country. They could excel only in real estate development and never in any war. They ruled for 30 years; but could lead the county only from disaster to disaster. Those who have an iota of understanding of the pathology can easily recognise that Pakistan is truly passing through its terminal state. Its rulers are doing nothing but have turned international beggars only for palliation in the current state of ill health. 14/08/2022