I paraphrase the US Republicans saying, “If we can’t steal the elections then we will take it by force.”
Does this approach befit the “unity government” currently lording over Pakistan, though it was not a stolen election but a manipulated vote of no-confidence through extremely dubious means on April 9th?
As most citizens wail and agonize over events, the pirates are back to pillage and sow insightful hatred. The anguish and despair that Pakistanis are facing is a gift by morally wretched billionaires who are used to purchasing lawmakers, opportunists, and people within the judiciary.
Tragically, the billionaires have been busy raising a state architecture that will largely serve them. They have already gotten what they wanted and seem to be pushing the country closer to civil war through blasphemy cases against former PM Imran Khan and his colleagues.
Unfortunately, we face a situation that flows from the unholy nexus among state institutions, bureaucracy, politicians, businesses, and media. They all ganged up to stage a parliamentary coup and get us back to “Purana Pakistan” because they seem averse to reform.
Top courts and elite judges trampling the law:
A case in point is the conduct of the Supreme Court, the Islamabad High Court, and the Lahore High Court. Their response and directives to the President and the Speakers of national and provincial parliaments have raised eyebrows. There has been a blatant – at least partial – violation of the rule of law by these honorable institutions as critics see them as having looked at issues with one eye only.
Bribed by foreign powers to unilaterally interfere in the activities and ambits of an elected parliament, the elected PM, and the elected President, their rampant misconduct in overpowering the prerogatives of the Prime Minister and his cabinet was an unprecedented display of judicial jingoism.
A cabinet of convicted criminals:
Around 23 ministers are on bail in multiple criminal cases and placed on the exit control list. PM Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz, the CM both had an accountability court hearing for proven charges against them. They had been tried on charges of money laundering, corruption, assets beyond income, and unable to show sources of income. Both the father and son awaited an indictment for Rs 16 billion, but Shahbaz Sharif was facing an indictment on the day he took oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Simmering authoritarian ambitions:
Pakistan faces a clear existential threat. The ruling cohort has become a neofascist cult of personality, dedicated to the accumulation of raw power for its own sake by dividing the nation using lies, fear, and hatred.
Shahbaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, and the caucus have allegedly aligned themselves to the greater glory of the western powers, especially America. The optics indicate they will turn into fully self-aggrandizing extremists in the coming days. Time is running out to rein in their collection of buffoons and the chair agents from causing irreversible damage to the federation.
Under a meticulously cunning, well-choreographed, and alleged tutelage of the foreign masters and their regional facilitators, they are having an open playing field to officially abuse the national resources to keep the citizens from learning the truth, apart from blocking reform for a better future.
A sadistic plan to outlaw PTI and Imran khan:
The long-term plan is to have a biparty system consisting of only PPP and PMLN, to share the pie by ostracizing any third force. That third force is Imran Khan, who for the first time in Pakistan’s history as a leader, showed the guts to stand up to the US and the west. A mindset not digestible for bigoted and self-centered superpowers that always take the third world’s vassal nations for granted.
The government looks antsy with a clear lack of confidence to follow the rationale in handling the political crisis it created. It resorts to the blackmailing tactics and lodges an FIR of purported blasphemy against Imran Khan on 1st May 2022 for stoking violence through his followers inside Masjid Nabawi. An allegation he had already clarified in his media message for the nation. The government petrified by expected repercussions is resorting to the use of the religion card as a weapon to incite naïve and ignorant citizens into a frivolous but dangerous contest. A sinister development that is alarming.
A country-wide covert operation is underway to harass and arrest the PTI leadership. A special budget has been allocated to appease the venal media houses for vilifying Imran Khan. Reportedly, radical religious outfits were coopted into the anti-Imran campaign.
Will this reinforce Imran Khan’s narrative and gain him more popularity? This might, it seems, but at a very heavy cost to the socio-political landscape. Is there anyone who cares more for the country than for personal agendas? Why add fuel to fire in an already polarized society?
