In her 1991 book, ‘Waiting for Allah’, Christina Lamb, described the conditions in Pakistan in the following lines:
“Twelve thousand more people will be born in Pakistan this day. Two thousand will be dead within a year. More of them will learn to use a gun than to speak the national language. Only a third will have access to clean drinking water and only 15% will have sewerage. A quarter will go to school. Many will become heroin addicts. This is a country killing its own future.
“It is in this moment, in which the day has not quite decided how it will treat mankind, that Pakistan is trapped. ‘Islam in danger’ was the cry raised to justify the necessity of dividing India and inventing a country for Indian Muslims. Today in their very own homeland Muslims need safeguarding from each other.”
” The needs of the masses will remain ignored because the gulf between the two groups is too wide. It would take a revolutionary to challenge the entrenched power structures. The only other way for these to be dismantled now would be for the country to break up”.
In 33 years since, the only change has been for the worse. Pakistan is a country with mind boggling statistics. It’s the 6th largest army of the world, 6th most populous country in the world, 7th lowest spending on health as %age of GDP, 21st lowest spending on education,13th in terms of least peaceful in global peace index, 41st in the lowest GDP per person,42nd in lowest life expectancy, 11th in biggest household size (6.9 persons), 7th country in the world to develop and test nuclear weapons with world’s 5th largest nuclear stockpile.
It’s a country where out of the total 51.53 million children between the age of five and 16, as many as 22.84mn (44%) are out of school, but it is the 10th largest importer of arms in the world and maintains 4th largest nukes stockpile to defend itself against foreign aggression, which means India. It is country which maintains its reason of existence on India hatred! Its an Islamised society; divided, militant, misogynist, egalitarian, extremist, misguided, deceitful, poor, irrational, religious, illiterate and prone to Cult worship.
Pakistan’s demography is very dangerous, alarming and favours a dangerous charlatan like Imran Khan. 65% is below 30 years of age and 30 per cent is from 15 to 29. Imran project as messiah was created in the last 30 years. You can imagine that 65 per cent of Pakistani were born during this period when the messiah was being built through the full force of media. Millions of deprived youth follow their messiah who is a great salesman of Riasat a Medina dream.
PAKISTAN is a state living with propaganda and blatant lies. Its elite thrive on religious bigotry, extremism, bloated pride on faith, indoctrinated minds, malignant religiosity, narcissism, inferiority complex, sexual perversion, faking piety, lust for power, superstition and ignorance. The state is pretentious, intellectually, morally and financially bankrupt.
The military leadership of Pakistan groomed him as a leader for 22 years. it was about the time Modi ji became the CM of Gujarat. They created the image of a clean man; a saviour of Pakistan; a messiah. A cult leader was created out of the hero as he was. He had all what the military could have wanted; A Punjabi elitist from Chief’s college Lahore, Oxford, Charismata of an aggressive fast bowler, philanthropist, a winner, eloquent in English language, intermingling with the British elite.
They succeeded in crafting the perfect prophet out of a sinner. But still, they have to do all kinds of poll riggings and horse trading to get him to be the PM of Pakistan in 2018. The known malignant narcissist since his cricketing days was brought it as the saviour of Pakistan, the messiah to lead the nation, may be till his life. But, in 3 years and 7 months, the messiah proved to be the nemesis of Pakistan.
He broke all records of bad governance. He made the country bankrupt, morally, ethically and financially. New records of religious bigotry were created. Just imagine how intelligent are the managers of Pakistan.
Imran Khan represents the privileged military establishment and the elite & the millions of misguided, illiterate, deprived, disgruntled & angry yobs who have no future, work, money or education. They want to burn everything out of their anguish, illiteracy, indoctrination and cult worship.
Imran Khan was in power from October 2018 to April 2022. The dream of the creators was shattered in less than 3 years, but using all the propaganda, political engineering, information technology, social media, coercion and suppression, they had created an invincible monster who in the 25 plus years has infected the rank and file of establishment as well. Military establishment created an army of zombies in administration, judiciary, politics using religious sloganeering, Pan-Islamism, Anti India rhetoric, Pro Taliban stance, Islamism etc.
The rest of the political class was made villains who have looted the country and they were made responsible for all the ills of the society be that law and order or economy. This way Sharifs and Zardaris were eliminated from Punjab which is the mainstay of the Army and Pakistan. It was Allah, Army and Imran who could not be doubted. The economy took a nosedive in less than 4 years. The power sharing between the Khan and the Army top brass could not work.
The present mayhem between the pillars of establishment is exacerbated by the infighting between two factions of in the military top generals. Two factions represent US interests vs Chinese (Russian and Saudi) geopolitical interests. The changes in the world power centre moving from the West to the East (India, China, Russia, Iran KSA) is casting its huge shadows.
Imran can be credited with hastening the downfall of the country and bringing out in public the real dirty face of the establishment. Imran Khan is the Frankenstein which turns to evil after being cast out from his “family.” He tried to take revenge of his abandonment.
On May 9th, when the news of his arrest by the accountability court spread, masses in the urban centres were mobilised by his party to attack the symbols of military might; including GHQ Rawalpindi, Corp Commander Lahore residence, military installations, ISI office in Faisalabad, PAF Airbase in Mianwali, Motorway kiosks, metro stations, Radio Pakistan building Peshawar, etc. In the last 6 months, military and judicial establishment gave an air of invincibility to Imran Khan. He was made a larger than life figure. Social media coverage had inflated his popularity balloon to unrealistic size. He was beating the war drums every day by his open criticism on military top brass, who waited for the right time for their ambush.
It was gifted to them by the swelling of streets when the cult followers came out to protest against his arrest in a case registered by the Accountability court. The military had a game plan. They gave the people the freedom to create mayhem without resistance. Crowd has its own brain, as we know. The anger needed a spark and symbols of military installations in urban centres were attacked for 2 days. Then came the calculated putsch. Army has termed May 9, 2023 as a black day in the history of Pakistan.
They are calling it “our 9/11” rightly so as it also has markers of insiders job. But who cares now. Truth is always the first casualty in a war. If passport of a hijackers can be found on the WTC site intact, anything can happen on a 9/11. Around 10,000 arrests have been made in the country. The perpetrators are to be dealt with in military courts and summary trials and Imran Khan has abandoned his followers
It is impossible to clinch power from the jaws of the military in Pakistan. The stakes are very high. Its about controlling resources of the 35th biggest country by land area in the world; more land that UK and France combined. The military’s grip on power in Pakistan is so ironclad that none of the Prime Ministers in Pakistan’s history has been able to complete their term, the 22nd time. A country where 4 Army Generals ruled for more than half of its 75 years.
Pakistan is ruled by a military obsessed with animosity with India, and by a civilian elite that colludes with the junta and steals all what is left. Imran Khan was a member of that elite club. Whosoever is ultimately crowned, peace and prosperity of Pakistan’s 24 million will remain a miserable dream.
Pakistan will never become a democratic country. The root cause of these manifold failures to me is the very artificiality of the state of Pakistan itself. The federating units of Pakistan are being kept united through the coercive powers of Punjabi elite, which is dominant in Army, Judiciary, Administration and Legislature. The Pujabistan aka Pakistan will stay united till its ultimate bankruptcy and civil war. The lava of animosities between ethnic, political, religious & social groups and economic disparities is at the point of eruption. All it needs a moment of madness within the ranks of ruling junta and the whole country would go up in flames.
