Pakistan:  Imran Khan a Victim of Hope for the Future

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD

Pakistan Looks for a Navigational Change

Pakistan’s trajectory of current affairs unfolds multiple crises of critical nature for its freedom, security and future-making.  Wherever the military comes into power, it destroys the culture of positive thinking, morals and hope for change.  Imran Khan alleges an assassination attempt by the current “imported regime of the few” on his life while leading a Freedom March to Islamabad. Masses across Pakistan reacted against this evil act of subversion of people’s rights to decide their future in a democratic system. The Generals and their accomplice Sharifs and Bhuttos lack the legitimacy to govern the country. They are part of the problems, not solutions. Most have criminal records, no political integrity and honesty and perhaps no other nation will embrace them as political figures. The planned political chaos is intended to drive the nation towards further catastrophic ends and imposition of martial law and coming of an age of great uncertainty and beyond predicting no return to democracy.  All indicators point out to unwarranted intervention by the US-led policy to subdue the rights of people and support a military regime in Pakistan aligned to its foreign policy and anti-China and anti-Russia scenarios.

Most dreadful tragedies have infallibly resulted in victimizing the masses.  Today, the nation is crippled with catastrophic events of floods, insecurity and socio-economic and political exploitation. Pakistani ruling elite and the Generals are not open to reason and accountability. They cannot realize the imperatives of hopes and expectations of a new generation of educated and morally and intellectually competent people. The future belongs to the new generation of educated people, not to the naive and obsolete Generals. They view “power” and “Pakistan” as their property. The authoritarian leaders played with their destiny and future without being questioned. They are the wrong people, with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things. If there was any fair system of accountability, some of the Generals and accomplice politicians could well have faced firing squads for their crimes against the nation. Pakistan has a history of five major military-led coups which ended up in the defeat and loss of East Pakistan. Are the Generals waiting for another mishap of formative history? Please see “British Colonialism and How India and Pakistan Lost Freedom.” Global Research and Uncommon Thought Journal: 1/01/22

Junaid Ahmed and Ben Norton (“Video: Pakistan Coup Regime Bans Imran Khan, Dissidents Killed, as US Eyes China Ties, Israel Normalization” Global Research 10/27/22), try to elaborate on how the US intervention could undermine Pakistan’s national interests. Under a false pretext, Khan was banned to participate in any future national elections. The Election Commission has no legal justification for such an unconstitutional verdict.

Imran Khan, a former cricketer and a former PM is the victim of the established institutionalized political corruption in Pakistan. He made a new beginning of “Tehreek-e-Insafe” PTI (Movement for Justice), a party to create his own space for a moral and intellectually spirited movement for political change. Not so, the challenge comes from the known thugs, indicted criminals and conspirators who had dominated national politics for more than 50 years. To change an ill-informed and sadistic political culture, the Pakistani masses were eagerly looking for a new-age educated person to realize the hope for a peaceful and progressive Pakistan. Imran Khan was abruptly dismissed as the PM by a bogus and unconstitutional assembly secretly arranged by the Generals in alliance with US-paid agents to ensure political chaos and instability. This could serve the US-India Strategic interests to control and manage Pakistan by eliminating its nuclear arsenals and making the nation a slave to the foreign Masters and IMF unpayable debts. This is not what the people of Pakistan are looking for to surrender their freedom, security and sovereignty.  Ironically, Pakistani Generals have a history of selling their national interests and having been paid by the US to fight in Afghanistan and allowed the US to use its bases for military operations. The USAID buys and enslaves people and nations leading to dysfunctional governance of the few.

American foreign policymakers view the Pakistani politicians-Generals as beggars, bootlickers who will perform all kinds of superficial acts to please the Master – the one who calls them an ally when needed but will stab Pakistanis when they become a liability. Disillusioned and disconnected from its roots, Pakistan continues to move forward – not towards planned political change, normalcy and progress – but towards tragic events fomenting planned deaths of the citizenry, destruction of the social, economic and political infrastructures, incapacitated and broken lifelines and ultimately to become a battleground for mindless ethnic and regional divides and national collapse. Andrew Gavin Marshall’s “Imperial Eye on Pakistan- Pakistan in Pieces, Part 1 (Global Research: 5/28/2011: http://www.globalresearch.ca/imperial-eye-on-pakistan/25009), states that “in December of 2000, the CIA released a report of global trends to the year 2015, which stated that by 2015, “The war in Afghanistan is inherently related to the situation in Pakistan. Pakistan will be more fractious, isolated, and dependent on international financial assistance.” It was noted that the US-led war in Afghanistan was ultimately aimed at the denuclearization of Pakistan.

Could Imran Khan Change the Neo-Colonial dominated Political Culture?

Comparatively. Imran Khan had four years of uncorrupted politics. He did not kill anybody nor robbed any banks and was keen to have legal accountability for the stolen wealth and killings by the Sharif brothers, Bhuttos, Zardari and others. But political governance was infested with corrupt figures of the past.  According to the Pakistani media, there are 632 top civil servants with dual nationalities. Khan was unable to devise an Action Plan to reform a highly systematic culture of corruption. He needed people of new age education and intelligence to work out creative strategies for political change. That simply did not happen and he was hurriedly ousted by a political-military conspiracy. Imran Khan has the perception and vision for a new Pakistan but he needs people of a new and educated generation to plan for a new beginning. Khan and his PTI supporter allege the few Generals and Shabaz Sharif were involved in his assassination plan.

Khan’s accusations and experience could help to identify the in-house evil mongers. Analyzing the videos of his attack, it was a well-planned targeted attack on a national leader for political purposes. While political cynicism is endemic, Pakistani masses view Imran Khan with a great deal of optimism and integrity and hope for a new beginning, free of political corruption paving opportunities for sustainable change. If there is an established fair legal system of justice, there should be an independent inquiry into the allegations and those responsible must be held accountable for their heinous crimes. This author has shared a specific remedial plan for the current problems: please view “Pakistan in Search of Freedom and Security”, Uncommon Thought Journal and Global Research: 10/20/22.

Western strategic analysts claim Pakistan to be a ‘failing state’ as it is run by a dubious political-military elite. The current Pakistani leaders exhibit deafening silence to respond to public demands as they have no legitimacy and political integrity. Tyranny is always powerless and transitory. Often when sadistic politicians cannot solve one set of problems, they come up with other naïve ideas to create more critical problems to distract the masses. The assassination attempt on Khan’s life could be a diversion in that context. Pakistan at the outset reflects a dead-ended moral and intellectual political culture. What is the solution to the morally and intellectually sickening political culture of Pakistani politics? Given the obvious failure of the current regime under Shabaz Sharif, the conscientious people and organized political establishments should initiate action to set up a new Government of National Unity replacing Shabaz Sharif with a non-partisan, intelligent and honest leader. It is hard to imagine a non-existent and unrepresentative National Assembly as is to act against Sharif, only to reaffirm its irrelevance and incompetence being a stooge of the rulers and unable to provide a workable democratic option for change – when facts of life warrant a change.  The responsible institutions if any must respond to facilitate change to safeguard the national interests, freedom and integrity of the country. If the Generals and Sharif have any sense of history, reasoning, and accountability, they should immediately announce a date for new national elections and safeguard the country from further destabilization and coming of a dark and unsustainable future.

Dr Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.