As can be seen on twitter and other social media, many Pakistanis, including those overseas, are demanding restoration of democracy, free parliamentary elections ( the one held in February 2024 was clearly rigged ) and release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan from jail, where he has been incarcerated since August 2023, reportedly in inhuman conditions
In this connection, I would like Pakistanis to consider this :
The test of every political act is one, and only one : does it raise the standard of living of the common people ? Does it give them better lives ?
From that standpoint, how is it relevant whether the 2024 elections was rigged or not, and whether Imran Khan is in jail or free ? If the elections had not been rigged, in all probability the PTI would have secured a large majority of seats, and Imran Khan would have become the Prime Minister again. But how would that have mattered to the common man in Pakistan ? Massive poverty, massive unemployment, massive malnutrition, and massive lack of proper healthcare and good education for the Pakistani masses would have remained as before. In fact the Pakistan economy got worse under Imran Khan’s premiership and prices of food and other essential commodities skyrocketed. He had to rush to the IMF for huge loans, although he had said earlier that he would rather die than do this. All he did when he was in office was to talk of Madine ki Riyasat and other such reactionary nonsense, and put opposition leaders in jail.
He had mounted his political campaign on the plank of integrity in public life. But in the 2018 parliamentary elections he gave PTI tickets to a large number of dubious ‘electables’ ( i.e. corrupt sugar barons etc ) who were elected and became MPs. He never took any action against them, knowing that if he did, they would withdraw support to his government, which would then fall.
The ordinary Pakistani has no time for politics. He is busy the whole day struggling to earn his bread and feed his family. So how does it matter to him whether there is army rule or civilian rule in Pakistan, or whether Imran Khan is free or not ?
When the PMLN, PPP, or PTI were in power, was massive poverty, massive unemployment, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food etc,, lack of proper healthcare or good education, etc abolished or reduced in Pakistan ? Not at all.
And when there is defacto army rule in Pakistan ( as there is presently ) is it being abolished or reduced ?
The answer is again no.
I am not a blind supporter of freedom and democracy, as if they are holy cows. They can only be a means to an end, and are not ends in themselves. The end must be raising the standard of living of the people, and giving them better lives. If freedom and democracy helps attaining that end, they are good things, but not otherwise.
Mustafa Kemal was an army general in Turkey who in the 1920s overthrew the corrupt decadent Sultan and Khalifa, who had kept Turkey backward and feudal. He swiftly modernised Turkey, abolishing sharia, burqa etc, suppressing the religious clerics, and compelling parents to send their girls to school. He did not do this by democratic methods but at the point of the gun ( since he was an army general ). If he had tried to do it by democratic methods he would have failed, because the vast majority of Turks at that time were conservative and feudal minded, and would have strongly opposed modernization.
Similarly, I would support army rule in Pakistan if it led to modernization of the country, and abolition or reduction of poverty, unemployment, etc in Pakistan. But the truth is that the Pakistani army leaders are least interested in doing so, and are only interested in leading comfortable lives, amassing wealth, and sucking the people’s blood, like vampires
https://writerscafeteria.com/the-pakistani-vampire
https://indicanews.com/the-pakistani-vampire/
On the other hand, the civilian rulers like former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, etc behaved similarly, and looted the country ( Benazir’s husband Asif Zardari was known as Mr 10% ).
https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2019/12/28/opinion-benazir-bhutto-was-no-saint-or-benevolent-angel.html
https://nayadaur.tv/29-Dec-2019/here-s-why-raza-rumi-s-assessment-of-benazir-bhutto-is-fatuous
Revelations in the Panama Papers showed that former Nawaz Sharif and his family owned numerous luxurious flats in London, apart from other assets in UK and other foreign countries
.https://indianexpress.com/article/world/panama-papers-nawaz-sharifs-childrens-offshore-firms-own-6-homes-in-london-4772217/
And as regards Imran Khan, the truth about him is in this article. He has really no clue as to how to solve the economic woes of Pakistan.
https://indicanews.com/the-truth-about-imran-khan/
From the point of view of the common man in Pakistan, the difference between civilian rule and army rule is the difference between tweedledum and tweedledee, i.e. no difference at all.
So all this hue and cry about restoration of democracy and the demand for release of Imran Khan reminds one of Shakespeare’s words in Macbeth ” It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing ”
