In the old days, demonstrations, as a method of instruction, were frequently used during military training classes. Some of these demonstrations had two parts to them. In part one it was shown how NOT to do something, followed by part two, which gave instructions in the right way to do the same thing. For example, if one was taught how to strip open and then assemble a machine gun, part one showed how not to do so. Reasons were then given why the method just followed was wrong. And this was followed by demonstrating the correct way of doing so.
As I look at Pakistan today, I get the bad feeling that they are running part one of a demonstration to emphasize how NOT to run a country. But this feeling turns to horror when it increasingly appears likely that midway through, they have forgotten to turn “part one” off, because part two of the demo i.e how to run the country as it should be run, is not a part of the program!
From the day when Gen Bajwa first blew a whistle to gain our attention and to swear to us that the army had gone politically “neutral”, to this day, this neutrality has been “improved” upon on a daily basis. That things have slipped so disastrously as they have, in less than two years, could only have been possible if extreme dedication had been invested in the process. No other initiative of the establishment has seen such an investment of dedication as the effort to hand the country over to those whose only claim to fame has lain in the robbing of it. And conversely, never has such devotion gone into dismantling and neutering an organization as has gone into destroying the PTI. Of course, one can see in this dedication the sincerity with which the word given to our masters, the Americans, has been sought to be kept. O if only an iota of such dedication had gone just once for the good of Pakistan and its people!
Just one look at how the “playing field is being leveled” to give Pakistan “free and fair” elections, tells the whole story of the increasing “neutrality” that has been bestowed on this process where every last fragment of truth has been shoved where the sun doesn’t shine. Look how the NAB and the Judiciary have been marshaled to dry clean and make acceptable, a family as dirt ridden as that of the Sharifs; then see how like rabid dogs Judges like Amir Farooq, Humayun Dullavar, Abul Hassan Zulqarnain, and a horde of others have been let loose on Imran Khan.
Where is PTI leadership but arrested and thrown in jail, or abducted and kept in places unknown, or in hiding and proclaimed as offenders? Those in jail have been charged with veritable strings of offenses, so that should any of them experience the miracle of a bail, he or she should stay in jail on a “fallback” charge. And those that finally get bail on all charges, are then put away under MPOs. Only those who break and are willing to hurl curses at Imran Khan in a press conference may finally escape incarceration or its threat. Those adamantly unwilling to bend a knee to Napoleonic power must expect a visit to their homes by a berserk police squad who routinely leave their mark by the things they smash during their visit, or the threats they hurl at the ladies and kids of the house, and the insults they leave seared in their memory; in other cases they will gladly abduct a brother or a son of the recalcitrant political worker, or they will shut his business down.
And those from among PTI’s second-tier leadership who consider themselves home and free, and happily repair to ECP officials to submit their papers for the forthcoming elections, are either not allowed to get to the said officials; or they have their papers snatched from their hands by hoodlums posted there for this very purpose, who make away with them; or they may be abducted all over again, sometimes along with their proposers and seconders! Some democracy!
This is the actual scene of the playing field which has been “leveled” so far. The effort of hundreds of judges, tens of hundreds of civil servants, thousands of policemen, and not an inconsiderable number of plain clothesmen {who appear and disappear at will} has gone into the making of this playing field.
This is a disgraceful state of affairs with brazen shamelessness ruling the roost.
It is my sincere and humble appeal to Gen Asim Munir therefore, not to allow his soft spot for democracy to influence his decisions in favour of it. Instead of the democracy he has decided to force on us, {and the path leading up to it} we shall be better off with a plain and simple declaration of Martial Law. At least there will be honesty in such a declaration, and this will be free of the stamp of the monumental hypocrisy of the present course. And most importantly the judiciary, the civil service, and the police will be spared further degradation in serving up a sham and fraudulent democracy which needs a specified result, even before a single vote is cast, to meet the wishes of our masters.
Surely, though oxygen is rare at such great heights, some faint awareness of this taint would be there, and thus also that of the eternal stain it will leave behind!