About 2350 years ago, the martial pride of Alexander the Great was expected to be tested by the defenders of the Sogdian Rock, the northernmost fortress of Bactria. But the Macedonian subdued it by a masterly stratagem. Yet he had been taken to the limits during his trial by arms against the Bactrians. In order to ensure that no revolt would ensue as soon as he turned his back on this new addition to his empire, he thought it wise to further cement his alliance with Oxyartes, the Bactrian Chief, by his marriage to the latter’s daughter Roxane. Some historians are of the view that this was also in part due to love at first sight.
During the relative peace his nuptials allowed him, Alexander received an emissary from Raja Ambhi of Taxila. The message of the Raja was music to the land-hungry king, i.e. that he should hurry over to India so that they could join forces to overcome Porus, the Raja of Jehlum.
Alexander lost little time doing this. In Indian history, this is the first recorded incident of a local Indian ruler making an alliance of betrayal with a foreign adventurer to undermine a consanguine adversary. But from then onwards, such betrayals have been a defining characteristic of our history. During the following centuries, the instances of ambitions of foreign adventurers being thwarted rather than incited were few and far between. The period of Alauddin Khilji to Balban when all such forays into India were beaten back was one such period, as was Ghauri’s first attempt to establish himself in India.
Between these events, Indian history is a litany of betrayals till it fell to the newly established Sikh power in Punjab to wean the Afghans off their addiction to raiding north India at will. But then Ranjit Singh died in 1839, as a result of too much wine being poured into too small a body, and the First Sikh War against the British followed in 1845. The latter made an offer to generals Tej Singh and Lal Singh, both successive chiefs of the Khalsa army which neither could resist. Both obliged and ensured the defeat of their commands, and the short period of local pride in the strength of their arms came to an inglorious end. This was so much like generals Bajwa and Asim Munir, two successive chiefs of our own army, selling out the state!
This latest sell out brought in its wake something unique in our history. These were the first faint stirrings of desire for freedom, becoming ever louder and deeper, among the broadest section of the people who today constitute the population of Pakistan. This has about it the seeds of a genuine movement and whether one likes Imran Khan or not, it has to be conceded that he is most responsible for engendering the spirit driving it. The charge against this movement is being led by a Hafiz who has either learnt by rote the wrong book, or has a very flimsy understanding of it. Defined by shamelessness mendacity and deception, he and the gang he leads is one that has drawn most of its nourishment from the crimes it has committed at the cost of the common Pakistani. Their aim has been to keep their fangs sunk deep in the innards of Pakistan and to draw all sustenance from it for the length of their breathing years, leaving the state a carcass to wither away.
To arrogate to themselves the strength to do so, they planned to bring about a raft of constitutional changes. This was to be done through a bastardized parliament, which has no legitimacy, born as it is of elections marred by egregious daylight rigging more shameless than any in recent memory. This parliament was to be assisted by a prostituted executive, who was busy bribing or abducting members of the ill-born legislature to complete their numbers to push through the required changes in the constitution. Every illegitimate act must seem to be performed legitimately and whatever else happens, the numbers of the illegitimates must add up!
The day when the world at large was celebrating Democracy Day, this gang was applying might and main to bury any hope of democracy and rule of law in Pakistan, and the fate of this contest lay with Maulana Fazal ur Rehman to decide. Not having done anything honest in his life, he was having considerable difficulty trying to appear to be doing so. This will be decided by the internal battle between his conscience, the existence of which has remained largely a secret, and his oversized ambition reflected by his girth. Having manfully resisted the creation of Pakistan, seventy-seven years later his party finds itself in a position to cast the most crucial vote towards the dismantling of the state.
Asim Munir is determined to keep Pakistan and its two hundred and fifty million people enslaved and for them to keep doing the bidding of his whims. He wants to ensure that their dream of freedom is made impossible for them. If he was better advised, someone close to him would have him recall the year 610 C.E. in Mecca, when Hazrat Ali was just eleven years old. With him were Haris, Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Khadija, and the Holy Prophet [PBUH]. Only these five people believed at that time that the sacred names of Allah and of Islam would reach and reverberate in every corner of the earth. This seemed obviously impossible, and the Quraish were determined to keep it so. In less than fifty years though, both these sacred names had already reached more than half the known world. So much for ensured impossibilities!
It would be good for Asim Munir to tone down his godhood and slink away into the lair he has emerged from, while he still has the time. It is obvious to all that of his many commitments, none exists to serve the cause of Pakistan, which can now be served only by his departure. And God knows we will have a tough enough time clearing the land of his offensive odour even years after he has left.
Email: saeedakhtarmalik85@gmail.com
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