Pakistan: Anarchy In Politics – OpEd

There are dozens of countries in the world where there is no political turmoil like in Pakistan. As with the passage of time, former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been increasingly insisting that the reason for the overthrow of his government is American conspiracy or interference. Thousands of his followers are convinced of this. On the other hand, there is no shortage of people who are calling it a baseless accusation. This has been denied by both the United States and Pakistan. PTI government left the conspiracy behind only for political gain, but using such sensitive issues for short-term political gain could be dangerous as it is only further widening the societal divide in the country.

The process of weakening governments and derailing them has been going on for decades. Every effort has been made to weaken and overthrow any third government and to take matters into its own hands by seizing power. Imran Khan was not attacking Islamabad based on any principled position but he is doing all this on the head of a political statement and the statement on which he takes u-turn every day. One day he say that the neutral should remain neutral. While, the echo of his words and the ink of his statement printed in the newspaper do not dry, he starts saying that the institutions have no right to remain neutral. It is very confusing for a true patriot to understand that Khan’s criticism over State institutions/ Establishment for being neutral is beyond understanding, what are his intuition behind pressing prestige institutions/ organizations to cross their constitutional role and indulge them in politics? No only this, he also warned the police and the bureaucracy not to listen to their superiors and not to stop their protests. Not only this, but Imran Khan has also tried to discredit the State institutions with the titles of “Mir Sadiq and Mir Jafar”. The bottom line is that neither a politician of Pakistan nor any State institution of Pakistan can be “Mir Jafar or Mir Sadiq”. May be enough to excite, but he has nothing to do with reality. Allah has blessed Pakistan with a sincere Armed Forces of Pakistan which are not only fully capable of fulfilling every requirement of the defense of the country but are always ready and diligent for it. Pakistan Army officers and soldiers have never shied away from making sacrifices for regional and global peace. However, there are some forces resorted to launch a vicious cycle of vandalism of state institutions of the country by dragging security institutions into dirty politics.

The point is that when Imran Khan goes out to protest on the basis of a statement that has no legal framework, it is a dangerous act, because it means that Imran Khan has every legitimate goal to achieve the objective of overthrowing the government. Was it necessary to announce the Long March on May 25 when the IMF was holding the final round of talks with Pakistan? Did it not send a message to the world that along with the economic downturn in Pakistan, there is also political instability? According to Khan’s critics, they should understand that by spreading factionalism and hatred in society, they are not doing any good for themselves or the country. The most important thing is that whatever statement they are carrying, whether they win or lose, Pakistan will lose. The economic and social condition of the country during the last four and a half years is no longer conducive and the coalition parties and national institutions are well aware of this. 

All stakeholders, including political parties, must come together on a single platform and think first of all about the country and the nation. Matters can be resolved through broad-based dialogue. In many countries, dialogue has been used as a means to end the political turmoil. The same thing happened in South Africa. We too can have a broad-based and independent reconciliation commission so that it is possible to put the country on the path to real development and prosperity by ending the state of confrontation. Political parties must do power show not for their interests but for the country.

*Sehrish Khan is a freelancer and media activist. She writes on political developments and security issues with special focus on South Asia and the region.