Pakistan And Political Vendettas – OpEd 

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State institutes are major and one of the most important pillars of every country. No country can progress and excel without the cooperation of any state department. The primary objective of state institutions is to work tirelessly for the development of the country. The deliberate politicization of state institutions over flimsy grounds for mere political gains shell have severe consequences for the country politically, economically and militarily. Therefore, entire world do its best to facilitate and empower their state institutions. No matter which party or leader governs the country, the affiliations are state departments are with the federation not any particular political party. 

In democratic states, government extends its support to all state department in order to make country economically, politically and militarily strong. However, in Pakistan, the situation is different from rest of the world. In this country, maligning state institutions is part of political vendetta. If any party lost elections, it starts blaming state pillars for rigging and prefer to choose the path of confrontation with state institutions. In order to satisfy their egoistic approach, a few parties, who has possessed anti-military sentiments, started maligning military establishment for their defeat. Not only this, they target top brass of the security leadership for facilitating other political parties. All the accusations are mere myths, having no solid argument and evidences. They spreads venom against them despite knowing the fact that these institution has nothing to do with political and they are infect a political entity. 

Recently, former Prime Minister Imran Khan had lost of vote of no-confidence motion in parliament due to which his government collapsed. The process of vote of no-confidence is briefly described in constitution and any party can bring this resolution in National Assembly if it feels the premier seems unfit to govern the country in a batter way. After losing the majority in parliament, Imran Khan’s government ended in unceremonious way. Since then, he has launched aggressive political campaign with the peddling the narrative of foreign conspiracy behind his ouster and role of establishment in it. 

The military and civilian leaderships categorically denied Imran Khan’s flimsy narrative and pressing him to take constitutional path. He, however, refused to take that path: hence launched scathing attacks against political leadership of the country. Being a former Prime Minister, Mr. Khan needs to understand that blaming own institutions for mere political mileage is not in the interests of the country at all. There are hostile elements as well in the country, who are looking for such fault lines to exploit the strategic interests of the country. He must not fuel venom against own institutions and choose his words carefully. His veiled attacks towards armed forces and the establishment declaring them the local abettors of his ousters in the result of a so-called US intrigue is further widening the societal divide in the country. These remarks will have lasting negative effects on Pakistan’s bonhomie with United States. Mr. Khan’s comments are also putting Pakistan in block politics, which is not in the interests of the country at all. 

The armed forces of Pakistan have sacrificed their lives for maintaining peace and security in the country. The people of this country always showed respect and love for their law enforcement agencies. However, Imran Khan’s flimsy narrative, which is based upon lies, may create divisions between armed forces and people of the country. Therefore, he must choose his words carefully. His political vendetta will have negative spill-over on our society. The fact is that former premier has been trying to hide behind conspiracy rhetoric to conceal his failure in governance that actually lead to his removal from the power as he failed at economic front miserably. He has no justification for his failure. He put the economic system of the country at stake by borrowing more money and failing to control rising inflation. These were the major reason behind his ouster. If he (Imran Khan) was competent enough to draw Pakistan out of the economic crisis, he would have not been ousted through an unprecedented no-confidence move.

Likewise, Imran Khan’s criticism against military and political establishments for being neutral is beyond understanding, what are his intuition behind pressing armed forces to cross their constitutional role and indulge in politics? In addition, armed forces are giving their lives at border and in war against terrorism and while eradicating the menace of extremism from the country, Imran Khan’s attempt to involve them in politics is enemy’s agenda to divert Army’s attention from security matters.

By peddling this flimsy narrative, he is actually demoralizing his country’s brave forces and their sacrifices as well. He is playing with their sentiments and damaging the sanctity of the state institutions. Likewise, Imran Khan directly challenged state institutions using the metaphor of Mir Jaffar and his supporters also think that people linked to state institutions and their families are also buying this narrative of PTI but they forget that real power of state institutions is Unity of Command. But the fact is that Khan had failed to uplift the economic system. He came to power on the narrative of eradicating corruption however, instead of accepting his failure in doing so, he is projecting that if army wanted then NAB and judiciary could have punished thieves. Pakistan’s ranking on TI Corruption Index declined during Khan’s tenure. So, he must stop accusing state institutions in order to accomplish his political objectives. 

The writer is Islamabad based regular contributor. 

Asad Ali

Asad Ali is an Islamabad based expert of South Asian Affairs

2 thoughts on “Pakistan And Political Vendettas – OpEd 

  • May 27, 2022 at 12:49 pm
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    Typical ISI narrative praising “sacrifice ” by armed forces which in fact ruled Pakistan as its private property by promoting the bogey of foreign enemies to entrench themselves in power. Undermining the integrity of state institutions was very much part of their strategy . Once humpty dumpty is broken it cannot be glued back together.

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  • May 28, 2022 at 11:47 am
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    U r peddling fake narestive dear friend. I would recommend you to do some research before spreading vanom against Pak armed forces and govt.

    Reply

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