Nawaz Sharif the ghaddar, Yasser Latif
Only democracy can
deliver us from the ills that plague us. Nawaz Sharif, the so-called ghaddar,
stands for constitutional democracy. He has learnt his lessons well
Was Nawaz Sharif once
the ladla of the establishment? Yes. So was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he was
dispatched by Field Marshall Ayub Khan to dissuade Maulana Bhashani from
joining the ranks of the combined opposition united under Fatima Jinnah’s
heroic candidacy for the office of the president. Yet Bhutto’s government was
ultimately overthrown by the same deep state for having become too strong a
civilian leader for his own good.
It
is true that Imran Khan is the new ladla of the establishment
but if he were ever to come into power, he would soon realise why Bhutto and
Nawaz before him had to engage in course correction. Given his personality,
Imran Khan’s alliance with the umpire would prove to be shortest in our
history.
That is if Imran Khan ever makes it to power. There are very good reasons why
that should never happen, not the least because Imran Khan is reportedly
relying on the supernatural to deliver him the coveted throne in Islamabad.
Those familiar with American TV show Game of Thrones know the
script already. Imran Khan is Pakistan’s Stannis Baratheon. Fantasy meets
reality in Pakistan all too often.
The military academy at Kakul does not train its
recruits in political administration of the federation. Why then should they be
trusted to run the country?
News
from Bani Gala is at once bleak and hilarious. The red priestess has brought
with her as pets two of her most favourite genies to Islamabad. Very
unsportsmanlike of Imran Khan one must say. After all this is the same Imran
Khan who won us the World Cup by relying on hard work and a never-surrender
attitude. For him to now seek supernatural intervention is just a sad state of
affairs. More importantly, it does not bode well for a nuclear-armed nation
with the fastest growing stockpile to be led by a man swayed by such
superstition and mumbo jumbo that defies all rationality and common sense.
Nawaz
Sharif’s stance of civilian supremacy represents, at this point in time, the
most important turn around by any politician. His interview in daily Dawn spelt
out something that many in Pakistan have been saying for a while. This is what
he said, that has caused so much offence: “Militant organisations are
active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border
and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the
trial?”
The
answer is simple. No, we should not. We should complete the trial and bring
those responsible to justice. We should show the world that we are a
responsible nation state based on rule of law and have not allowed our country
to be overrun by non-state actors. Those who are opposed to this policy are the
real ghaddars. Paragraph 45 of the Judgment by the Indian Supreme
Court in Ajmal Kasab v. State of Maharashtra should give us Pakistanis a reason
for pause:
“It
is reported that it was at the Taj Mahal Hotel ballroom that, on February 20,
1918, at her eighteenth birthday party, Ruttie had accepted Mr Jinnah’s hand in
marriage while the band was playing the Chopin tune, So Deep is the
Night. It is also reported that both Mr. Jinnah, the creator of Pakistan,
and Mrs Sarojini Naidu, the President of the Indian National Congress, often
held court at Taj Mahal Hotel. Mr Jinnah also had an intimate connection with
Mazgaon, where the bomb planted by two terrorists in a taxi exploded, killing
three (3) and wounding nineteen (19) people. It is reported that Mr. Jinnah
devoted Thursday afternoons to visiting the grave of his wife Ruttie at the
Khoja Shiite Isna’ashri Cemetry, situated at Mazgaon, Mumbai. One wonders what
Quaid-e-Azam would have thought of the terrorist attack on his favourite city
in the subcontinent and especially on Taj Mahal Hotel, with which he had a
personal relationship of a very intimate kind.”
We
did not make Pakistan to wage perpetual war on our neighbour to the East.
At
an Iftar party recently, an educated young critic of Nawaz Sharif told me that
even if we have done it, we should never admit it. Why not? Since when did
expediency and a false sense of nationalism trump truth and the right thing to
do? Nawaz Sharif is not the ghaddar. Ghaddars are
those who have led Pakistan on to such a perilous and self-destructive course.
It would have been one thing if these so-called patriots had limited their
operations to attacking legitimate military targets in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Attacking Bombay — I will call it Bombay, not Mumbai — or Delhi or any other
place within the Indian union is beyond the allowable theatre of war. Yes, we
want Kashmir to be free of Indian occupation, but we do not want to make
permanent enemies out of our neighbours. This idea of a 1000-year war against
India, planted by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and coopted by the Pakistani military
establishment, must be put to rest once and for all. Pakistan’s military is our
pride and joy. We salute their sacrifices in safeguarding Pakistan’s
borders, but foreign policy must at all costs be the exclusive reserve of
Pakistan’s elected civilian leadership. There can be no occasion for allowing
their meddling in civilian affairs. Pakistan was created by civilians and it
must be run by civilians. The military academy at Kakul does not train its
recruits in political administration of the federation. Why then should they be
trusted to run the country? Pakistan’s first military rule led to the
departure of East Pakistan. Pakistan’s second military rule gave us Deobandi
religious extremism, heroin, and Kalashnikov culture. Pakistan’s third military
rule weaponised the once peaceful Barelvi sect. How has military interference
in governance helped the country?
India’s
democracy, deeply majoritarian and casteist as it is, has an inbuilt mechanism
for correction. The results from Karnataka show that BJP is on the wane. Do not
be surprised if the people of India boot out Modi in 2019 elections. It may
happen, or it may not, but the fact is that there is today a greater opposition
to Modi’s heavy-handed tactics than ever before. We must learn a lesson from
this. Pakistan must put its faith in constitutional democracy and never waver
from it. Only democracy can deliver us from the ills that plague us. Nawaz
Sharif, the so-called ghaddar, stands for constitutional democracy. He has
learnt his lessons well. For the first time in our history, the GT Road belt
has risen up against the deep state. These are revolutionary times for our
country. Therefore, every true patriot of Pakistan must stand with Nawaz
Sharif in finally ridding Pakistan of the aliens that have presided over its
destiny, so that no future elected leader has to ask mujhe kiyoun
nikala.
The
writer is a practicing lawyer and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in
Cambridge MA, USA. He blogs at http://globallegalforum.blogspot.com, twitter
@therealylh
Published
in Daily Times, May 21st 2018.
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