The Mafia & Mob Rule
Ishtiaq Ahmed
London: The ‘political family mafia’ and the ‘mob rule’ has taken full control of the country. I cannot comment on Imran Khan’s arrest because I am not privy to the case against him but the manner of his arrest was wrong particularly in the court grounds as he was due to appear.
However, Imran Khan’s threatening language at the court must be unreservedly condemned. The PTI supporters should not be celebrating the open defiance of the courts by their leader. Although, we understand their jubilation and excitement after their leader’s release.
It is shameful that the most popular leader of a political party, aspiring to be the country’s next prime minister, should be using the threatening language of defiance in courts. Neither IK or anyone else is beyond the law. He should at least have been charged and held for contempt of the court.
The revengeful tit-for-tat war of attrition between the caretaker government and IK has reached new heights and has taken an ugly turn.
The sequence of events leading up to the IK’s arrest and the subsequent legal concessions and protection afforded to him is most perplexing.
The institutions are seemingly hapless. The government has proven inept, the courts are partisan, the army establishment circumspect, the bureaucracy hedging its bets and the public egged to disregard law and order by the country’s most popular leader aspiring to be the next prime minister. These are sad days for the nation.
Pakistan is in disarray and ruleless. The present caretaker government is not capable of containing and bettering the situation. IK is not willing to come to the table or at least to agree to any deal that is not on his terms. This has created a divisive political impasse.
All this is against the background of a deepening economic crisis while the IMF bailout is on hold, worsening law and order, and the country’s principal institutions being clueless as to the way forward. The current crisis are a culmination of seventy years of political ineptness, unabated elitism, endemic corruption within the highest echelons of governance- government, army, courts, law & order and bureaucracy – and the process of democracy being repeatedly disrupted and thwarted.
The present war of attrition between the government politicians and IK is personal. This is clear from the language applied by the most senior politicians of the PDM against IK fearful of losing control. They inadvertently contributed to his popularity.
Their misguided ploy to delay the elections to allow them to take IK out of the election equation at any cost seems to have backfired. IK has taken full advantage of this despite his inconsistent turns and twitches. Pakistan is paying the price for visionless and inept leadership. Some also would add to this disloyal leadership to the national cause and they would not be too far off the truth. The options for the country out of the current crisis are few and difficult. A few weeks back my friend Mohammed Ajeeb floated the idea of forming a national government of all principal stakeholders- politicians, senior bureaucrats/ technocrats – in order to buy some time to think through a way out of the present crisis which would involve formulating a timeline for the national elections. He was right as this seems the only plausible way forward out of the present unrest.
The author is a British citizen of Pakistani origin with a keen interest in Pakistani and international affairs.
In Pakistan everyone is an expert,politicians, media people, legal professionals etc…..full of conspiracy theories and off course blame everyone else…..
Unfortunately until Right wing politicians, feudal,extreme religious elements exist in Pakistan NO change is possible. At best every registered political party must be democrat must publish its every police and must hold open party conference.
Pakistan 🇵🇰 zindabad
The horrific scenes of violence and arson are clear evidence of PTI’s
political objectives which are quite identical with politics of populism. The essential characristics of populism are seeking change by appealing to its supporters who are mismirised by their cult leader to commit any and every act irrespective of its moral and legal legitimacy without any regard to its consequences. Such acts of violence are justified by its claims to bring much needed social and political change as well as justice. But in fact these can be tactical precursors to further impositions of personal rule when in power by claiming the infallibility, honesty and superiority of the leader. It is uncontested, unquestioned and unscrutinised political belief. But history is evident that politics of populism can be and has been massively destructive but thank God
also shortlived because of its undemocratic and dictatorial nature.
In Pakistan the battle for power is between the army establishment, the oligarchs and feudal and populists and none of these represents the real Pakistanis …. the working class, the poor and down trodden who have never been consulted and represented in the corridors of power. The middle and upper classes have historically never been revolutionary to bring real change leading to social and political change and justice. Hence the country has to wait yet for the real change to happen.
Mohammed Ajeeb bhai, thank you for an honest and a very correct analysis of the predicament that Pakistan finds itself in.
The Pakistani public is faced with choice between the sea and the hard rock. On one side they have tried and tested corrupt political family mafia , oligarchs and their stooges and on the side a popular cult type leader who turns and twitches every other second. He is not consistent and can’t be believed and his mindset can’t be trusted but the public in its despair and desperation , in hope rather than certainty , is clinging on to IK more like a drowning person desperately tries to clutch on to passing straws knowing that this is not the answer to his predicament. Likewise, people deep down know that IK is not any answer to their plight with his uncertain and unclear politic. But he is the only one in the arena who is perceived to be standing up to the corrupt family mafia and the political oligarchs who have been sucking the blood out of the public veins year after yea for decades.
Personally, In my limited understanding, the Pakistan Peoples Party was the only political party, once value based, with national appeal capable of mounting apolitical challenge but it has also become a family affair. PPP should not have gone into the coalition with Shareef family for short term personal gains.
PML with divisions and factions has lost its political credibility virtually becoming private Shareef and Choudhary limited companies. With these realities any one who has any audacity to stand up irrespective of rights and wrongs will be followed by the public. It is not that IK is credible, it is because there is no one else there.
Way forward as you suggested a week or two ago:
National Government of principal stakeholders to diffuse the current situation, to agree release of funds from IMF and review the election process and agree timeline for elections etc.