AN ELECTION FARCE IN PAK

Afarce is being conducted next door in Pakistan, the farce of elections. At the outset, let us say that nobody in India should draw satisfaction from their sham democracy to gloss over our own imperfect and often irresponsive system of ordering our affairs. Yet, the Pakistani State has made a complete mockery of democracy, allowing the military-ISI combine to virtually determine the winners. On July 25, when Pakistanis elect a new national government, the deep State is desperate to ensure that among the winners is not the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The invisible super government, that is, the Rawalpindi GHQ, has now found a new favourite in Imran Khan, the former cricketer-turned-politician who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Sharif, once a darling, burnt his boats with the military-intelligence brass following the public disclosure of sharp differences in the cabinet in September 2016, suggesting that the army was protecting the UNdesignated terrorists while the civilian government was keen to neutralise them. Following the leak in Dawn, the country’s leading English daily, Sharif was a marked man. The judiciary and the so-called accountability court in Pakistan having become handmaidens of the army, it was easy from hereon to put down Sharif. He was disqualified from holding office by the Supreme Court not on account of disclosures in the Panama Papers, where he and his family members were listed for holding wealth in undisclosed companies. But for not meeting the vague and most convenient criteria of honesty and wisdom. On this count, every politician, corrupt or honest, can be barred from participating in the electorate process. General Zia ulHaq had injected this clause in the statute but Sharif himself was reluctant to delete it when other parties took the initiative. Now, he is a victim of the provision which serves as a brahmastra in the hands of the army and its subservient judiciary. Sharif also got on the wrong side of the Pakistan army for his desire to restore a modicum of normalcy with India, an anathema to the fat-cat generals. Interestingly, though the average man on the street rightly believes that the top members of the Pakistani military are as corrupt, if not more, as the country’s politicians, no one dare hold the former accountable for defying the provision about ‘honesty’ and ‘sagacity’. Having first unfairly removed Sharif from prime ministership, the accountability court recently held him guilty of corruption for owning in the name of his family members two plum bungalows in London. Sharif and his daughter and son-in-law were prescribed varying jail terms by the accountability court. Sharif and his daughter, who are currently in London taking care of his critically ill wife, have promised to return to Pakistan ahead of the polling on July 25. His son-in-law surrendered to the authorities after a show of defiance along with the supporters of the PML(N).

The truth is that though the election process might still be gone through as scheduled, it has become a pointless exercise, with the army allowing nearly 400 candidates associated with the banned terrorist outfits to contest on the symbols of newly-floated parties. With the economic situation in Pakistan worsening daily, and its forex reserves at a critical stage, it is hard to believe that the army is messing with the polity in such a flagrant manner which can only result in a badly divided national assembly and make it hard for a stable government to emerge. It will be immensely better for Pakistan and the world at large if the army were to directly assume power instead of contriving to install puppets as prime minister. The increasing influence of China has already begun to worry independent observers in Pakistan. With the Americans no longer willing to finance Pak profligacy and betrayals with more and more billions, Pakistan has now found a ready lender in China, which, unlike the Americans, is bound to extract its pound of flesh. In sum, if Pakistan fails, as it must, given the adverse conditions created by the militaryjudiciary combine, every Pakistani should know who to blame. The culprits of a failed Pakistan are those who people the Rawalpindi GHQ.