Elections in Pakistan
Pakistan has long been an all-weather friend of Sri Lanka. It helped quell a separatist insurgency; its people backed the Sri Lanka cricket team to win a World Cup; and at international assemblies where Sri Lanka gets crucified for its human rights record by countries with a mote in their own eyes, it has been a steadfast defender of this nation.
However, political developments in Pakistan these days cannot go unnoticed with its elections held last Thursday. The jailing of a former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, and disqualifying his PTI party goes beyond the pale.
Pakistan has always struggled with democracy since its birth by cesarean section of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. It was unable to emulate its bigger neighbour and bitter rival India, nor for that matter Sri Lanka, which despite some hiccups along the way – like the stripping of former PM Sirima Bandaranaike's civic rights or keeping an Election Commissioner hostage at Temple Trees on a crucial election day—has changed governments through largely free, and generally fair, elections.
The cases against Mr. Khan would seem ridiculous to most of the democratic world. Pakistan's judiciary, once responsible for the judicial murder of one of its former Prime Ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was a few years ago hailed as a beacon of hope to an emerging democracy after years of military rule. It has once again fallen down under the sheer pressure of the rulers. It is so weakened that some of its orders are not followed unless they have the imprimatur of the government.
Mr. Khan appears to have made two fundamental mistakes, however principled they were. One was to rub the powerful military on the wrong side despite having its support in the early years of his tenure. The other was having the gumption to say that Pakistan should be a neutral country in its foreign policy. That was heresy to the USA as Pakistan has long been treated as one of America's proxy states, first in its opposition to Russia and India which shared a Defence Pact, but now against China.
His political downfall was engineered through Parliament. These 'regime change' exercises happen throughout the world, as they did through Aragalayas in Ukraine and almost, in Sri Lanka in 2022. Being neutral is no longer an option in the books of the big powers as they jostle for influence in a multipolar world.
These big powers feel they have an entitlement to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, to have a stake in who governs that country, financing political parties and politicians towards that end, justifying all of it as being in their own national interest and in the interest of world peace.