#pakistan - A Rogue and Failed State #Terrorism #Islam #religion

A few years before India achieving independence, the leaders of the All India Muslim League (founded in 1906) got hooked to the idea of creating a separate land for Muslims. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had entered into politics in 1905, strongly believed in Hindu-Muslim unity and a slow, gradual and peaceful change leading to transfer of power and independence, rather than the civil disobedience movement adopted by Mahatma Gandhi. Thereafter, when Jinnah became the head of the All India Mulsim League, he got enthusiastic about the idea of a separate land for Muslims in 1940, realizing the golden opportunity to become the leader of that yet-to-be born land and demanded a separate State for Muslims, i.e. Pakistan.

This became possible with the two principal actors, chiefly Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, being power hungry and both of them finding it impossible to be leaders of the pre-partition India at the same time - when it became free after the colonial masters left were agreeable to the idea of carving the Indian subcontinent into two separate countries – one with Hindus majority and other with Muslim majority – to achieve their selfish interests. Simply speaking, both Nehru and Jinnah were very greedy for power and contrary to what some sources say, Mahatma Gandhi was totally against partitioning of India and became broken hearted and devastated when partitioning of the Indian subcontinent became a reality. Mahatma Gandhi had gone to the extent of pleading with Nehru to allow Jinnah to be the leader of India, once it became independent, rather than partitioning it.

Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, whom Pakistanis revere as the father of the nation was the most improbable leader to head the country. Jinnah was one of the most fluent speakers and writers of English in the British Empire, always dressed in Saville Row suits (and wore Sherwanis just a little over a year or so, before he died), drank whisky day-in, day-out, chain smoked “Craven” cigarettes, avoided attending mosques, could not write and read Urdu and shaved daily. Had his doctor, a Hindu, revealed to the outside world that his famous patient was suffering from tuberculosis and would, at best, survive for a year or a year-and-a-half, probably the political scenario would have taken a different turn. In fact, his doctor had advised Jinnah to quit politics, alcohol and take complete rest to recover from this disease or he would not live long.

On 14th August 1947, when Lord Louis Mountbatten handed over the partitioned territory to Jinnah, the latter spoke to the newly born nation in English (and not Urdu). Further, Jinnah was a Shia and not a Sunni. Though a brilliant lawyer, however, by all accounts, he was the most improbable leader to lead an Islamic country. However, compared to all the Pakistani leaders that came after him, including the military strongmen or dictators and self-styled Field Marshals, he was secular.

Since 1958, when the self-styled Field Marshal Ayub Khan took over power in a coup, Pakistan has ceased being a democracy and has been under military rule. Pakistan has had hotchpotch democracies under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and presently under Yousuf Raza Gilani, but they were (or are) pseudo and sham democracies that have only functioned with the Army Chief’s or Army’s nod and existed just in name.

Any foreign Heads of the States or senior politicians visiting Pakistan meet the Army Chief and spend more time with him, rather than the President or the Prime Minister. Many a times, when the so called civilian Government’s President or Prime Minister is on a foreign visit, it is not surprising that the Army Chief is also a member of a delegation. That simply goes on to show to what extent the Pakistani military establishment is well entrenched and powerful in Pakistan. If one is talking about democracy, can one think of an Army or Service Chief wielding power or having any power at all under a civilian government, be it U.S.A., U.K., France, Australia, India, Germany or any genuine democracy? In democracies, the Armed Forces are totally under civilian control and they take their orders from their political masters. The Army Chief is supreme in Pakistan and this itself is an insult to democracy.

The architect of the Kargil crisis was the ex-Army Chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf who, since being forced out, has taken refuge in the United Kingdom, where he is enjoying his ill-gotten wealth, so much for calling himself the saviour of Pakistan. When the Kargil crisis was planned and hatched by Gen. Musharraf, the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, did not know what was going on and there was nothing that he could do to rope in the General. Finally, Nawaz Sharif’s Government was toppled in a coup and Gen. Musharraf took over power and clung to it for many years, till he became very unpopular and had to step down and run away to the U.K. to live in exile there.

Sadly, the Indian Governments have not realized that Pakistan does not have a democracy and it is the Pakistani Army Chief who is the most powerful man in the country and the President and Prime Minister are non-entities there and, on their own, they are incapable of doing anything to improve Pakistan or the lot of the people, like say closing the Madrassas, handing over the terrorists that India has been demanding and engaging and liquidating the terrorists that have become a scourge to their nation.

The Pakistani Army and the I.S.I. are the Godfathers’ of these terrorists. The sooner the Indian Government realizes that it is not worth living in a fool’s paradise and living on hopes like keeping the Pakistani authorities engaged in talks, etc. to achieve results when, in fact, these authorities do not have any power, but have to do what the Army wants. Ask the present Pakistani Foreign Secretary, Salman Bashir, who makes loud noises and squeals a lot, if he is talking on behalf of the Government or after taking clearances from the Army Chief before opening his mouth?

Being commissioned as an Officer in the Pakistani Army is a bonanza itself: Officers enjoy immense benefits, privileges and power (compared to their civilian counterparts). These privileges may be earned or got by hook or crook. All this is achieved by its bullying ways and not relinquishing power to serve and take orders from a civilian government control.

In short, terrorists and undesirables who do harm and attack targets in India or abroad have the full backing and the blessings of the Pakistani Army and the I.S.I., and those elements that are fighting the Pakistani Army and the I.S.I., then they have to face the latter’s wrath.

Pakistan has not used its resources and the bountiful foreign aid that it receives from foreign donors in the right way, i.e. setting up quality educational institutions, controlling its population, improving its infrastructure, trying to industrialise, trying to modernize and increase its agricultural output, providing clean drinking water, promoting tourism, etc.

Today, Pakistan is known all across the world for all the wrong reasons. This country’s countless misguided, illiterate, disgruntled and impoverished youth are highly malleable and right raw materials in the hands of the mullahs, Pakistani Army and I.S.I., who have transformed them into terrorists with a short shelf life, because quite a number of them get killed in encounters with the Indian Army, B.S.F., U.S. drone attacks and in other actions and the Pakistani press communiqués praise their deaths by saying that they have achieved martyrdom.

Today, Pakistan is considered as a rogue and failed state and every cent given to Pakistan by the U.S.A. and other donors need to be thoroughly checked, audited and accounted for, because out of the billions of dollars of aid that Pakistan gets, quite a bit of it is pocketed by the powerful, rather than being spent on people or fighting terrorism, some spent on anti-terrorist activities and quite a bit spent on buying arms for confronting India.

Since achieving independence on 14/08/1947, has Pakistan made any progress on the economic, industrial, agricultural, cultural or any other fronts? The answer is an emphatic no. Pakistan is known internationally as the state that sponsors terrorists. Even their cricketers have gained notoriety for match fixing and other irregularities.

Pakistani expatriates living and working abroad are desperate to take citizenship of whichever countries they are living as expatriates or try to immigrate to countries in the west or elsewhere. If you talk to them and ask them why they do not wish to settle down in Pakistan, they say that they are just fed up with the deteriorating law and order situation there, where terrorism, murders, looting and other unlawful things are the order of the day and there is no future left for them and their families. They are simply a disillusioned lot. They further say that the Pakistani politicians are very corrupt, live luxurious lives and are totally oblivious to the sufferings of the people.