Pakistan, Judiciary and 2015

One of the favorite pastimes of my great nation is that we habitually allow our minds to wander without any direction. This national pastime is at its peak during the winter when many of us indulge ourselves in enjoying the warmth of winter sun, and wonder at the abilities of our mind in bringing out the strangest of all with half open eyes. This is one of the very few luxuries left in the land of the pure, which are still outside the exercise of executive powers during the emergency rule of our great leader, savior of the nation, General Musharraf unless he orders his police force to arrest all those who are standing at the most convenience spot of the street to enjoy the sun. An easy way to catch these mind wanderers is that most of them would be covered from head to knee in famous khaises from Gakhar or even in lehaf if the mercury is further down in its habitat of glass tubing.


It is November, but winter is still playing hide and seek, though November used to be quite cold during my school days. I am told that fans are still at full throttle in Lahore. Here, in GCC, expatriates like me neither have the advantage of cold winter nor of the gentle sun, but it does not mean that we do not enjoy our favorite pastime. Set the thermostat of the AC at around 5, and sit in front of heater with the khais and heater both on, and there you go. A cup of tea would be an added luxury, but that require an understanding wife who should be at least as crazy as you are.


During one of such sessions during the last weekend, when I was not very much sure whether I am sleeping or not, my mind kick started the fun game of wandering. Though, I am sure that most of the readers themselves must have indulged in this game of pursuit of unknown at one time or another, yet as an eastern soul I want to share my wanderings with readers as sharing of good or bad is the persistent trait of the east, even if not warranted.


So, when I found myself in the middle of this game play and my eyes resembled that of a person who has just smoked a cigarette full of you know what, my mind started showing me glimpses of my unfulfilled desires. No dear! This I will not share with you as I do not want documentary evidence in hand of my wife to scold me for life, hence I will share my feelings with you from the point onward when that uninvited guest by the name of Musharraf entered into my innocent pursuit of nirvana.


I was quietly rejoicing at the resolve of my nation, which despite being ruled by rulers unsympathetic to its needs for last so many centuries with the exception of one or two has yet again found the courage to resist the uncivilized measures of a person in uniform. It was during the rush of this pride that my mind wandered to a distant memory and a report came flashing back into my mind prepared by the National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency in USA, which said that Pakistan will be a failed state by 2015 affected by civil war. It forecasted a “Yugoslavia-like fate” for Pakistan and said that by year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation.


The fun part with such a hypnotic state of mind is that it is not broken by even such bleak outlooks provided that one is steadfast in maintaining it or as they say in Urdu, if one is sufficiently endowed with a trait called “dheet pana”. I assume this is the reason why so many intellectually greats are so much fond of drugs; I am sure that some psychologist/psychiatrist among the readers will write a few lines on this.


Now my problem was that I was not sure whether this was an innocent intelligence estimate by the US agencies or was it their future plan garbed in the intelligence estimate. When I think about the deeds (read misdeeds) of our rulers (without any exception – be it military dictators or democratically elected one) for past so many years, it seems that it is just an objective and innocent estimate of the intelligence agencies of the U.S. But, on the other hand when I think about the intelligence estimates of same intelligence agencies about Iraq before the war estimating huge stock pile of weapons of mass destruction, the gambit of the Americans become more and more obvious.


When my mind could not distinguish between whether the report is authentic or wishful thinking of Americans for which they are working, I tried another approach i.e. to identify who will be the winners and who will be the losers? Now, answer to the question regarding the losers is very easy. They are me and every other patriotic Pakistani, majority of whom have over the years been reduced to mere subjects of the state, and were told recently at point blank not to involve themselves in anything that gives a hint of asking for their rights (its emergency, you stupid – a play on the words of Bill Clinton, “its economy, you stupid”).


Who are going to be the winners? For that my mind wandered to the current situation in Iraq. I always wondered that why Iraq was attacked. Everyone knows that Saddam was dislodged within first few days of war, but what was the reason that security forces of the Iraq were disband? More importantly why he was not dislodged during first gulf war and whole Iraqi nation was punished and weakened through sanctions for so many years. With Iraqi nation engulfed in civil war and regional identities, sectarian affiliations and ethnicities taking precedence over Iraqi nationalism, even the voices from within Iraq are talking about splitting the Iraq in three on ethnic/sectarian lines. One but cannot overlook the policy pursued by Israel to fan ethnic and religious splits in Arab world for the sake of its security. In 1982, an Israeli official stated, “Ideally we’d like to see Iraq disintegrate into a Shi’ite, Kurdish and Sunni community, each making war on the other.” (Newsweek July 26, 1982 – Page 32). The control of oil is an obvious reason in case of Iraq as even now Alan Greenspan has reached the same conclusion (The Sunday Times (London), 16 September, 2007); isn’t USA killing two birds with one stone; fulfilling the agenda of its Zionist allies and control of oil resources.


Is this the ultimate fate of Pakistan like Iraq? But who is to gain from disintegration of Pakistan. Obviously USA is the obvious answer. Isn’t it nice to have a place for itself to watch over Persian Gulf, its current adversary China, not to mention India that might grow out of its stature though currently it is not the case – but who knows about long term? And what about the huge pile of fossil fuel reserves of Central Asia that need an outlet. Squeezing Iran will also become easy, if Zionists require that.


But what is the position of current state of emergency in Pakistan in all this jigsaw puzzle? Again as a proud Pakistani, my mind wandered towards the unthinkable that happened in Pakistan in recent past. Isn’t Judiciary of Pakistan has emerged as an institution to which people of Pakistan have started to look for the fulfillment of their ultimate aspirations? Sure, any institution that gives a sense of unity and purpose is a great hurdle in the ultimate disintegration Pakistan, however lacking that institution might be. So, why not kill the evil in the bud.


Now that’s when my tea is finished, and my one year old son is all over me trying to get my full attention; son who’ll Inshallah grow as Pakistani and will go on to raise his children as Pakistanis long after I am forever gone to the same place wherever everyone has to go.