A Rational Speculation as to Governance in Pakistan and Global Reality.

It is imperative that the average Pakistani realises that democracy and unfettered private enterprise are not natural precursors to social, political or economic freedom. Rather these 'aspirations' merely pave the way to Pakistan losing whatever remnants of national integrity it retains in favour of it becoming an asset in the portfolios of the various multinationals, whose interests have become sacrosanct following 9/11.

Cold War fictions equating freedom with capitalist democracy, have in the age of corporate globalisation been revitalised and now have a new purpose, as it is only through democracy and privatisation that national integrity and control of resources can be undermined to allow international markets and resources to become available to Western private enterprise.

There never has been and indeed there never shall be any intrinsic virtue to democracy irrespective of the degree and zealousness of Western insistence. It is merely a system of political organisation like many others and inevitably along with its benefits has shortcomings, the most prominent of which is the capture of legislature and other purportedly democratic bodies by private industry. Without resorting to citing Western imperialist tendencies, the degeneration of legislative bodies into mere policing agencies for private industry, is unto itself arguably the primary basis for blindly aggressive Western foreign policies and the resultant global destabilisation.

Globalisation necessitates the institution of these shortcomings, particularly as far the Third World is concerned. The new wave of Western imperialism requires weak, factionalised governments across the world, subservient not to domestic but multinational private industry. The neo-conservative experiment following 9/11 has the primary objective of realising such imperialism by use of lethal force and economic coercion to the end of establishing a beneficiary class of Western states. This end is demonstrable by the utter artificiality by which the War on Terror correlates to Western foreign policy. An example can be found in quoting the American President who admits; "One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror". It cannot be coincidence that every state included in the "axis of evil" is either Socialist, Islamic-Socialist or maintains powerful public sector control over its resources as Iran does. This in effect means that an element of the War on Terror is a continuation of Western policies during the Cold War. The Cold War was not so much an anti-socialist endeavour as much as it was a pro-capitalist investment ironically by the various Western public sectors involved, in particular the US. In the case of sovereign states on the axis where any actual Western interests lie (currently Syria and Iran and formerly Iraq) lethal force seems to be the basis to stamp out national integrity and domestic control of resources.

Democracy, capitalism and globalisation, although on the face of it conceptually different are indeed actually the same thing from the perspective of a country like Pakistan. Pakistani democracy can only ever be a carte blanche for the forces of rampant globalisation and shall by its creation indicate the legitimacy of Western cultural, political and economic imperialism as well as Pakistan's status as a client state.

On the other hand, Pakistan is a state that seemingly must fail. Of the military, the feudals, the political classes and the myriad of other lobby groups that exist, no single faction can in any event forgo their interests in favour of any greater good. This is why Pakistan is not a state per se but rather an unsystematic collection of competing entities, each individually united by a common factor or interest which may be religious, ethnic, or class based.

The current state of internal conflict in Pakistan emerges intrinsically from the Western desire for a democratic Pakistan. The various lobby groups have started vying for power or in some cases resisting against perceived jeopardy to their interests. The Western model of democracy founded on the idea of the perpetual crystallisation of wealth in the hands of a particular class, is the incentive that fuels cross interest group conflict. The Pakistani public including sectarianists, Islamists, the middle classes and indeed the Military act exclusively to ensure that theirs, rather than any national interest is served. This situation is aggravated by the everyday public's susceptibility to the short termist pro-democracy propaganda machine that the private Pakistani media has become.

The Islamist tendencies of its public are Pakistan Achilles' heel in as much as being the primary basis by which Western imperialism and democratic aspirations have been instigated, particularly in the minds of the bourgeoisie, so called 'liberal' middle classes as an acceptable state of affairs. Islamization through and following the Afghanistan debacle in the 80's and 90's has resulted in a total political and cultural vacuum, which was neatly filled with democratic aspirations and rampant "Westernisation" as far as the middle classes are concerned.

The more disaffected classes in Pakistan alternatively see Islamization as some sort of universal panacea, particularly owing to the various Wahhabi propaganda apparatus operating unhindered in rural and urban areas across the provinces. This dichotomy between essentially the rich and the poor is suitable fuel for the War on Terror, and the West have the economic means at their disposal to perpetuate and indeed exacerbate the wealth divide in the Third World to their ends. More significantly the fiction perpetuated thus is that Western capitalist democracy and a willing surrender of all national assets and wealth to Western multinationals is the exclusive alternative to a situation of terrorism, Talibanization and the general failure of the State.

There is no democratic monopoly on social, political or economic freedom although the West has tried vainly, mainly through coercion to realise this fantasy.

This fiction is propagated through what can only be described as 'lifestyle advertising' across all forms of media, relentlessly repeated ad nauseum and the operation of NGOs promoting issues such as democratisation, human rights and the like. It should be remembered that even the United States, which consumes at least a good half of the World's resources has some 40 million people living below the poverty line. This points towards democracy, even in the nation that cherishes it to the extent of justifying war crimes and genocide, to be the province of a cabal of ruthless capitalists. Giving the benefit of the doubt, to the integrity of the American electoral process, this also indicates either the total slavishness of the American public or more probably the flawed nature of democracy as a political system.

The military, of all the Pakistani lobby groups, as a natural Leviathan are seemingly quite well suited to govern. The military is an institution which exists beyond the state, yet created and funded of the state and is more or less proportionally representative of all the various interest groups ethnic, feudal, tribal etc. It can fairly be said that as of yet its military is the greatest achievement of the State of Pakistan. No entity other than the military exists in Pakistan, which can fashion (albeit by force) the intrinsic factional nature of Pakistani society towards some form of organised pluralism. Although it may well be the case that military do wish to structurally reform the Pakistani economy so as to be conducive to Western interests, their solicitude in this matter has been acquired at gunpoint. Nevertheless it was sheer providence and the good fortune of Pakistan that a military dictatorship happened to be in power when 9/11 was conducted. This dictatorship alone has allowed Pakistan to bear the brunt of the Western economic foreign policy corollaries of 9/11. Unlike any civilian body the Pakistan military can and has in the post 9/11 environment seen Pakistan through with a some modicum of dignity and with as much consideration for the structural, political and economic integrity of the nation as was possible under the circumstances. The military's compulsion to privatise and reform the economy is tempered by the fact that they themselves are a public institution unlike any civilian government which could only represent the interests of private industry and global capital. Removal of the military regime at this point in favour of an elected government shall assuredly sound the death knell for Pakistan as an independent country and result in sheer and utter bedlam. Military rule irrespective of Western cajoling and agitation is Pakistan's only viable option if it is to survive an an integrated state.

All of this however is contingent upon as to whether Pakistan should continue as a state. This is a question only the Pakistani public can answer and inevitably involves a struggle which shall be a rigorous test indicative of the moral fibre of the Pakistani people. Western opinion and agendas seem to point towards a balkanised Pakistan. This is more than a likelihood as Baluchistan has about 20 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves and an estimated 6 trillion barrels of on and off shore oil reserves. The Chinese investment in Gwadar, Western demands as to the privatisation of Sui and the recent susceptibility of local Baluch leaders to petty nationalisms and rampant self interest can be seen as part of a larger picture. Baluchistan may also be important in so far the ongoing process of creating an enclave of pro-Western client states around Iran and possibly to the end of countering Russian influence in the Caspian Basin and CARs.

Sindh also has its share of separatist agitators and interest groups. The ethnically Sindhi agitators, a contingent of whom are acting abroad, are making a case for independence based on the evil of a primarily Punjabi pro-Wahabi/Deobandi Army being a harsh contrast to their peaceful Sufi ways. In reality some innate belief in the superiority (perhaps racial) and elitism of ethnic Sindhis as compared to the Mohajir community and the belief that ethnic Sindhis should have a freehand over the economics of Sindh is very much at play. This agenda is promoted by the Sindhi feudal interest. By no means however are the Mohajir/MQM contingent blameless either. On the whole the MQM are essentially syndicated terrorists, purportedly representing the interests of ordinary Pakistanis and Mohajirs against the feudal aristocracy, through a regimen of torture and intimidation. The MQM in fact collaborate with the Sindhi landowning class, each serving the others' short term interests to the ends of mutual reinforcement and division of the spoils. Irrespective of the nature of their case, both these Sindhi interest groups have some political support in the US and beyond.


The merger of Islamists and Pakhtun nationalists/separatists is a political inevitability if Waziristan is to be considered, as an example of things to come. An increasing Talibanisation can be seen in Malakand Agency, Dir, Bajaur, and other areas around Peshawar and in particular in Swat which is awash with pro-Taliban Islamists. This state of affairs in intrinsically owing to the fact that the FATA has not ever been within the Federal ambit and the continued existence of the anachronistic agency system.

No civilian government created of the will of the Pakistani electorate, could or indeed seek to curtail the Talibanisation, seeping across the Afghanistan border. Such governments could only pander to provincial interest groups and feudal/tribal elements and let the provinces stagnate as they always have. The facts that Pakistan is a nuclear state and that only the military as an institution, can manifest Western interests, in so far as Afghanistan and the War on Terror are concerned, go to show that external pressure advocating democracy is merely a ploy to allow Western military action in Pakistan and to instigate the prelude of the total instability such action would require. This in turn is very indicative of the calibre and nature of the Pakistan's domestic pro-democracy elements.

The notion of Western policies to the end of the destabilisation of Pakistan or the possibility of an invasion are views which have been expressed, quite a few times in different forms. General Hamid Gul (ex-DGISI) had previously cited Pakistan's nuclear status as the reason for US policies to the end of destabilising the country, along with the need for "containment" presumably of Muslim nations. Most recently the BBC, referred to US strategists under Clinton, seeking a military intervention in Pakistan as early as 1998, to prevent it acquiring a nuclear arsenal. Following through, Democrat Senator Barack Obama made the case for the invasion of Pakistan as part of his Presidency campaign, where the US shall attack Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan with or without approval from the Pakistani government. This is not an unlikelihood, considering that the current American administration recently sought the use of Pakistani soil to conduct the War on Terror; a demand refused by Musharraf as the American presence would be unwelcome and against Pakistani sovereignty.

Alternatively indigenous and imported Islamist elements have a vested interest in the destabilisation of Pakistan to their own ends, such as expanding the theatre of their operations strategically, territorially and financially. Pakistan's nuclear capabilities make it extremely attractive to Jihadists, Islamists and the like, as the acquisition of such capabilities would galvanize and vindicate their cause in the minds of the disaffected Muslim masses across the world. Even if there is no direct Western policy to destabilise Pakistan, Islamist agitations will conveniently allow for Western military intervention.

Such intervention, in either case shall result in a weak and balkanised Pakistan consisting of essentially primitive feudal fiefdoms, of which some, such as Baluchistan shall be territories under de facto Western control through multinationals. It is fair to say that such a situation is quite foreseeable in Pakistan's medium to long term future. Although it is without a doubt that Pakistan is a colonial creation, current separatist agendas shall only serve the ends of the new wave of western imperialism, rather than result the welfare, that advocates of sectarianism purport to the interest groups they represent. Pakistan in an entity of considerable influence and importance in situ which as of yet, has more than sixty years of establishment and foundation behind it. Newly created 'independent' territories will be entirely dependant and subservient to the West

These threats are primarily what the Pakistani Military should be concerned with. It is Pakistan's western neighbour that jeopardizes its interests and future more so than India; the traditional enemy. The Military is not without flaws and problems. The traditional rationale behind Pakistan's military expenditure, has been the conflict with India primarily based around the Kashmir issue. More recently the Kashmir issue seems to be becoming a mere lifeline, by which the Pakistan military justifies its existence and budget, rather than an issue which can be resolved militarily at all or indeed even a viable casas belli. It is perhaps for such reasons that the ISI maintains its relationship with Islamists and other such undesirable elements, as was demonstrated in Kargil. Conflict with India over Kashmir is increasingly becoming a defunct possibility perhaps such that Pakistan must necessarily be the aggressor to incite such conflict. India has become a creditor nation and is likely to become part of the expanding G8 as well as play greater roles in both the IMF and the World Bank. The Kashmir issue as a basis for conflict is becoming increasingly more superfluous, and is more than likely to be perceived by the World as the belligerence of a nation that relies essentially on charity, loans and bail-outs to remain afloat. In light of its internal situation and the changing nature of India, Pakistan's Kashmir policy is becoming akin to the nonsensically aggressive stance of North Korea. An unstable factionalised Pakistan will also justify pre-emptive Indian action to counter any potential nuclear threats they might perceive.

Pakistan now has a real more complex enemy which is eroding it from within as well as "friends" waiting to divide the spoils. On the other hand this new cause may be the very invigoration that the country so desperately needs. The military must evolve. The role the Pakistan Military must play in so far as doing their duty in defending Pakistan is to work towards the organisation and integration of the aforementioned interest groupings towards a common national end. Such action must only be undertaken in conjunction with an extremely firm stance on the territorial integrity of Pakistan.

The case of Waziristan manifests the public's perception that Taliban style Shariah law is a viable alternative to Federal Government. This indicates that Pakistan's territorial and political sovereignty seems to have been reduced post 9/11, to the question whether the population are prepared to be Pakistanis before they Pakhtuns, Sindhis, Baluchis and most importantly Muslims.

If any compromise is to be drawn between these loyalties and if Pakistan is to survive, a total martial law is desperately and imperatively required. Similarly what may only be described as 'purges' of Islamist elements from within the Army, the tribal belts and from the other interest groupings are extremely necessary. A zero tolerance policy on quasi-entities such as the Waziristan emirate and the like must be instituted. This shall require the complete integration of FATA and other tribal areas into Pakistan and the securing of the Afghanistan border so as to limit the Taliban to an internal Afghan problem. Demanding as though this agenda may seem, the rigours of such a martial law are trifling as compared to the untold suffering a Western sponsored civil war would entail.

As of yet the ever popular 'doctrine of necessity' has been the basis of subsequent Pakistani martial laws, assumably on the basis that 'the good of the people is the supreme law'. Every martial regime has had a penchant for constitutional reform, however none have ever realised the 'Salus populus' element of the doctrine to any significant degree. From a mere racketeering interest group the Pakistani military must evolve to an institution which can protect the integrity and interests of the nation.

Although it is very late in the day, a mitigation of losses and a regimen of radical steps can be taken in order to consolidate and protect the Federation. The Pakistan military must make a quantum leap and consolidate and reorganise itself, to the end of divorcing itself from susceptibility to anti-national interests. From a Western perspective, the very propensity of the military to make such a move is one of the reasons why Pakistan must be destabilised.

Military discipline should be the basis to create a viable system of governance and this reprehensible current trend of short term profiteering in the senior soldiery must be set aside. It is in the national interest to rein in ISI and curtail its relationship with fundamentalists. Such a move shall break the deadlock in Kashmir. Normalisation of relations with India are imperative, as is a swift and judicious resolution to the Kashmir issue. This is no longer a matter of choice. A possible solution is the declaration of a Kashmiri free-trade area, which shall stimulate the regional economy. On this front Pakistan must act act responsibly and in good faith and must pre-emptively give India a degree of leeway towards any successful resolution.

The greater good, human rights and public benefit should become exclusively domestic issues with no external influence. The essence of what shall hold the Federation together is giving the citizenry a stake in Pakistan's survival. This is a task that only the military can achieve. Such a stake can only be economic and shall involve extensive land reforms which must be instituted forcefully. Landlessness and serfdom must be eliminated as must the primitive feudalism, which in endemic in rural areas. The constitution must be reformed towards a total and entrenched removal of the clerics from the legislative process as well as ensuring that no basis of discrimination can manifest or institute at any level under the auspices of the Pakistan government, against any interest group. This would inevitably require zero tolerance of Islamist elements and influences and a general curtailment of feudal interests, a situation that only a total martial law can realise.

Democracy like martial law is merely a means to an end; not an end unto itself as seems to be the current mod. Pakistan must be pragmatic if it is to survive and must not throw the baby out with the bathwater in pursuit of its better future.

Sahibzada H.Rehman