<i>Pakistan scene</i>
Mr. Tariq Karim foresees Pakistan's future political development as a final battle between the forces of civil society and democracy and militant obscurantism and military jingoism. He also said lot of nice things about BB. His analysis was fine but I think he somehow fogged the identity of the real enemy of the Pakistani people though he mentioned it. Sixty years of relentless Goebblesian propaganda and Orwellian thought controlling programmed the Pakistani people including the weak civil society to think that the military is the saviour of their country. That it is the real demon which has devoured their souls and made them mere slaves. Not even the Stalinist brain washing on which Orwell based his 1984 society was as effective as the Pakistani military. The Pak military has the advantage of using Islam as the ideological tool which the Stalinists did not have. So if Pakistani people wish to establish democracy they have to wage a war against their own military. But in the current situation it is not going to happen, notwithstanding Mr. Karim's expectations. The Pakistani people are hopelessly divided and against them the military are solidly united as a rock as the only powerful organisation with all the weapons of brutalisation at their command. The military itself is the state in Pakistan. If the military is defeated and removed from power then the state will disintegrate. The comparable scenario is Somalia. The political scientists should ponder over this and produce a new concept to define the Pakistani state.
Mr. Karim praises BB for her courage. Yes she was brave but foolish too. How could she trust the military who murdered her father even after ZAB saved it from the disgrace of 1971 defeat? How could she not see that military would never allow even a sham democracy to flourish with a US supported politician? The US did not try to save ZAB's life. The military became the state in Pakistan right from Jinnah's rule in 1947 when he sent the army in the guise of mujahids to free Kashmir. Thereafter it was easy for the military to do whatever it wanted. Please recall that Jinnah died in utter neglect and PM Liaqat was murdered at ease.
Even if we hypothesize of a likely scenario of BB becoming the PM under Musharraf, her fate would have been the repetition of the previous event or worse. The only difference is that it happened a bit early.
The military is already in control of the situation and would remain ever. Torching of trains, banks and vehicles don't perturb it. Actually such acts reinforce its authority since only it can restore order. They know only one language--guns. So if the people of Pakistan rise up and fight the demon with guns and are able to defeat it, may be they would move one step forward to change their lives for the better even on the buried coffin of the military state named Pakistan.
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