Pakistan’s Deepening Political Crisis

Pakistan’s tryst with vendetta politics continues as cricketer turned politician Imran Khan becomes the new entrant in the long list of former Prime Ministers, who have been sent to jail. Before Imran Khan, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, were all sent to jail, whenever the Pakistani army considered them a threat to its hegemony over the country. Many western countries, like the United States of America (USA), may claim to believe that these are internal matters and thus, need no outside intervention. But as the immediate neighbour of this troubled country, New Delhi has every reason to be worried as more often than not, in an effort to quell the unrest in the country, Pakistan has adopted an aggressive attitude against India. It is expected that Pakistan’s ruling elites will indulge in similar activities if popular opinion starts going against it following Imran Khan’s imprisonment.

The absence of a democratic set up is harming Pakistan as its policies and programmes are not framed with the aim to serve its citizens or to fulfil their aspirations. Instead, the country has often indulged in high-decibel ‘hate-India’ campaigns to divert the attention of the people from its failures. Many believe that it has been their endeavour to destabilise India and have often provided a safe haven to terrorists. Islamabad’s obsession with creating trouble in India, can be judged from the fact that even during former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s famous bus journey to Lahore, the then Pakistan army chief Pervez Musharraf sent the Pakistani army to Kargil. The late Musharraf did so intentionally keeping the political leadership of the country in the dark, just to fulfill his personal ambition of ruling the country and dislodging the incumbent political leadership. India has faced such betrayal from Pakistan on a number of occasions as several joint statements by the political leadership of both countries aimed towards permanent peace between the two countries have remained non-starters as Pakistan’s army has always nurtured different ambitions, ignoring national interests.           

Due to the chronic turbulence in Pakistan, the Indian subcontinent has never witnessed a peaceful day since the region was bifurcated into three. Pakistan’s obsession with Kashmir has created a permanent trouble spot on the northern frontier of India. Similarly, Islamabad’s failure to provide good governance in erstwhile East Pakistan resulted in a lack of peace in the region till Bangladesh got Independence in 1971. All these developments are indicative of the fact that Pakistan can only solve its problems by embracing democracy, the people must have the final say. Otherwise, the fate of popular political leaders will always depend on their relationship with the army. For instance, Imran Khan was in the army’s good books up till he was serving their interests. But as soon as things started going wrong, he was put behind bars. It is high time for the world to raise its voice in unison for democratic rule in Pakistan to ensure peace in this part of the world.