A letter delivered to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) ahead of President Asif Zardari's address - “Pakistan: Strategic Challenges & Opportunities”
Dr John Chipman
The Director-General
The International Institute for Strategic Studies
13-15 Arundel Street
Temple Place
London
WC2R 3DX
17th September 2009
Mr 10% has no legitimacy in Pakistan
Pakistan needs a New Leadership and New System
The warm reception for President Asif Zardari at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London on the 18th of September once again shows the close relationship between the West and the corrupt and illegitimate rulers in the Muslim world. Unfortunately while Pakistan faces momentous challenges, Zardari’s speech will contain nothing new. It will repeat the same party line that Washington, London and Islamabad have now agreed like a tired record for eight years since 9-11. Regardless of which member of the Pakistani elite rules Pakistan, the same failed policies remain in place. For the people of Pakistan the last sixty-two years have been like a recurring nightmare. A continued cycle of democracy, corruption, dictatorship and foreign interference continues to ravage the country. Many in western capitals spurred on by think tanks like the IISS, as well those who currently head the country, see Pakistan as part of the wider ‘war on terror’. Yet, ironically for a war that claims to concern itself with ending terror, it has brought unprecedented terror to thousands of people in the North West Frontier of Pakistan, FATA, Baluchistan, and Afghanistan and has fuelled ‘terror’ throughout the world.
After witnessing the corruption of the Bhutto administration in the late 1980’s, then falling for it again in the early 1990’s during the second tenure of the PPP, Pakistan is now facing an unprecedented third sting from the same hole in an open insult to the historical recollection of every Pakistani. This process proves, without a doubt, that the politics of Pakistan have been permanently usurped by aristocratic elite, whether feudal or military in nature. This elite supported to the hilt by the US and UK have a wide ranging disregard for any real sustainable development, progress and relief from abject poverty that a state such as Pakistan, with its huge agricultural and industrial potential should enjoy. The relevant fact is that the PPP lead by President Zardari represents a feudal aristocracy, a phenomenon long consigned to the political dustbin of history even in most parts of the developing world. The PPP is a secular, aristocratic organisation that seeks to stir up mass support using red herrings of democracy, social justice and an end to army tyranny as its rallying cries.
Today there are two diametrically opposite views as to what constitutes the problem in Pakistan. According to the West and its plethora of think tanks the trouble is all due to extremists and radicals. The response to this is to resume the three-century-old western struggle to ensure the Muslim world remains compliant and its resources feed the international capitalist system. According to the Muslim masses, it is the old western capitalist order, now degenerate and corrupt, that are crippling not just the Muslim world but bankrupting the western world. The solution to this malaise is a return to an Islamic State rooted in representative and accountable politics. It is the call for a return to the Caliphate that is gaining traction not just in Pakistan but also throughout the Muslim world from Mauritania to Jakarta.
Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for the following:
An immediate withdrawal of all NATO and US forces from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the wider region. In a recent Pew survey released in August 2009 72% of Pakistanis want the U.S. and NATO to remove their military troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible. Only 16% approve of Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. The root cause of all the terror and instability in the region is undeniably the presence of occupying forces.
Pakistan has had enough of dictatorship, martial law, states of emergency or the sham of secular democracy led by its current President who is not just tainted by corruption but who treats politics as a family business. Pakistan must establish a true Islamic constitution. This constitution should guarantee real elections, true accountability, an independent judiciary and a rule of law that is equally applied.
Pakistan also needs to regain full sovereignty over all its affairs. At present Pakistan is a chessboard for all types of foreign interference whether it is from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the IMF.
Pakistan needs to establish an Islamic society that is vibrant, forward looking, which is technologically proficient and which embraces all its citizens irrespective of their gender, sect, religion or race.
Pakistan needs to urgently tackle its chronic domestic problems of corruption, law and order and economic malaise. Only radical solutions from Islam’s tried and trusted political system can solve such problems not the cosmetic secular solutions provided by the current ruling elite.
Lastly Pakistan needs to chart its own independent course in foreign policy, not be a conduit for the United States. Pakistan’s future lies as part of a unified Muslim world who constitute a quarter of the world’s population, who control key strategic waterways and who sit on a majority of the world’s energy reserves. Only a unified Muslim world can confront the challenges that will emerge in the 21st century from the United States, the EU, Russia, India and China.
Hizb ut-Tahrir therefore proposes a new leadership and new system for Pakistan through the establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) system. This is based upon our detailed study of the Islamic texts and through a profound study of the current problems facing Pakistan. Hizb ut-Tahrir, unlike any other political party based in Pakistan is global in nature, located in over 40 countries. We are the only party that has such a global footprint and outlook, yet our local presence ensures that we are always close to specific problems that exist in any country. Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan has been at the forefront of the struggle against politicians like Zardari, consistently calling him to account over both his domestic and foreign policy.
We therefore call you to debate our vision for Pakistan and for the region. We know that millions of people in the west share our discontent with the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and we are sure some good can come from this terrible episode. We believe that there are root causes of the problem in Pakistan and Afghanistan that have not yet been fully debated, that there are productive future solutions to the conflict if only those who have goodwill can have the courage to act on them.
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Britain
27th Ramadhan 1430
17th September 2009
www.hizb.org.uk
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