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The near collapse of the western designed democratic coalition threatens disintegration of Pakistan |
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Issues Explained
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Friday, 22 August 2008 |
 The announcement today by the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, that his PML-N party had decided to pull out of the coalition government has thrown Pakistani politics into further turmoil but comes as little surprise. Coming just days after Pervaiz Musharraf resigned from the office of President, the latest events deepens Pakistan’s political crisis, as the country faces the prospect of economic failure and the real possibility of disintegration.
The failure to re-instate the Supreme Court judges removed by Musharraf was cited by Sharif as the primary reason for the rift between his party and the PPP, whose de facto leader Asif Zardari feared the prospect of facing past corruption charges if the re-instated judges were to withdraw the amnesty granted to him and his late wife by Musharraf.
There is little doubt that Musharraf’s tenure has left Pakistan in a total mess. His support for the US led so-called “war on terror” has brought the country into civil war, with frontier tribesmen loyal to the Taliban in conflict with the army. The economy is in freefall, with inflation out of control and at its highest for 30 years. Stocks have plummeted and the rupee has lost a quarter of its value in less than three months. Basic commodities such as wheat, sugar and oil are now beyond the means of ordinary citizens. Power cuts are also a daily occurrence.
Pakistan faces turmoil yet these corrupt politicians are unwilling to work to solve the crippling problems for the sake of the country but, rather, are engaged in rivalry and a struggle for power for their own selfish interests. As in the past, the return to corrupt democratic politics has failed to deliver even basic provisions for ordinary Pakistanis, yet alone access to civil institutions such as the rule of law and accountable governance.
While the west and some in Pakistan claimed that a return to democracy could restore the country’s stability, economy and direction, the patchwork political solution brokered by the US and the UK during the height of the judicial crisis has now spectacularly collapsed, highlighting the failure of the current political framework.
The problem for Pakistan is that the country’s direction and political course remains dominated by an agenda dictated by the US and its allies in the region. In effect the US is forcing a civil war in Pakistan and may actually have the eventual aim of disintegrating the country which would meet its interest from the perspective of a strong India as a counter balance to China.
As the history of Pakistani politics has shown, the US, for all its rhetoric of democracy and freedom being an innate human right, will dictate the political affairs of Pakistan to ensure that a compliant government is always in power irrespective of whether it is civilian or military.
Indeed, even Musharraf’s unstinting loyalty to the US over the years had little traction with Washington who swiftly sidelined the unpopular President in his hour of need. Refusing to answer his calls, Musharraf was left with little option but to resign or face impeachment with a charge sheet of allegations asserting he had diverted $700m of US aid for the “war on terror” to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and for his own purposes. Such is the humiliating end of the ruler who has betrayed Pakistan, Islam and the Muslims by his support of the US, whose regional policy is to openly weaken Pakistan while, strengthening India.
Increasingly, Pakistanis are realising that the current political framework is the underlying cause of the many problems facing the country. Pakistan needs an independent government that is accountable and which works for the interest of its people and the Muslim Ummah as a whole.
Importantly, Pakistan needs a new system of governance that will offer genuine change to the political status quo, by removing the disastrous and continual interference of the US and other external powers, thereby preventing further deterioration. Only then can a government begin to work and institute policies to develop the vast potential of Pakistan’s human and natural resources.
Pakistan needs the Khilafah system that will implement Islam in its totality, providing transparent and accountable governance, an independent judiciary and the rule of law for all. The Khilafah will also implement a radical economic programme that will introduce land reform and protect Pakistan’s economy from external interference. Most importantly, the Khilafah will protect the sovereignty of Muslim land and will never allow the enemies of Islam to put a foot upon it or to dictate military policy.
Pakistan’s many problems are not insurmountable in the hands of a sincere leadership with the ability to implement Islam in state and society. Hizb ut Tahrir, in working for the restoration of the Khilafah, has developed a detailed economic framework for Pakistan that would see ordinary people taken out of a life of poverty and provided with opportunity for education and access to healthcare. Hizb ut Tahrir urges the sincere Muslims of Pakistan to withdraw any support for the current government and the failed, rotten politics that has produced it.
It is only by working with Hizb ut Tahrir, in order that the Khilafah be established, that Pakistan can re-emerge from its current “failed nation” status in to a leadership that unifies the Muslim world upon Islam, thereby bringing back dignity to the Ummah and offering humanity an alternative to the injustices of global Capitalism.
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