.. By Islamuddin
Right from its inception Pakistan has been under attack. Pro-India media ridiculed the very name of the country saying that the name by implication considers rest of the world impure and was therefore a racist state. Words like Paki and Musleh were invented as negative references for Pakistanis. Other countries joined hands with India for Pakistan bashing after we detonated nuclear device. U.K, USA, Israel and India started working together to take away Pakistan’s nuclear asset instead of resolving her security concerns which could have neutralized the threats from Pakistan’s nuclear capability. In fact the nefarious Indian designs, pushed Pakistan to opt for nuclear weapons, otherwise it was a peaceful program to generate cheap electric power. There are reasons to believe that our nuclear program was just and a pretext and the fact of the matter is that these countries never reconciled to the creation of Pakistan on the basis of Islamic ideology. The hangover of the crusades and survival of Israel as a Western outpost in the heart of the Muslim world have been the driving forces behind Western policies. In India they found a useful ally. Both shared animosity with Islam.

As long as Pakistanis remained united and their governments patriotic, we had nothing to fear. But now the situation has changed. India and her allies appear to have penetrated in Pakistan first via Taliban and Al Qaeda/ISIL and in recent times through influential groups and political parties. Western funded civil society nexus and economic interests of business groups led by Nawaz Sharif and Mir Shakeel have upped the stakes for Pakistan making her more vulnerable to domestic sabotage. Emboldened by powerful external forces the anti-Pakistan forces inside the country indulged into looting spree taking the money out and investing in offshore accounts and friendly markets. It came no surprise when the Panama JIT came up with revelation that most of the culprits had right to permanent residence abroad. The question is that why they needed dual nationality if not for money laundering, stashing corruption money in those safe havens and for possible migration to those places once the waters inside Pakistan got rough for them to sail.

Indian and Western capacity to dictate terms has been on the rise since the Ziaul Haq days. He did their bidding by depoliticizing the people, dividing the nation on ethnic and sectarian grounds and intervention in Afghan war which provided conduit for the flooding of our society with Kalashnikovs and heroine. Ziaul Haq’s spiritual son, Nawaz Sharif, has been carrying forward this legacy. The Pakistani establishment, blinded by the hatred of Bhutto factor, turned blind eye to the rising menace of Nawaz and avoided to act before it was too late. Now the cat is out of the back. Nawaz Sharif is out to demolish the two remaining institutions of the state having ability to guarantee Pakistan’s survival. It is a measure of the power and audacity of these anti-Pakistan forces that they have enlisted the support of government machinery and funds in their drive to discredit and demolish the independent judiciary and the army.

It is time that the guardians of the country’s security and rule of law acted against these rogue elements, make them accountable for spending people’s taxes on the rally of a disqualified politician and making the country vulnerable for terrorists as the entire government machinery was busy providing security to a person removed from power by the country’s Supreme Court on multiple charges including massive corruption. This rally makes no sense except that Nawaz Sharif wants to blackmail the judiciary and army to offer him NRO otherwise he would make the people rise against the country to make the dream of Akhand Bharat come true. It is in this background that Indian media cries out that their investment in Nawaz Sharif should not go waste. For Nawaz Sharif money is everything. His greed knows no boundaries. For him Pakistan is a business enterprise and not a country to be safeguarded.

Here it is worth mentioning that during one of the Ombudsman conferences held in Wellington, which I attended as part of Pakistani delegation, it was pointed out that Thailand and Hong Kong pursued corruption route for quick economic growth but once this corruption began to be done at the cost of the state, they decided to put a stop to it by establishing Ombudsman institutions. Today corruption is being done at the cost of the state and we do have such institutions but in practice their job is to protect corruption in high places and catch small time petty thieves to justify their fate budgets. This fact was amply brought out during the Panama case hearing in the Supreme Court. NAB turned out to be dead, Parliament emasculated and anti-corruption establishments rendered into a handy tool to victimize opponents. Parliamentary sovereignty is a joke as none of its committees can force a federal secretary to appear before it or share information. Rules of Business are silent about the powers of these committees. Instead of making and upholding laws National Assembly found it fit to eulogize a PM found corrupt by the apex court.

Pakistan is under siege. Never before were the enemies of Pakistan so entrenched in power and supported from inside and abroad. The hostility generated by a name has now found another reason in our nuclear program. It is propagated time and again that the world will not be safe as long as Pakistan remains a nuclear state. In his zeal to save his corruption Nawaz Sharif is playing into enemy hands wittingly or unwittingly. Time will tell the truth. As for now the people of Pakistan would like its judiciary to move fast against corruption and lawlessness. The army must back up the judiciary as they are required under Article 190 of the constitution. Pampered media houses, conniving and indulging in corruption and making common cause with the corrupt rulers, should be taken to task to deter others from playing havoc with national interests to protect and promote their own personal agendas.

The silver lining in the current situation, however, is that it has exposed all the anti state elements. It is now for the guardians of national security to move against them and put an end to this nefarious game once for all. Bangladesh model should be visited for the way out from the quagmire that Nawaz Sharif and his friends have created. Let the Supreme Court take suo motto notice of the smear campaign against state institutions amounting to sedition if not treason. Interim government comprising honest technocrats and patriotic politicians, appointed by the Supreme Court for 2 years, should be mandated to recover stolen wealth of the country estimated at 200 billion dollars stashed abroad before holding elections. The cost of inaction would be perilous. Corrupt political parties having a stake in the corrupt system are likely to join hands to rewrite the constitution to emasculate state institutions and legislate to legalize corruption from back date providing re-entry to Nawaz Sharif. That would be a sad day for Pakistan and rule of law. Please break the siege and help us get out of our sleepless and nightmarish nights and dreams. Let the saner elements in PML, the likes of Ch.Nisar, come out of hibernation and save PML, the founder party of Pakistan, now hijacked by the corrupt mafia, and restore its true image. We may not agree with its present manifesto but we do respect it as our proud legacy. It is unfortunate that the party once led by Jinnah, an epitome of honesty, truth, sagacity, honour, incorruptibility and sacrifice has come into the hands of Sicilian mafia. .. Islamuddin, Garum Chashma 13 Aug 2017