On August 14, 1947 Pakistan transited from the British colonial to the American neo-colonial domination. The aim of the Great Power is to control the minds of men and gain the allegiance of the leaders of underdeveloped nations, through economic domination and other devices.
The great poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz lamented:
Yeh dagh-dar Ujala yeh shab-gazeeda sahar
Woh intizar tha jisska yeh who sahar tou nahin
And so it turned out. The working people remained oppressed and exploited.
Soon after independence, the beneficiary elite of the British period, which became the ruling elite of Pakistan, chose to preserve their erstwhile vested interests and authority. To perpetuate their dominance over the people, they chose not to change the system of governance of the British period. They also chose the U.S. as their imperial hegemonic master in place of the British.
For sixty-five years, the poor and the down people have resisted the unjust rule of one regime after another – 18 ‘elected’ prime ministers and four military dictators. Passive resistance through non-cooperation with the apparatus of the state was their weapon, the only one they knew in the absence of a revolutionary avan guard. They rarely helped the police in preventing crime or coming forward to appear as witness in the courts of law. They avoided paying government dues, did not consider government property to be publicly owned, indeed destroyed state assets whenever possible. They produced minimum possible for the scant remuneration they received.
In the end the people succeeded in bringing down the totally undemocratic, British-designed notorious bureaucratic steel framework of governance, the principal instrument of domination and exploitation.
Rogue elements among the rich and the poor, elected or unelected, officials or otherwise are today free to violate the laws, rules and regulations on the statute books. Killers, plunderers, kidnappers, bank robbers, car and purse snatchers, land grabbers and corrupt elite in high places abound. For the last two years, the executive is blatantly defying the Supreme Court. One wonders in what form the sovereign nature of the constitutional authority is still intact.
The observations of the Chief Justice of Pakistan show that the law and order situation in Baluchistan is serious. The border area of the land of the Pakhtuns presents a grim scenario for national security. The rural areas of Sindh are lawless. The road traffic movement at night is not without danger. The scions of once powerful landed aristocracy of Sindh cannot step out of the house without a heavy armed escort.
Few months ago, the Lyari area of Karachi erupted and fought the first urban class-war of Pakistan. With the support of the population, citizen warriors, called miscreants, who live on recoveries from the rich fought a real hot war against the forces of the government which survives on tax collections from those not qualified to be called rich. A week long war between the forces of the rich and the poor took place. Both sides fought with lethal arms. The forces of the government lost. No attempt has yet been made to reassert the authority of the state.
Regime after regime has failed to perform its vital functions such as provision of potable water for drinking, supply of electrical power, providing adequate nourishment and health care, decent housing, running railways network, and acceptable road communication.
The government of the elite by the elite and for the elite has been perpetuated since the establishment of Pakistan. The British imposed system of governance of vesting all executive authority in the civil and military officers had forced the exit of the British rulers. The oppressive system of governance has now blow-backed on the ruling elite of Pakistan and the imperial dominating power, the United States. The British rulers exited from India and now their successors in Pakistan are busy establishing niches in western countries. Many many of them have foreign passports and properties abroad. Hectically they are looting, whatever they can lay hands on, plundering national wealth and transferring it to foreign lands. In 65 years the value of Pakistani rupee has gone down from Rs 3.3 to one U.S. dollar to Rs 92 per U.S. dollar.
The future of any government in Pakistan is big question mark. The only possible way out is the empowerment of the people.
Filed under: Pak-US Relations, Pakistan Tagged: | Pakistan US Relations, Pakistani Politics, Poverty in Pakistan
