Trump demands that Pakistan should prove that its nukes are safe.
He says this when the international community has found that Pakistan’s nuclear regime is compatible to the rest of the world and far ahead of India’s. The US is indignant of Pakistan facilitating Haqqani camps when no such camps exist. The US and Afghan resist the idea of a fenced border and the return of the Afghan refugees, a long outstanding request by Pakistan. Pakistan has stated it can be held responsible for any cross border movement and would remain open to any blame if such cross border movement were to still take place if both these matters were attended to. Explaining or proving anything to the US is irrelevant and superfluous. Their position is firm, their actions premeditated.
Remember the WMD in Iraq?
The US threatens unilateral action in case Pakistan does not take act. Act against what? Mattis says the CPEC goes through a disputed area, but fails to validate the same dispute where Mangla Dam was built with US assistance. Indian Prime Minister Modi claims Pakistan is interfering in their elections and supports the Free Baluchistan Movement here, as well as abroad. Ajit Doval, India’s National Security Advisor, wants Pakistan cut into four pieces, and the world applauds while he says it. Afghanistan sits in India’s lap and pulls faces at Pakistan.
The IMF says Pakistan has to pay back $ 32 Billion against its external loans by March 2018. Chinese seem to have become a little tentative in their CPEC project. A LNG terminal closes immediately after its commissioning and creates a gas shortage in the country. Sufi is sacked for applying the law and PM takes offence to his front man being targeted.
Our chattering classes in Pakistan think that the establishment is responsible for all the wrongs – that Pakistan is somehow in this predicament because of the Establishment.
It is India centric they say; their Afghan policy is wrong, they say. The government must be allowed the space to govern Pakistan is a popular demand. Restrain the Army, control the judiciary!!! The language they use in the Parliament and outside it is exactly the same as that of the enemy.
The US and the Indians could not have had better protégés. Achakzai says FATA belongs to the Afghans and is not Pakistani territory, Altaf Hussain, hiding from criminal cases in the UK, abuses the Army and the ISI. Free Baluchistan is a campaign in Europe instigated by our very own Pakistanis. Nawaz Sharif says he is an ideological phenomenon and by removing him Pakistan will be destroyed.
In other words, it’s either Nawaz and Pakistan or nothing.
Safdar, an insignificant twerp, goes on a religious tirade, arranges the Faizabad Dharna to divide the country on religious grounds. The opposition, led by the grinning jackass, former President Asia Ali Zardari, is going around nodding his head as if wisdom flows out of him followed by his son braying into the wind like an ignorant fool.
The only institutions that have remained independent and autonomous, the military and the judiciary, are being constantly criticised by the chattering classes. With all this visible and all that’s said so audible, yet they scream, ‘but it is the Establishment’.
With the country sold out, the nukes under threat, sovereignty questioned, society in the grips of extremists, law and order doubtful, CPEC on hold, no one will settle for anything less.
It’s the Establishment they say!!!
People, like myself & CommandEleven, have been saying over and over again, since the last so many years, that what was visible, was the deliberate and irreversible dismantling of the country. Some said sarcastically, ‘ so everyone is a traitor except the Establishment’. They think this is a conclusive point that silences the debate.
A traitor is someone who pretends to be a patriot but actually works for the enemy; a turncoat.
These are not traitors, these are people who have openly and publicly voiced their opinion. They have clearly demonstrated, and continue to do so, that their way is the only way and if Pakistan comes in the way, then Pakistan must go.
How does one explain Achakzai stating the FATA does not belong to Pakistan or that Khar would arrive on an Indian Tank in Lahore, or that Altaf inviting the Indian Army in to Pakistan and teach our Army a lesson or Nawaz claiming that if he is not there, Pakistan will not be there either?
How can Fazal ur Rehman state that he would rather pray for a dog that was killed by the Americans than one of our soldiers martyred fighting terrorists, and Munawar of the Jamaat Islami state that funeral prayers for our soldiers were not valid?
Asma Jehangir, of the saffron fame who spares no moment to ridicule the Military; and finds it humorous as she spews her hatred on TV, in public or anywhere she can. Our very own find the border-fencing offensive.
How not having a fence is good for them, I cannot say? It’s our own who protest against the return of the refugees; how that helps them, I also cannot say?
I hate to be an alarmist and a pessimist to boot but I am wondering how our wizards are going to get us out of this conundrum.
Shall we succumb to the US or take appropriate measures to contain their aggression? Should we appease the Indians or stand our ground? Should we do away with the nukes or go bankrupt? Should we give up Kashmir and settle for what we have?
Yes, the famous answer is to work this ‘diplomatically’. This is like saying let democracy handle it. These are labels. Diplomacy is not an isolated process, just as democracy is not a slogan. Diplomacy flows from ones power potential and capacity, while democracy through accountability. I don’t see both.
What should we expect from diplomacy and what can we hope from democracy? We are a nation that has turned upon itself, no one can destroy us better than what we are doing to ourselves just as no one can save us since we ourselves derive so much pleasure in being witness to our own annihilation.
Lt. General Tariq Khan (Retired), an erudite general from Pakistan’s Armored Corps and a decorated War Veteran, is an expert on critical issues related to Terrorism & Insurgencies. General Tariq Khan during the Battle of Bajaur, transformed and re-shaped Frontier Corps into a relentless fighting force and raised FC’s own special forces popularly known as SOG. Commanded and led major operations in FATA from the frontline, his model on counter-insurgency is still applied to this day.
Lt. General Tariq Khan (Retired) leads CommandEleven’s Board of Advisors as our Patron-in-Chief.
-
Lt. General Tariq Khan (Retired)https://www.commandeleven.com/author/tk/
-
Lt. General Tariq Khan (Retired)https://www.commandeleven.com/author/tk/
-
Lt. General Tariq Khan (Retired)https://www.commandeleven.com/author/tk/
-
Lt. General Tariq Khan (Retired)https://www.commandeleven.com/author/tk/
