MY INFALLIBLE MEMOIRES
Once upon a time when I was a child, Gen. Ayub Khan and Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah were contesting the elections for the position of President of Pakistan. Gen. Ayub Khan was declared successful. Soon after, eminent politicians who once sided with Mohtarma Jinnah, changed their positions and joined the military dictator Gen. Khan's Convention League. Then came Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Awami League leader Sheikh Mujeeb Ur Rahman had swept the 1970 elections. But he wasn't allowed to form his government. The military elite of that time started a tough military operation against the supporters of Sheikh Mujeeb in East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh). The military crackdown had created a tranquilized situation across East Pakistan. But truth was ignored that Still Waters Run Deep. Subsequently, mutiny started bouncing back. Dictator Gen. Yahya Khan understood that the situation was under control but like a jaundiced eye that always sees everything green, Gen. Yahya Khan failed to hear the war drums in East Pakistan. Gen. Yahya Khan waged a war with the Bangali people of East Pakistan which resulted in military's shameful surrender to Bangalis and freedom from Pakistan. Bangalis created their homeland from East Pakistan to Bangladesh. The wounded Pakistan was then taken over by the power-hungry Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and he became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. His sheer and deceiving but mesmerising slogans helped him become a popular leader. The dramatic rise and fall was the fate of Bhutto. The trial court awarded him a sentence to death in a murder case. The Supreme Court of Pakistan maintained the sentence. At the time when Bhutto was dragged to the gallows, dictator Gen. Zia Ul Haque was in power. Ninety-nine percent of Bhutto's political aides, companions, and die-hard colleagues had parted ways and slipped into the lap of the dictator Gen. Zia.
Bhutto's funeral prayer was orphaned as only a few attended. Then, Nawaz Sharif succeeded Bhutto. His popularity through tactful political manoeuvring had equally soared to skies overnight. His party, PML-N was thus jam-packed. Opportunists in the disguise of political leaders rushed to PML-N or truly were driven to him like a herd of cattle. Sharif's government was, too, toppled by the army in 1999 and he was jailed. He reached a deal for his life with military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf to go to Saudi Arabia and live there for 10 years. Believing he had backing from his foreign friends, he dared to come back to Pakistan in violation of the agreement.
None of his fellows came to the airport to receive him because the military troops had swarmed the entire area. During that period, the dictator had engineered a new political party, PML-Q.
Sharif was badly deserted by his trusted fellows and colleagues who had joined the King's Party, PML-Q. Finally, Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI) was launched. It became a trendsetter in politics and had broken all previous records of fame and popularity. Lastly, per the scheme of Regime Change, Imran Khan's government was toppled through a conspiracy hatched by army. Khan's dashing narrative gained momentum and it helped his popularity soar to the skies. When Imran Khan was arrested, under the psycho-reactionary action of human psychology, i.e. the psychological natural reaction, there were fierce protests in support of him in such a fanatical state that a few fanatical agitators did whatever they could. During the violent protests, the army, as per demonic strategy, remained disappeared from the residence of Corps Commander Lahore, G.H.Q and other military installations like the horns of a donkey. On May 9, following the actions of a few fanatics, a military action against PTI was brutally conducted with paramilitary Rangers in a furious style that reminded me of the fierce military crackdown and massive massacre of Muhajirs in 1992 which is still in full swing till date. As soon as the military action started, the process of isolating Imran Khan was started by threatening the people of the PTI of dire consequences and compelling them to part ways with the PTI and Imran Khan. Every day, we watch PTI leaders at press conference tables announcing their forced divorces from PTI and Imran Khan. Everywhere, popular public leaders have been subjected to such acts by the country's military establishment and powerful elites, but it is also a fact that despite this, whether it is slain Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah or slain Nawabzada Khan Liaquat Ali Khan, Sheikh Mujeeb Ur Rahman or Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif or Altaf Hussain, the military's political engineering, lethal crackdowns, or abductions couldn't ever succeeded in drenching the people's love, support and voting for their leaders. The military establishment knows this fact but always acts like a wild drunk elephant. Military guns always faced humiliation. The conclusion of these glimpses from the dark history of the military establishment of Pakistan is clear that the military establishment neither learned from their draconian past nor are they willing to avoid bullying the politicians and political engineering.
Conversely, the military establishment keeps creating the splinter groups within mainstream political parties because it fears the rule of the people, by the people and for the people. This is democracy but there is always a militarised democracy in Pakistan because such militarised democracy suits the corrupt Generals.
History is proving that the love of the real leaders of the people cannot be removed from the hearts of the people by cruelty and brutality, unnecessary and indiscriminate use of power.
On this, I am reminded of a saying of Hazrat Ali that the government can survive on disbelief but cannot survive on cruelty, brutality and injustice.
ALTAF HUSSAIN
May 23, 2023.