|Mian Hameed
It is necessary to understand the end goal in the Pakistani tragedy of derailing democracy before I delve into my vital assessment of the Pakistan regime’s next moves. The goal is to reduce Pakistanis into a geographic sanctuary of plebeian cores. If one agrees with this premise, measures will be placed for Pakistan to become a sanctuary of the non-existent middle class. Geography with one emerging institution without adherence to the rule of law. No industrial infrastructure. A limited class of the elite and their children raised to manage Pakistan’s strategic organisation. This is the planned annunciation.
The logical proof of my enunciation is in the salient thought of the people.
The People of Pakistan are consumed with Pakistan’s tragedy—the devastating mode of the army’s high command—the economic and democratic destruction of Pakistan. Imran Khan’s speech of May 28, 2023, has asked the establishment to think of Pakistan and to hold elections after orchestrating further defections from his party.
The army’s high command has planned it with a pencil in hand to orchestrate Pakistan into a plebeian society. The building block was placed. They used Imran Khan to bring a constitutional change in the tenure extension of the army chief to nine years. This tenure is integral to land Pakistan to desired outcomes.
Read more: Pakistan: The government, people and the army
An army chief’s tenure extension has placed the seeds of running Pakistan in a feudalistic fashion. The economic capsizing, mothers and women abducted, and the recent alleged rape of women. All this is for the army chief to accumulate the balance of power and to consolidate authority.
When Khan said his biggest blunder was giving the former army chief Qamar Bajwa an extension, I do not think Khan was aware of the magnitude of his blunder and its potential consequences. Khan has compromised the moral principles of Pakistan—’to fight for the betterment of humanity.’
Within the stated goal to have several plebeian cores, I envision Pakistan promoting strategic organizations. Defense, military-owned businesses, and the nuclear sciences are the main ones. Pakistan is expected to hold her nuclear possession, not because of the preference of Western powers, but because India, the unnatural strategic partner of the United States and keeping Afghanistan at bay from the core of Pakistan–Punjab.
Read more: The failure of NATO to subdue Afghanistan
Pakistan’s magnanimity and importance come from her geography and not her people. Then we can have logical conclusions. To control the interest-based geography for a purpose and the plebeian goal as an objective. Then we can imagine certain outcomes.
Vision of a utopian outcome
A utopian outcome would ensure the population is reduced. Military strength raised to about a million men strong in Pakistan’s geography. This strategic strength is about right and is aligned with the Washington Beltway axiom: Other countries have an army. Pakistan army has a country.
This geography will be given a government much like the “Plebeian Council” of Rome. They will pass laws that would apply to the Plebeian class. For Pakistan, I envision changes in law similar to much before ancient Rome in 287 BCE, where common citizens laws were not sovereign to Rome. The Plebeian class was subjected to Senate (or in modern day Capitalistic Senate.) The Capitalistic Senate is the Pakistan Army.
Since April 09, 2022, when PM Khan was deposed, the rule of law has ended in Pakistan. After that, the Joint Criminal Enterprise, headed by the army chief, has vandalized people’s homes, tortured them, and very sadly I say, abducted their children and mothers. The good people of Punjab, the largest province from fear, have surrendered to fight for democracy.
This utopian goal of the planners is not tenable in the long run because of our learning from ancient Rome. Through evolution, by 287 BCE, the “Plebeian Council” gained equal standing to the Senate. Khan has asked his people to fight for equal standing.
Read more: A journey from gangsters to rulers -Dr Farid A Malik
A recent visit of three ISI officials to the Supreme Court Justice has sealed the immunity of the Joint Criminal Enterprise (army and the stooged government) from prosecution. This has fostered a culture of fear, systematic persecution and discrimination, breakdown of the social fabric and communal violence. All will trigger refugee-exodus crises.
While the majority of Pakistanis have not fully evolved from facing fear, Pakistan is set for a stage where I contemplate certain outcomes.
Forced displacement and refugee exodus
Pakistan is a candidate for forced displacement or forced migration. I do not contemplate a civil war.
One measure of forced population displacement is in play. In a staged May 09, 2023 assault on army installations, Pakistan’s fascist regime has imprisoned an estimated twenty-thousand PTI workers. The cumulative political persecution can trigger refugee exodus.
A dramatic genre of profound painful aspects—human rights abuses to the extent of alleged rapes has a pretext of refugee exodus. KPK province ethnic persecution is next. The army chief Asim Munir in his Sialkot garrison talk, has vouched to victimize the people of KPK because it is Khan’s stronghold is a factitious reasoning. Ethnic cleansing is a variable in the refugee exodus.
Read more: Lt Gen Asim Munir: A tough man for a tough job
In refugee-exodus schemes, properties of ethnic Pashtuns from KPK can be confiscated from other parts of Punjab and Islamabad and given to the soldiers. Seized property and resources are the means to redistribute wealth to benefit the participating soldiers. In WWII, the Nazi regime targeted the Roma community and Jews and confiscated their assets.
Other drastic refugee exodus examples include economic manipulation and sabotage to destabilize the region. Manipulating currency is one. Rupee to devalue RS500 to one U.S. dollar. Covert operations to disrupt infrastructure and livelihood. Release of bioweapons or manipulation of the environment in ways making areas uninhabitable. Target violence from covert operations to fund and arm extremists. Manipulation of human aid. Organizations like White Helmets to appear in Pakistan.
Silence of international law as Army takes control
Expect international law to remain silent. There were various reasons for the proponents of international law remaining relatively silent. Lack of public awareness is one. In Rwanda genocide of 1994, 800,000 people were killed in 100 days.
Army will maintain control of all sectors of the economy. Army will accumulate wealth to maintain a feudal-like structure. Expect indoctrination controls over education. Envision limited opportunities in regions that share a different ideology. As an example, the Khmer Rouge regime of Cambodia in 1975 sought the transformation of Cambodia into an agrarian utopia. The overwhelming consensus about Khmer Rouge is human rights abuses. Chomsky has argued the U.S. bombing campaign in Vietnam War significantly contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the ensuing violence.
Read more: Trials under Army Act: Netizens react to military’s strong stand against protesters
The Chief Justice Stone was known for his defense of civil liberties and opposition to totalitarian ideologies. The Chief Justice is an essential counterweight to the tendencies of fascist regimes.
Mian Hameed is the author of Manipulation of the Mind: Our Children and Our Policy at Peril. His interests are South Asian policy and the United States. The views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.