The upcoming twin Marches
on 14th August, ostensibly there to remove corruption from Pakistan,
are nothing more than distraction. Leaders of the two parties Imran Khan of
Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf and Tahir Ul Qadri of Pakistan Awami Tehreek are
working to establish confidence in the existing system by attacking an
individual and not the mechanism of law making.
Imran's most notable achievement to date is the infusion of life in democracy, a system that by repeatedly failing the people was on life support after the Zardari regime. By mobilising the youth and selling them the slogan of Naya Pakistan he reversed the chronic apathy that had taken root and by then taking on power in KPK legitimised PML-Ns hold on power, not to mention endorsing democracy and its ways of placing legislation in the hands of corruptible law makers.
TuQ's container antics last time were in a similar vein, appealing to a more religiously inclined and generally older conservative demographic within the population to that of Imran’s. With much the same noise and fanfare TuQ, a long term resident of Canada, returned all of a sudden in Jan 2013 with suspected military blessing to demand the dissolution of the Electoral commission and early dissolution of the National Assembly ahead of the General Election of 2013. At the time he called for the military to be involved in picking a caretaker government, a sure fire way to spook anyone wanting to avoid another dictatorship out of their apathy and to take part in the democratic process. Yet a mere month later all of these demands were dropped, given that much pent up steam within the population against the antics of politicians had successfully been released in TuQ’s march. TuQ, 7* container and all, departed the scene once more only to return a few ago.
The objectives of these marches are to once again cement faith in the faltering democracy in the face of pathetic results. A recent survey of 84 countries by the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research service found that in 2012 Pakistanis were spending 47.7% of their income on food, the highest ratio of any of the countries surveyed. Inflation is set to rocket once more as CNG, used in more than 4 million vehicles in the country, is set to be replaced by costly LNG which. This will lead to an estimated increase in fuel costs of Rs 170 over the standard cost of filling a CNG tank of Rs600, an approximately staggering 28%. This will not only affect the individual consumer but have an inflationary effect across the entire economy as the costs of transportation affect all goods that need to move from one place to another. To top this off debt stock as a percentage of GDP, which was 29.2pc in 2009, rose to 42.2pc in FY13 and there is no indication of this trend reversing.
Imran's most notable achievement to date is the infusion of life in democracy, a system that by repeatedly failing the people was on life support after the Zardari regime. By mobilising the youth and selling them the slogan of Naya Pakistan he reversed the chronic apathy that had taken root and by then taking on power in KPK legitimised PML-Ns hold on power, not to mention endorsing democracy and its ways of placing legislation in the hands of corruptible law makers.
TuQ's container antics last time were in a similar vein, appealing to a more religiously inclined and generally older conservative demographic within the population to that of Imran’s. With much the same noise and fanfare TuQ, a long term resident of Canada, returned all of a sudden in Jan 2013 with suspected military blessing to demand the dissolution of the Electoral commission and early dissolution of the National Assembly ahead of the General Election of 2013. At the time he called for the military to be involved in picking a caretaker government, a sure fire way to spook anyone wanting to avoid another dictatorship out of their apathy and to take part in the democratic process. Yet a mere month later all of these demands were dropped, given that much pent up steam within the population against the antics of politicians had successfully been released in TuQ’s march. TuQ, 7* container and all, departed the scene once more only to return a few ago.
The objectives of these marches are to once again cement faith in the faltering democracy in the face of pathetic results. A recent survey of 84 countries by the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research service found that in 2012 Pakistanis were spending 47.7% of their income on food, the highest ratio of any of the countries surveyed. Inflation is set to rocket once more as CNG, used in more than 4 million vehicles in the country, is set to be replaced by costly LNG which. This will lead to an estimated increase in fuel costs of Rs 170 over the standard cost of filling a CNG tank of Rs600, an approximately staggering 28%. This will not only affect the individual consumer but have an inflationary effect across the entire economy as the costs of transportation affect all goods that need to move from one place to another. To top this off debt stock as a percentage of GDP, which was 29.2pc in 2009, rose to 42.2pc in FY13 and there is no indication of this trend reversing.
It has always been
lamented that there are no institutions in Pakistan and the electoral
commission is seen as a key body that can be projected as making the democratic
set up 'accountable'. But Nawaz is going on
nowhere on 14th August; he is corrupt but then so is every other party. He is following
the foreign agenda both on the economy and on foreign policy. Economically he
is slavishly following the agenda of the IMF
in selling off huge amounts of govt assets ranging from areas in Oil and Gas, Telecoms
and infrastructure in exchange for paltry bailouts. As for foreign policy he is
happily pursuing America's war in Waziristan, an operation which has long been
desired due to NATO admitting
to the problem resistance fighters put up to its occupation of Afghanistan from
Pakistan. Therefore to remove Nawaz is
to put these endeavours at risk, something which America and its stooges in the
military top brass would not allow. There is no appetite for the army to take
over in any area of influence for said reasons, so you won't see 'Mere Azziz
Humwatno' from Raheel any time soon.
The drive for all this is ultimately to keep a circus going that distracts people from the main issues of being engaged in America's war in Waziristan, structural problems with the economy driven by a Capitalist agenda and fundamental problems in the law making process which continually enables thieves to occupy politics through acts like NRO. With an eye on the Middle East where people are beginning to question and are struggling against their secular overlords, it would be most untenable for the secular military/political establishment if public opinion is for the establishment of an Islamic System which would challenge not just their petty thrones but also the geo political objectives of their Western masters. The most realistic outcome of this charade is a reformed Electoral Commission of sorts, so that people will again wait with baited breath for the next election of the circus that is politics in Pakistan.
The drive for all this is ultimately to keep a circus going that distracts people from the main issues of being engaged in America's war in Waziristan, structural problems with the economy driven by a Capitalist agenda and fundamental problems in the law making process which continually enables thieves to occupy politics through acts like NRO. With an eye on the Middle East where people are beginning to question and are struggling against their secular overlords, it would be most untenable for the secular military/political establishment if public opinion is for the establishment of an Islamic System which would challenge not just their petty thrones but also the geo political objectives of their Western masters. The most realistic outcome of this charade is a reformed Electoral Commission of sorts, so that people will again wait with baited breath for the next election of the circus that is politics in Pakistan.
Muhammad Asim
Twitter: @AsimWriter
Published on 14th August 2014 on Asia Times Online as Parades in Pakistan's Political Circus
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