Headlines:
- Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Abandons Occupied Kashmir in his Pursuit of the US Plan for Normalization with India
- Short-Sighted Economic Vision of Pakistan’s Leadership Ensures Pakistan Never Rises as an Economic Power
- Capitalism Ensures Concentration of Wealth, Islam Ensures Distribution
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Abandons Occupied Kashmir in his Pursuit of the US Plan for Normalization with India
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on 18 February 2019 said he had written a letter to the United Nations Secretary General, requesting him to play his role for the “de-escalation” of current tensions, after the Pulwama attack where by forty occupying Indian troops were killed. Qureshi further said that weeks before the attack, the Pakistan Foreign Office had informed the envoys of the UN’s P5 that Islamabad feared that India would create a “Pakistan-bashing atmosphere” ahead of its elections and could “resort to some misadventure” in order to galvanize the extremist Hindu vote.
Qureshi’s plea to the UN chief to play a role in de-escalation of tension with India is far from a befitting response to India’s occupation, propaganda and aggression. Qureshi’s stance demonstrates weakness against the hostile Hindu State and bolsters its will instead of striking terror within it. Despite having the command of the world’s sixth largest army, the regime is weak due to its complete submission to American plan in the region. The US plan for Pakistan is to normalize relation with the US’s firm ally, India, to free India of any challenge from one of the most powerful states in the Muslim World, Pakistan. The US normalization plan is a plan of disgrace and weakness in front of the aggressor. It is to give India a free hand to pursue its regional mischief, whether it in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh. What is as bad is seeking support from the UN in normalization of relations because it is an American tool to ensure its hegemony in the world, whether in Kashmir, East Timor, Palestine or South Sudan.
Islam does not allow normalization with those that fight or oppress Muslims and occupy Muslim Lands. Allah (swt) said, إِنَّمَا يَنْهَاكُمْ اللَّهُ عَنْ الَّذِينَ قَاتَلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ وَظَاهَرُوا عَلَى إِخْرَاجِكُمْ أَنْ تَوَلَّوْهُمْ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الظَّالِمُونَ “Allah forbids your alliance with those who fight you because of your Deen, and drive you from your homelands, or aid others to do so: and as for those who turn to them in alliance, they are truly oppressors.” [Surah al-Mumtahina 60:9]. Islam orders Muslims to fight against occupation. So, Pakistan should not only equip the Kashmiri fighters for removing the occupation, it must also mobilize the largest Muslim army. Instead the rulers regard the defiant Kashmiri resistance as “terrorism” to please their US masters and demand the fighters lay down their arms and talk with those who have oppressed them for so long. It is incumbent upon us to right this wrong which afflicts us, so that finally the cries of the weak and oppressed are responded to by the thunderous march of a strong and liberating army.
Short-Sighted Economic Vision of Pakistan’s Leadership Ensures Pakistan Never Rises as an Economic Power
Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Tariq Bajwa, said on 18 February 2019 country has come out of the financial crisis with the help of friendly countries and the economy has been set on the right path. The governor spoke about the current account deficit, which had hit the economy badly during the current financial year. He said the deficit was the biggest hurdle for the country and the government was still negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a package to minimise it.
The leadership will fail to revive Pakistan’s economy because it has a dangerously narrow view of the economy. Its concern is to maintain dollars in the current accounts by any means. This is not a domestic requirement but a colonialist requirement to maintain the dollar hegemony in international trade. So the regime sells off key assets to raise dollars under the guise of privatization and foreign direct investment from “friendly countries.” It digs a hole for itself because it deprives the state treasury of long term revenues for the sake of short term injections of dollars. The regime also takes dollar loans from “friendly countries” and colonialist financial institutions, digging an even bigger hole for Pakistan because the loans come with conditions that strike at Pakistan’s economic sovereignty and also extract a pound of flesh from the body of the people in the form of interest.
The Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood alone will ensure Pakistan’s economic revival. It will raise a movement to abolish the dollar hegemony in international trade and lead the re-establishment of international trade based upon gold and silver. It will ensure that energy and mineral are public property, managed by the state, so as to provide ample capital for investment in local agriculture and industry. It will abolish the stock share company and replace it with Islam’s company structure which naturally limit the scale of ownership of industry, allowing the state to dominate large scale industry, which is essential for revenue generation. It will declare interest illegal and initiate a world-wide call for its abolition for it is a key mechanism for the debt trap in which most of the world’s nations find themselves in. Allah (swt) said, وَابْتَغِ فِيمَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الآخِرَةَ وَلاَ تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا وَأَحْسِنْ كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلاَ تَبْغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الأَرْضِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ “But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah has given you, and do not neglect your portion of worldly life, and be kind even as Allah has been kind to you, and seek not corruption in the earth. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidun (those who are mischief-makers, corrupted).” [Surah Al-Qasas 28: 77]
Capitalism Ensures Concentration of Wealth, Islam Ensures Distribution
While launching Sehat Insaf Card in the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 15 February 2019, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, said that his government was striving for wealth creation with an aim to fight poverty and the programme for poverty alleviation would help achieve this objective. Although Imran Khan came to power with the rhetoric of “change,” he is suggesting the same solution prescribed by previous rulers to fight poverty, which is production. The Bajwa-Imran regime is suggesting the same solution as Pakistan’s previous political and military leaderships because, like them, it adheres to the capitalist economic system. The capitalist economic system identifies wealth creation as a solution to fighting poverty, focusing on production and leaving distribution to the “trickle-down effect.”
However, this solution has been failed miserably throughout the world. According to Credit Suisse report on global wealth, in 2018, aggregate global wealth was $317 trillion, which means $63,100 per adult. Despite this huge wealth, the world continues to see a huge number of people living in poverty or in extreme poverty. According to the World Bank report of 2018, almost half the world’s population, 3.4 billion people, still struggles to meet basic needs. So, why does this happen despite the presence of huge wealth? It is because the trickle-down effect does not distribute effectively, leading to huge concentration of wealth in the hands of the richest. Eighty two percent of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released on 22 January 2018. In November 2017, the Credit Suisse report highlighted the increasing gap between the super-rich and the remainder of the globe’s population. It says that the globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth. So there is absolutely no doubt that Capitalism does not solve the problem of poverty, rather as time goes by it is making it worse.
Islam also addresses the issue of poverty and prescribed another solution. Islam says that economic problem is not wealth creation, rather it is wealth distribution. Its economic system focuses on the distribution of wealth rather than its creation, leaving the discovery of improvements in production to the domain of economic science. So it ensures circulation of wealth by forbidding interest, share holding companies, tax on poor and mandating energy and minerals as public property, Zakah on the wealth which passes nisab (a certain amount of wealth), Zakah on trading merchandise, emergency taxation on the richest alone, Kharaj on agricultural land and Usher on agricultural production. In order to end poverty economic system of Islam must be implemented, but this cannot be achieved until the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood is re-established. So who ever sincere in ending poverty must work for the establishment of Khilafah. Allah (swt) revealed, كَيْ لاَ يَكُونَ دُولَةً بَيْنَ الأَغْنِيَاءِ مِنْكُمْ “Lest the wealth circulates solely among the wealthy from amongst you.” [Surah Al-Hashr 59: 7]