Only the Khilafah will Put India in its Place
The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on 19 April 2015 resorted to unprovoked shelling on Pakistani border villages, damaging several houses. According to senior officials of the Chenab Rangers, the BSF started unprovoked heavy shelling on Abiyal Dogar, Thakerpurin and Chak Bheeka villages in Shakargarh sector along the Working Boundary. They said the BSF targeted the civilian population and fired several heavy mortar shells. The shelling started at 5pm and continued for hours, creating panic among villagers. It was the second incident of Indian shelling in the Shakargarh sector over the past four days.
Instead of initiating Jihad against India as a befitting response to its continuous hostility, the Raheel-Nawaz regime is busy implementing the ‘National Action Plan’, which is in reality a US Action Plan to eliminate the Mujahideen fighting against US occupation in Afghanistan from the tribal regions and indeed the entire country. On the one hand, our jet fighters, tanks and artillery are fighting day and night in our own tribal territories, yet on the other hand not a single jet fighter, tank or artillery is available to avenge the attacks our soldiers and civilians and stop Indian aggression. As per the American plan, the Raheel-Nawaz regime is not responding Indian aggression in a befitting manner. America wants Pakistan to concede to the rise of India so India could be used to counter China in this region. And to prevent the armed forces resisting this rise, America has ensured that they are engaged in fighting their own brothers in the tribal region.
Only the Khilafah will restore the rights of the Muslims before an ever-hostile India. The Khilafah will naturally unify the Muslims of Central and South Asia as a single state, effectively countering Indian hostility, as well as that of Russia and China. It will be a powerful state with a vision to secure Islam’s dominance within the region and the world.
Dependence on Foreign Technological Expertise and Finance is Another Begging Bowl that Needs Smashing
Pakistan and China signed on 20 April agreements worth $28 billion to immediately kick-start ‘early harvest’ projects under the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC). A statement issued by the Planning Commission said that the remaining projects of $17bn would be carried out as soon as the required studies, processes and formalities were completed. The $28bn financing agreements will immediately come into the implementation phase because necessary processes have already been completed. These include: 1000MW solar power park in Punjab; 870MW Suki Kanari (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) hydropower project; 720MW Karot (AJK) hydropower project; three wind power projects at Thatta of United Energy Pakistan (100MW), Sachal (50MW) and Hydro-China (50MW); Chinese government’s concessional loans for the second phase upgradation of Karakorum Highway (Havelian to Thakot); Karachi-Lahore Motorway (Multan to Sukkur), Gwadar Port east-bay expressway project and Gwadar International Airport; provision of material for tackling climate change; projects in the Gwadar Port region and establishment of China-Pakistan Joint Cotton Biotech Laboratory and China-Pakistan Joint Marine Research Centre. Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the PCEC would link Kashgar in western China with Gwadar Port through a mesh of communication networks comprising a world class seaport, commercial sea lines, an airport, highways, railways, fibre optic cables and oil and gas pipelines.
The Raheel-Nawaz regime has made great fanfare about the Chinese Presidential visit and economic agreements. It comes at a time of unprecedented anti-American feelings and is being presented as an attempt to escape subservience from America. However, these measures are only undertaken because America has permitted them, as is the case of all the major policies of the regime. Moreover, these measures deny Pakistan of its actual potential and increase its dependence on yet another foreign power.
The Khilafah will ensure strong industrialization without the compromise of dependence on foreign powers. It will unleash immense wealth for such projects by applying the Islamic laws to public property, such as oil, gas and minerals which are currently privatized under the capitalist system. Such wealth will be invested in infrastructure projects, without the heavy cost incurred of depending on foreign powers, establishing dependency in critical areas of infrastructure. As part of the industrialization, the Khilafah will ensure that the Muslims develop the technological know-how that is needed to become the world’s leading state. It will thus undo the colonialist policy regarding the transfer of technology after the destruction of the Khilafah, which left the Muslim World as a rich source of raw materials and a large consumer market, but largely dependent on foreign goods.
Look to the Ummah for Strength, Rather than East or West
The army formally announced on 21 April 2015 the creation of a 10,000-man strong special force for protecting the development projects to be carried out under the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (PCEC) and the Chinese workers associated with them. “A special force is being raised for Pakistan-China economic projects,” military spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa said. The new force named ‘Special Security Division’ would be of the size of a division consisting of nine army battalions and six wings of paramilitary forces – Rangers and Frontier Corps. A two-star general would head the special force. The announcement came as Chinese President Xi Jinping completed his two-day visit to Pakistan during which he performed the ground-breaking of a number of power generation projects, besides signing agreements on other ventures worth $28 billion under the economic corridor.
With continued hype over expanding relations with China, the regime is presenting the people with a deceptive choice, either Pakistan can be dependent on America or China. This is no choice at all because both represent political suicide for dependence on a foreign country will always prevent the emergence of a strong state. In the time of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم and the Khulafah Rashideen, the Ummah never looked to the West, the Roman Empire, or to the East, the Persian Empire. This is because the vision of Islam is far greater than climbing on other people’s shoulders to gain height, a perilous venture. The vision for the Ummah is to convey the message of Islam to all of humankind, which necessitates that the Khilafah is the leading state in the world. So, the Muslims pursued a course of depending on their own resources to build a powerful state, that eventually overwhelmed the two empires that had previously dominated global affairs and led to the Khilafah being the world’s leading state for centuries.
Only the Khilafah will bring back the noble vision of ensuring Islam’s dominance. Rather than bowing to East or West, it will gather the immense resources of the Ummah. It will ensure that other powers will seek favourable terms before it. Energy starved China will be forced to think again about its brutal dealing of the Muslims of China, including East Turkestan, and will remember the times when it feared the arrival of the Khilafah’s armies and paid Jizya to the Muslims.
Regime Assists US Plan for Yemen in Negotiations Phase
Saudi Arabia treated on 24 April a crucial visit by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif to Riyadh in a low-key manner. There was no substantive announcement from either side even after Prime Minister Sharif along with his delegation started the journey back home after completing a daylong trip. PM Sharif and his delegation opened the trip with a meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz at Al-Ouja Palace and later met Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Crown Prince and Interior Minister Mohammad bin Naif, and Saudi Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman. He also called on President Mansour Hadi, recognised by Pakistan as the legitimate ruler of Yemen.
Examination of the American interests in Yemen reveals that the trip is part of the US plan for negotiations with stakeholders to maintain American influence in Yemen. America has supported the Houthis through Iran with weapons so that they are able to dominate Yemen by force. However, America realized that the Houthis found themselves in a shambles. They had extended themselves across Yemen, but were unable to either successfully dominate or to return to their stronghold in the north. It therefore decided to save them through limited military action, by which it seeks to hit two birds with one stone: to show them as victims, after the people had begun to see them as aggressors; and to create the atmosphere for emergency negotiations, to come thereby to a compromise solution. This is its well-trodden path, with respect to what it is unable to take for herself alone. She aims by pressing military action to open the door of negotiation.
In Islam, it is upon the sincere ruler to end the colonialist influence in Muslim Lands and work to unify the Muslim Lands as one state to stand against the enemies. However, the current rulers betray the Ummah to the colonialists, seeking Western dominance in war and peace. The tragedy of Yemen is yet another reminder of the urgent need for the Khilafah.