Horse-Trading Democracy
The PML-N and PTI have been shuttling between the Pakistani opposition parties, since the arrival of former President Zardari on 26 February. This shuttling is to get their consensus on the proposed 22nd Amendment that would force party members to vote for their party candidates and for the ballot to be done in an open manner rather than the secret ballot that has characterized past senate elections. The PPP and JUI-F have opposed the proposed amendment, whereas the MQM has championed it arguing that it would end horse-trading in the senate elections.
This so called political crisis is further evidence of the corrupt politics in Pakistan and how the political class jostles around to ensure their interests are not harmed. It was not long ago when all the political class agreed to the 21st Amendment that brought into being military courts albeit with the stick of the real ruler of Pakistan, the military but now the same political class is once again in disarray unable to decide on the procedure of the senate elections. One may argue well it’s a good proposal by the PML-N to make the elections open, transparent and force party members to vote for their candidates blocking the possibility of horse-trading, with candidates paying huge sums to ensure they are selected into the senate. However a scratch of the surface will reveal how the PML-N and PTI have information that there is a possible revolt in the ranks of both parties with the senate elections giving the prime opportunity to register ones dissent by voting for a candidate from another party, thus weakening one’s own party and leveraging the other. To preempt this PML N and PTI have been eager to force through this amendment to ensure party loyalty and the PPP and JUIF have been waiting to capitalize in the elections, with its candidates likely to benefit from the dissent from its competitors.
Even if the amendment is passed, it would not stop horse-trading as what would happen now there would be candidates purchasing the backing of their respective party leaderships and party members instead of those from other political parties, meaning that the corruption would still continue and fester in the political system. The only way to end this horse-trading would be to end the horse which is democracy that since its inception in Europe after the enlightenment period has served the interests of the capitalist class that has been able to dominate political proceedings and open the door for vested interests to penetrate the political system to serve their own interests and to throw crumbs to the people, such as elections, a media, and some financial investment in infrastructure, education and health to create an impression that they somehow care but in reality the amount they bleed from the political system is way excessive compared to the amount they pump back into the people.
This has been the story of Pakistan with capitalists and vested interests hijacking the system and using it to serve their own interests. The PML-N, PPP, PTI, MQM and others have benefited themselves and allowed capitalists to benefit such as the Manshas and Lakhanis that profit at the expense of the people that sink into ever more hardship. So the solution to the corruption is not an amendment to the constitution but for the horse being democracy to be thrown out and for a new political system, the Khilafah to take its place that puts the people first before capitalists and vested interests, that distributes wealth rather than monopolize, that gives ownership of the natural assets to the people and not to private interests, that breaks monopolies allowing enterprises to breathe, that protects the market from the dumping practices of global capitalists and importantly provides insaaf (justice), where the rich and poor can seek their rights in a fair and efficient judicial process that does not favour the rich or impede the poor.
Democracy Will Always Attract the Corrupt, Just As Filth Attracts Flies
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has again accused main political parties of being part of “undemocratic and corrupt designs” to rig the coming Senate elections. In his usual acidic tone, Mr Khan hit out at the ruling PML-N and JUI-F and opposition PPP for what he called returning to their traditional ways of politics which involved buying and selling of votes. “It has become evident that the government was never sincere to end horse-trading by bringing in a constitutional amendment as it is also reflected in Nawaz Sharif’s trip to Saudi Arabia at this crucial time,” the PTI chief was quoted as saying in a terse press statement issued by the party’s media wing on 2 March 2015.
As usual, PTI is missing the point and proving yet again that it has no agenda for real change. No constitutional amendment can ever change Democracy from being a system for the corrupt to get richer. The corrupt swarm around Democracy like flies around filth because in Democracy man is given the right to make law according to his whims and desires. Democracy always guarantees excessive privileges for the elite in power and gross deprivation for the people. Democracy links authority with sovereignty, so those elected to power, have the right to make law according to their whims and desires. This ensures that the law-makers are able to amass immense wealth for themselves and their associates by manipulating laws in their favor. Wherever Democracy exists, small elites have changed law to ensure their private ownership of the sources of great wealth, whether it is electricity, oil, gas, minerals, large-scale industry and arms manufacture.
As for America, the global standard-bearer for Democracy and the master of Pakistan’s regime, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few under Democracy is glaringly evident. On 9 January 2014, the New York Times reported that, “The median net worth for lawmakers in the House and Senate was $1,008,767 — up 4.4 percent … according to the analysis, conducted by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, which examines the influence of money on politics in Washington.” And on 4 December 2013, the US President lamented, “And the result is an economy that’s become profoundly unequal, and families that are more insecure… Since 1979…our productivity is up by more than 90 percent, but the income of the typical family has increased by less than eight percent. Since 1979, our economy has more than doubled in size, but most of that growth has flowed to a fortunate few… The top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income — it now takes half.” So if this is the state of Democracy in its homeland and leading advocate, what can Pakistan expect from Democracy, even if it continued for another seven decades, without interruption?
Armed Forces Must Be Mobilized to Close Indian and American Embassies
The 180th Corps Commanders’ Confe¬rence was held at the General Headquarters here on 3 March. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif chaired the conference. According to ISPR, the forum dwelt at length on various professional matters. The commanders also undertook a comprehensive review of operational preparedness and the internal and external security situation of the country, including progress of the ongoing Zarb-i-Azb operation.
In 2013, traitors in the military leadership ensured that the Pakistan Army’s India centric doctrine was revised and now defines internal threats as the greatest risk to the countries security. India is no longer seen as a threat to our security, and America’s so-called war on terror, which is a war on Islam and Muslims, is the primary focus for the Pakistan Army. This revision is made at a time when America desperately seeks to establish a permanent military presence in the region, camouflaged by a limited troop withdrawal. The Green Book declaration is a conclusion of the strategy adopted by the US since 9/11 to re-orientate Pakistan, its role in the area, and the role of the Pakistani armed forces. The US objective has been three fold: 1. To ensure that the Pakistan army is engaged in a perpetual war within its own borders. 2. To change the Indian centric focus within the army, in order to enable the rise of India as a regional power. 3. To use the army as a way of policing the Ummah in its quest for the return of the Khilafah.
The Khaleefah will treat hostile non-Muslim states on a war stance. These are nations who have occupied Muslim Land or other acts of similar aggression. The Khilafah will focus the resources of the Ummah upon liberating occupied Islamic Lands, such as Kashmir and Palestine. It will also diminish the threat from the hostile states by ending the presence of all their bases, embassies and personnel within Muslim Lands. It will sever all political and military contact with hostile states, who use such contact to order and forbid their agents within the military and political leadership and fish for new ones. As in the past, the Khilafah will not compromise on this matter, even if it would take decades to achieve, such as the liberation of Masjid Al-Aqsa from the crusaders.
Raheel-Nawaz Regime Seeks to Strengthen the American Occupation of Afghanistan
Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told reporters at a Monitor Breakfast Tuesday, on 3 March 2015, that the country has seen heightened militant activity along its border as US troops have drawn down in eastern Afghanistan. Hints from senior Obama administration officials that the United States could put off the planned end-of-2016 military withdrawal from Afghanistan are viewed positively by neighboring Pakistan, the country’s ambassador to Washington, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told reporters at a Monitor breakfast Tuesday. A slowing of the timetable for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan “would be viewed very positively in Pakistan,” given the increased militant activity the country has seen along the border as US troops in eastern Afghanistan have drawn down, Ambassador Jilani said.
The Muslims of Pakistan, including their armed forces, have great respect for noble mujahideen who bloodied the occupying Soviet Russia’s nose, such that it never dared to return again to Afghanistan, just as the Muslims of the past forced the complete withdrawal of the British Empire’s troops in the past. However, the traitors in the Pakistan’s military and political leadership are strengthening the hands of the Western colonialists, just as the back-stabbing Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq did in the time of the British Raj. Politicallly the Raheel-Nawaz regime is providing justification for Obama to delay the partial withdrawal, ensuring tens of thousands of “Raymond Davis” security contractors as well as thousands of regular troops remain as an occupying force. Militarily, the regime is turning its guns on the mujahideen rather than standing shoulder to shoulder with them against the occupying Western troops.
The Muslims are in dire need of the Khilafah, shield of the Ummah, which will gather the Muslims as an effective force against enemy occupation.
Only the Khilafah will Unify the Muslim States as One State
The Foreign Office said on 6 March that it supported the Ummah’s unity and had no sectarian or racial considerations in relations with countries in the Muslim world. Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said, “Pakistan always stood for the unity of the Muslim Ummah. We do not look at Muslim Ummah through sectarian, racial or ethnic prism.”
The current regimes are feeling the pressure from the Ummah which has adopted Islam and its Khilafah as its call. So, the regimes are forced to pay lip service from time to time regarding the unity of the Ummah.
However, only the Khilafah will practically realize the aspirations of the Muslims, ending division on sectarian and ethnic grounds. As Hizb ut-Tahrir has adopted in its Introduction to the Constitution, Article 189, Clause 1, “The existing states in the Islamic world are considered to be part of one land and therefore they are not included within the sphere of foreign affairs. Relations with these countries are not considered to be in the realm of foreign policy and it is obligatory to work to unify all these countries into one state.”
The Khilafah is returning soon inshaaAllah and it will work from the moment of its establishment, whether in Pakistan or any other place, to abolish the false borders between Muslims, imposed by the colonialist enemies and maintained by their agents. Then the Ummmah will be as it is mandated in Islam, a single Ummah, with a single state, ruled by a Khaleefah, with a single armed forces, a single currency and a single Bayt ul-Maal.