Who to believe in? Politicians or Establishment

By Mati Ullah Khan

Wrapped under hands, my head sometimes begins baffling whether our Country will ever succeed to drag itself out of a whirlpool of conspiracies. It’s been 70 years but a seed of conspiracy which was sowed in the Country over its very existence soon after the independence continues to flourish.

Unfortunately, our mainstream media has become the biggest tool of propagating various conspiracies. You never know that is brought to you, depicts the whole picture or not.

For instance, politicians, the army and for obvious reasons bureaucracy as well have been enjoying ultimate power in Pakistan since the outset. But keeping aside the bureaucracy for a while, politicians and the military establishment have been neck-to-neck in endeavors to push each other to the wall. If the establishment accuses politicians of ruining the Country’s institutions and indulging in corrupt practices, politicians also reciprocate with taunting army of abrogating the Constitution and hatching conspiracies to oust elected civilian governments.

But a question arises here; who is more justified or accurate in their assertions? Further ironic fact, it looks that rather than improving their respective conducts, all their endeavors merely aim at to malign each other.

Historically, we all have witnessed the army abrogating the Constitution thrice and politicians being caught on corruption charges. But, for masses to note, what actually followed; politicians helped army generals to prolong their unlawful tenure i.e. PML-Q fully backed military rule of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf; and the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was signed in the same era, legally purifying certain politicians from mainstream political parties (including of PPP which labels itself as the champion of democracy), who had been facing corruption charges.

So what’s the outcome? Do we really start assuming that politicians and army generals are two sides of the same coin till they both enjoy power? But as they feel a threat of losing the ‘immunity’ from their respective opponents, they start grumbling about being politically victimized (as politicians are used to) or publically maligned (as army moans).

Nawaz Sharif’s episode in the post-Panama era is a classic example of such an assumption. Since he was the Country’s prime minister in October 2016, he utterly rejected an anti-army report published in Dawn, and termed that a ‘national security breach’. However, following his disqualification as the prime minister as a result of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s judgement, the same Nawaz Sharif endorsed the Dawn report as ‘factual’. What changed Nawaz Sharif then? Unlike his brother Shahbaz Sharif who still sees a promising future and talks of reconciliation, how a compromising Nawaz Sharif suddenly turned into be a revolutionary leader? ‘Power’, the simple answer is deprivation of ‘Power’.

Probably acquiring power is the sole cause, they all look for, and what remains for the masses is to just be the puppet of their respective lords…

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of Dispatch News Desk.