Pakistan, behind closed doors, is a South Asian country with nuclear warheads is heading towards a general election on 8 February 2024 to elect the Members of the 16th National Assembly.
Since its independence from the British Empire in August 1947, this country has never really been democratically stable, whether we talk about its social security or economy.
There has been a struggle between a democratic School of thought in the country and the military’s hunger to keep everything in control and be above the law.
In October 1958 just after 11 years of independence, the first martial law was imposed in the country, the second martial law was imposed on 25th March 1969, the third was imposed in December 1971, the fourth Martial law was on 5 July 1977 and the fifth takeover of the army was on 12 October 1999.
For some reason, few top Military generals think they are better than the politicians, know better than them, and can govern the country better than them, but history tells us otherwise.
Bear in mind that these are just five direct takeovers of the military, in reality even when there is a so-called elected government in Pakistan, generals are still the main players who like to make decisions behind closed doors and the army chief is the boss, to say the least.
Now what makes this 8 February 2024 election important or one of its kind?
There are a lot of young voters in the country, more than 64% of the population is below the age of 30. They of course use smartphones, so they have access to information on social media, more than just the military control, electronic and print media.
Imran Khan, a cricketer turned politician was the Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to April 2022. Many believe that he was helped by the generals to elevate the post of Prime Minister. By the way at the time of writing this article, February 2024, not even a single Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history was solely elected by the people of Pakistan.
In Pakistan, you can only elevate to this post if you have some top general’s cuddles.
Now these young voters who are inclined to Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, want to vote for him and the generals are scared of it. They do not want Imran Khan to win this election.
He’s been in jail since August 2023. He has been barred from contesting the elections by the corrupt election commission of Pakistan. His party is practically not allowed to campaign freely.
His party symbol is the Cricket bat which was taken away by the Chief Justice of Pakistan in sweet revenge in an unfair trial about an intra-party election, just because a reference was filed in Imran Khan’s government against him, that he owns properties in London, and failed to declare his source of income.
So yeah this is Pakistan.
Imran Khan is in jail and facing around 200 cases against him, and he’s been sentenced on three cases totaling 31 years in prison.
All of this, is because he dares to talk about civilian supremacy in the country, rather than some top generals who make decisions behind closed doors, dictating who will be the prime minister and how to run the country.
Now history tells us that the military is very powerful and organised, so even the voter turnout is good and they vote heavily for Imran Khan. It is not difficult for them to stamp extra votes for the opponent, reject Imran Khan’s candidate votes in bulk or disappear the ballot boxes. Army runs the show so no court can summon or question them. It’s General’s Pakistan.
But will this so-called election solve the problems of the common man in Pakistan? Who wants what? A stable job on merit, nice leisure time with family and kids, proper infrastructure and better hospitals. Is that too much to ask?
And by the way, let me make it clear one more thing so the impression of this article does not go just in one direction, the top politicians in Pakistan are thoroughly corrupt. These politicians list themselves to the Generals that if you pick me, I will serve you.
Now one may think if politicians across the board decide that they will not sell themselves to the army generals, this vicious cycle might stop.
Now one might ask what’s the way out?
Well! Three words, education, education and education if the young generation gets a good enough education, things might change. Because there are a lot of kids that are not going to school in Pakistan and some corrupt politicians do not encourage or highlight the importance of education because they want to use the ignorance of some to their advantage.
But isn’t this true in almost every country that politicians want us to be ignorant in certain ways so they can use us to their advantage?
Something I wonder.
Thank you for reading this article written by Jordan Zaman.