Inverted priorities

Pulling an Erdoğan is not our place or privilege

In any arrangement involving money, the power always belongs to the one who lends. There is something diminishing, almost serf-like about the borrowing act. Especially when it becomes a habit – a second nature of sorts. This is not Greek philosophy or complex math. It is common sense.

A common sense that has long eluded our dear leaders. But what to expect from a crew of gents who in the age of high speed data streaming and cybernetic singularity have yet to unravel the great conundrum of the day: providing gas and electricity to their people. Unburdened by any principles or ethics, these giant polymaths are not even faintly troubled by the act of borrowing. And so they have borrowed; shamelessly, disgracefully, endlessly. Borrowed with the spasmodic urgency of one addicted to heroin. And the list of our lenders is a long catalogue of shame: America, China, Saudi Arabia, IMF, and so on.

And this brings us to our Saudi predicament. Do we send troops to rein in Yemen? Do we splosh our bumbling foot into another geopolitical puddle? The answer would have been simple had our leaders not lapped up Saudi largesse all these years. Today Saudi Arabia is knocking on our door; its call for our military, naval and aerial assistance is more debt collection than a request.

So what should our government do? All parties, including fleeting PTI, came together for a joint parliament session a few days ago. The idea was to arrive at some consensus over the issue. The opposition parties expressed a will to desist from any military action. But what will the government ultimately do no one knows.

Cleaning someone else’s backyard makes little sense when your own house is a garbage dump. Do we not have enough problems of our own? We are a country at war. With itself

One thing we do know is that this government needs to get its priorities straight. Cleaning someone else’s backyard makes little sense when your own house is a garbage dump. Do we not have enough problems of our own? We are a country at war. With itself. Murderers, who go by different names and acronyms, are amongst us. They burn Christians, they massacre Ahmadis, and they harass Hindus. And gradually they are becoming equal opportunity savages, killing anyone they deem wayward by their sociopathic standards. How many Imambargahs, Churches, Mosques, Shrines and other places of sacred worship must burn, how many schools must bleed innocent blood, how many young soldiers and unsuspecting civilians must endure ritual pogroms, how many fathers must bury their own children, for this most unfeeling of governments to finally replace the prism of self-expediency with one of empathy through which it sees the world?

This is a government that just recently, after the Peshawar carnage, made strident promises regarding the NAP. Where are we with NACTA? Not too far. NACTA is yet to be fully empowered or functional. What about hangings? According to some reports, the number stands at 61 of which only 22 were identified as terrorists. On top of that, only a negligible few picked up by the intelligence agencies have been found to have any association with terrorists. It’s time we learned the difference between justice and revenge. And what about all the banned organisations that remain steadfast in their campaign of annihilation? Any significant headway there? Nope. Ask Hafiz Saeed. And, of course, the madrassas. That’s a different problem altogether. Without a online casino reliable way of tracking shadowy charities and foreign funds, this too remains an untapped frontier.

This government is a rare combination of ineptitude and complacence. And forget reforming the curricula, spreading tolerance, improving law enforcement and other feel-good mumbo jumbo; these are issues of scarce interest to men that are predisposed, pathologically, to keeping their eyes trained on the dangling prize. Who understand well that the prize is theirs as long as the status quo remains untouched. If you’re a self-serving con-man with ambitions of returning to power every few election cycles through rigged elections and enslaved constituencies, you’d be betraying your narcissistic instincts and vile motives by doing something good like promoting critical thought among the young, teaching real history in place of a fabricated one, and helping your country’s economy heal by increasing exports, reducing inflation, fixing the taxation system and cutting foreign aid/loans.

But beyond concerns more domestic and immediate, like gas and power outages, illiteracy, broken economy, terrorism, abysmal healthcare, etc, there is a geopolitical dimension that must not be overlooked. Does this government have any answers to what any military action in Yemen would constitute as in terms of UN Security Council regulations? Without UN sanction, any act of war in a foreign land may well be counted as war-crime. And Pakistan is no US; it does not hover above ICC rulings and penalties.

Army or mercenaries? Patriotism or private wealth? Democracy or dynasty? Sharif Group or Pakistan? Honour or disgrace?

And what about our ties with Iran? The situation in Baluchistan, especially along the border, is anything but smooth. Just recently eight Irani border guards were killed in the border area. Do we really want to make matters worse by coming down on Saudi Arabia’s side and opening another proxy war front in a different country this time? Wasn’t the Afghanistan experience harrowing enough? And let’s not forget, we have less than a cuddly relationship with our neighbours to the east and west. An aggressive Iran will only isolate us further. Pulling an Erdoğan, “Iran is trying to dominate the region,” as Turkey’s president recently said, is not our place or privilege. This is the time to plug the gaping holes of our past disasters, not for allowing new ones to drown the ship. To top it off, the Shi’a-Sunni rift is only widening as more Shi’a blood sweeps through the many cracks of our ruptured nation. Killing Shi’a Houthis by aiding firebrand Saudis who are demanding that Pakistan supply them Sunni-only officers will break the levees of sectarian hell in our country.

And let’s not forget, the Ayatollahs are masters of proxy war. Iran and America have recently signed a nuclear agreement. Iran supports Hezbollah in Lebanon; the only party to hold its ground against Israel. It supports al-Assad in Syria who has defied all resistance both foreign and local. The Ayatollahs have tentacles in Iraq where they fight a whole different brand of lunatics who call themselves the Islamic State. We would be terribly amiss to take the Iranians lightly.

In the end, our government will need to understand that fighting proxy wars abroad breeds real wars at home. Our country is hurting. And it shows in our lightless cities, broken roads and our crumbling structures (both real and institutional). It shows in the starving smiles and vacant eyes of little kids who in an alternative – more normal – universe would be carrying school books in place of begging bowls in their hands. It shows in our pathetic economic and literacy indicators. Thanks to us Polio is still around. Yet the stoic overlords responsible for this want more in their coffers. They pay off their personal debts to an evil regime by killing our own.

The Sharifs and Co will need to decide if they are statesmen or commission based private contractors? They need to tell us, which one will it be: NAF or metros/motorways? Army or mercenaries? Patriotism or private wealth? Democracy or dynasty? Sharif Group or Pakistan? Honour or disgrace?