Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto said rulers should serve their people diligently and in this regard, the experience of Turkey should be closely studied.
In a statement, he said, “Firstly, the failed coup attempt in Turkey appears to have been a rather amateurish unilateral wet dream of relatively lower ranked officers rather than a well-planned and well-orchestrated operation with the full weight of the military establishment behind it. The military top brass have already disowned the attempted coup and vowed to take action against the elements involved.”
He said that Egypt, however, illustrates that with full might of the military establishment, a coup attempt is not necessarily doomed to failure, regardless of a domestic and international opposition. If the military can push its way into the corridors of power by any means, then domestic as well as international elements are cornered into accepting the de jure situation as it becomes futile to resist ground realities, he added.
He said, “The roots of democracy are relatively deeper in Turkey than in Pakistan. The people are more aware, enlightened and active. Their system works better than ours. Their institutions are more efficient and effective than ours. The people have a vested interest in preserving the status quo because it caters to their well being. That is why millions of people belonging to all political parties poured out into the streets in the middle of the night to protect what they have.”
He asked if anyone can realistically expect the same to happen in Pakistan under similar circumstances.
“What would they be fighting to preserve – a useless parliament that neglects the people and only focuses on self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment; a corrupt and useless bureaucracy that is as much a source of public agony as criminal elements, and a collapsed system and atrophied institutions; corrupt leaders who embezzle public funds to bloat their foreign bank accounts and leave the public to rot in poverty and sub-human conditions,” he said.
The people of Pakistan have no stake or interest in preserving the status quo and many are even pleading for the army to act without further delay to salvage the situation, having lost all faith in the leadership across the political spectrum, he said.
