Neither Biden nor Xi can rescue Pakistan from chaos

Rather than seeking a genuine peace with India, all that GHQ Rawalpindi is ready to do is to make occasional friendly noises towards India, without in the slightest lowering the levels of its asymmetric warfare against the world’s most populous democracy, soon to become the most populous country on the planet. It is a measure of their disconnect with reality that several individuals continue to claim that it is India’s mission to rescue Pakistan. In other words, what they actually seek is the rescue of the Pakistan military from the effects of its own misdeeds. It is clear that Pakistan needs to be rescued from its own military and its elites, but this can be done only by the people of that country. The army and the elites are known for their escapist ways of thought, for example pretending to believe that the foundations of the culture of the country are to be located not in India but in Turkey, Central Asia and even the Arab states. School textbooks drill into youthful minds such misperceptions, while ironically, in several countries, Pakistanis seek to pass off as citizens of India, in order to avoid the stigma associated with a nationality that has led the world in the provision of terror operatives and masterminds. Confronted with a non-cooperative Mahatma and an aggressive Netaji during World War II, the British authorities pandered to M.A. Jinnah from 1939 onwards. The actual architect of Pakistan was Winston Churchill, but it was Jinnah who throughout the 1939-45 war stood loudly and loyally by the Union Jack, aware that by doing so, he would succeed in his mission of vivisecting his motherland.
The Pakistan army wants Imran Khan to flee the country in the way Nawaz Sharif did, but the former cricketer is refusing to oblige. When compared with even the declared wealth of the Zardaris and the Sharifs, Imran Khan is a person of modest means. Which is why the effort by GHQ Rawalpindi to use the media, courts and the executive to paint the former Prime Minister as a multi-billionaire has failed. Imran Khan is demanding a general election that he is sure will be won by his party, provided it is carried out in a fair manner. In 1977, Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto rigged the elections so that his party got 155 out of 200 seats. This dismayed the generals. After all, the military had got what it wanted from Zulfiqar, which was the surrender by India at Shimla in 1972 of all the gains made in the 1971 war in Bangladesh. They were therefore eager to toss the excitable Bhutto aside. Public protests following the clearly rigged election result was used by the military as an excuse to remove Z.A. Bhutto from power and later to hang him. Should it go forward with another Bhutto-style rigging of the election next year to prevent Imran from winning, this time the mob will come not for another toothless politician but for the army itself. GHQ Rawalpindi is scared of Imran Khan returning as PM, while at the same time nervous about what could happen were they to rig the elections so as to keep Imran out. Joe Biden and Xi Jinping appear united in supporting the men in khaki against Imran, but most people in Pakistan disagree with them. Ending Imran’s political career seems not as easy as the way the Pakistan army saw off Zulfie Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari. Neither the US nor China or both can prevent army-ruled Pakistan from sliding into deepening chaos the closer the National Assembly elections come.
MDN