I was just wondering about another wave of COVID. Living in the south, it’s like a pandemic never even happened. Scary for those of us with children and elderly parents… or I should say, scary for those who actually care about humanity.
I have a few thoughts on the situation in Pakistan, and I will admit to bias because my parents have been very involved with Imran Khan’s humanitarian and political efforts for years. But in short, that no-confidence vote was a sham. It was a coup couched in procedure, backed by very questionable actions by a biased Supreme Court judiciary. Free and fair elections are not likely. Even with Imran Khan’s election three years ago, there were numerous reports of the opposition stealing ballot boxes and rigging votes, and that was a relatively freer and fairer election than previous ones. The one good thing out of this whole mess is that the blatant corruption is out in the open, and maybe that will be Imran Khan’s legacy.
I appreciate the context, and confess that the bias of Western media is evident here and that it's hard to understand the context of this without understanding Pakistani politics. I really appreciate your insight and would love to be pointed to the correct resources to learn more, if you have bandwidth.
I'll try to find some good links, but ARY News (https://arynews.tv/) seems to be the one Pakistani channel actually reporting in depth on what's going on, as well as Dawn News (dawn.com). However, as with all media outlets, it's difficult to get a truly unbiased report of what's happening.
I can give a very high level summary of why this is all completely shady and a whole ass mess, though. Pakistani politics has a long and fraught history of corruption and rigged elections punctuated by periods of martial law. To say it's complicated is an understatement. Former PMs Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari (PM Benazir Bhutto's husband), who are also opposition leaders have numerous corruption charges against them and were among those named in the Panama Papers, for one thing. Second, they are also trying to formulate political familial dynasties to consolidate power and money. Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz Sharif is the Chief Minister of Punjab, and Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz was set to be the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party but also has corruption charges against her and is banned from participating in elections, but she is incredibly vocal. Zardari and the Pakistan People's Party are pushing Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as the heir apparent, but Bilawal will no doubt take direction and instruction from his father. And guess who the new PM is? Shahbaz Sharif. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is also poised to gain a cabinet position, likely as Foreign Minister.
The Supreme Court's 5-0 decision to reverse the Parliament speaker's decision to dismiss the motion for a no-confidence vote last week and then dissolve the National Assembly to call for new elections opens up questions of where their jurisdiction really extends to because courts should really only rule on the constitutionality of laws and regulations. The fact that they handed down this decision, reinstated the National Assembly and government, and then dictated when the no-confidence vote should take place is highly suspect and clearly not impartial. In addition, when the National Assembly convened over the weekend to move to vote, the Supreme Court was opened on a weekend night while the vote was taking place in case the voting wasn't completed per court mandate, and they were prepared to rule that they were in contempt of court, but the voting was completed.
The other aspect of this no-confidence coup is that Imran Khan was ardent in his desire to reduce American influence on Pakistan and the reliance on American foreign aid, and he's been a critic of American policy. Given the history of American interventions abroad around the world in the name of regime change over the past 50-60 years, I would not be surprised if allegations of the opposition parties (all of them) receiving funding from the US to move for this vote in order to remove Imran Khan emerge to be true.
And among all this, the army is still a wild card because they could come in and impose martial law, so who knows...
I was just wondering about another wave of COVID. Living in the south, it’s like a pandemic never even happened. Scary for those of us with children and elderly parents… or I should say, scary for those who actually care about humanity.
It brings me no joy to predict we’ll have more than a million preventable deaths.
I have a few thoughts on the situation in Pakistan, and I will admit to bias because my parents have been very involved with Imran Khan’s humanitarian and political efforts for years. But in short, that no-confidence vote was a sham. It was a coup couched in procedure, backed by very questionable actions by a biased Supreme Court judiciary. Free and fair elections are not likely. Even with Imran Khan’s election three years ago, there were numerous reports of the opposition stealing ballot boxes and rigging votes, and that was a relatively freer and fairer election than previous ones. The one good thing out of this whole mess is that the blatant corruption is out in the open, and maybe that will be Imran Khan’s legacy.
I appreciate the context, and confess that the bias of Western media is evident here and that it's hard to understand the context of this without understanding Pakistani politics. I really appreciate your insight and would love to be pointed to the correct resources to learn more, if you have bandwidth.
I'll try to find some good links, but ARY News (https://arynews.tv/) seems to be the one Pakistani channel actually reporting in depth on what's going on, as well as Dawn News (dawn.com). However, as with all media outlets, it's difficult to get a truly unbiased report of what's happening.
I can give a very high level summary of why this is all completely shady and a whole ass mess, though. Pakistani politics has a long and fraught history of corruption and rigged elections punctuated by periods of martial law. To say it's complicated is an understatement. Former PMs Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari (PM Benazir Bhutto's husband), who are also opposition leaders have numerous corruption charges against them and were among those named in the Panama Papers, for one thing. Second, they are also trying to formulate political familial dynasties to consolidate power and money. Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz Sharif is the Chief Minister of Punjab, and Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz was set to be the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party but also has corruption charges against her and is banned from participating in elections, but she is incredibly vocal. Zardari and the Pakistan People's Party are pushing Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as the heir apparent, but Bilawal will no doubt take direction and instruction from his father. And guess who the new PM is? Shahbaz Sharif. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is also poised to gain a cabinet position, likely as Foreign Minister.
The Supreme Court's 5-0 decision to reverse the Parliament speaker's decision to dismiss the motion for a no-confidence vote last week and then dissolve the National Assembly to call for new elections opens up questions of where their jurisdiction really extends to because courts should really only rule on the constitutionality of laws and regulations. The fact that they handed down this decision, reinstated the National Assembly and government, and then dictated when the no-confidence vote should take place is highly suspect and clearly not impartial. In addition, when the National Assembly convened over the weekend to move to vote, the Supreme Court was opened on a weekend night while the vote was taking place in case the voting wasn't completed per court mandate, and they were prepared to rule that they were in contempt of court, but the voting was completed.
The other aspect of this no-confidence coup is that Imran Khan was ardent in his desire to reduce American influence on Pakistan and the reliance on American foreign aid, and he's been a critic of American policy. Given the history of American interventions abroad around the world in the name of regime change over the past 50-60 years, I would not be surprised if allegations of the opposition parties (all of them) receiving funding from the US to move for this vote in order to remove Imran Khan emerge to be true.
And among all this, the army is still a wild card because they could come in and impose martial law, so who knows...