Ok, so let me try to answer or put my understanding and perspective in reply to your points below:
1. He struggled, but in the end, did give in. It is part of historical record that how the 2011 jalsa was engineered by Gen Pasha.
That was an allegation from Maryam Nawaz PML-N – should I say more on that…
2. As I have said above, what "agreement" and its implementation are we talking about, one whose ramifications bankrupt Pakistan, destroy the value of PKR, impoverish its people just so religious fanatics could have their way? A Malakand-type surrender of state before religious fanatics?
In November 2020, an agreement was presented to the Govt (
which is NOT Officially confirmed by the Govt) demanded the following:
The agreement had said that the government would reach a consensus in the parliament regarding the expulsion of the French ambassador within three months, would not appoint its ambassador to France and would release all the arrested workers of the TLP. The government would also not register any case against the TLP leaders or workers even after it called off the sit-in (in November 2020).
As per TLP the Govt did NOT pursue ANY of the demands set forth in that agreement and I agree and understand the ramification of implementing them outright as stated BUT...
IMHO this is where the Govt lacked foresightedness as they were unable to convince the top leadership of TLP that they have better “long term solution” in the works which will require to rally the International Muslim Community to draft a Bill which will be used IF in future muslim sentiments are hurt with consequences such as we witness if there is an Anti-Semitic event occur in the world today…the Govt should have taken the ownership of preserving “Namoos e Risaalat (SAW)” themselves since it is a very sensitive issue but instead they lingered on and on delayed it and never put it to debate on developing an international framework in the parliament nor kept TLP engaged thus pushing TLP to own it and eventually demand action on it.
3. Did I say the Pakistani political scene was marked by the prevalence of intellectuals? I said it was to the contrary. I said having both moral uprightness and intellectual prowess in an enlightened despotic leader was not a possibility in Pakistan, as both commodities are scarce, and having both in a single leader is not possible. The hybrid model of governance was supposed to have an enlightened despot in IK who had across-the-board institutional support. The establishment includes military, bureaucracy, judiciary, intelligence community.
I do not think that there is a scarcity of well-educated people with good morals in our society, there are alhumdullilah many BUT they themselves do not want to take part in politics as majority of them do not meet the “minimum requirements” of surviving in politics i.e. unlimited financial resources, and having network of friends sitting in higher places in Bureaucracy, Judiciary, Civil and Armed forces (Unfortunately)…but still I do not consider PMIK by any stretch of the imagination “a despot” … this is again your own personal opinion and your are entitled to it…and the hybrid model theory is false since the winning of PMIK was an eventuality triggered by two decades long era of ‘absolute corruption” etc, the people wanted a change in leadership, that is a leader who is presentable for the International audience and able to make speech without parchi infront of International leaders
and project the dignity for the Pakistan and its people in the world as they justifiably deserve.
4. Do not give us the example of India, whom we find abhorrent but we ourselves legally sanctify persecution of heretics (Qadyanis), talk about the implementation of surrender deals with religious fascists and fanatics of the highest order (TLP et al.). Nice! India's example was in the context of how the Indian state developed its economy despite banking on the same intellectually deficient, and morally corrupt political class relying solely on the collective wisdom approach to rule their country. Instead of their establishment conspiring every few years to spring some surprise.
There is NO comparison of India with Pakistan and whoever tries to make it look very foolish and I will tell you why, Pakistan is the ONLY muslim Country which has Nuclear weapons and thus will NEVER be allowed to prosper as freely as our neighbor by the west, the west consider India a tool to keep Pakistan in check in the region. Keeping Pakistan in FATF grey list and shrewd demands from IMF is some indications, so anything is kosher when it comes to undermining Pakistani economical interest as they very well know that IF Pakistan is allowed to become economically independent it will be darn hard to dictate…therefore Pakistani businesses not just strive against its usual international competitors but also with the unfavorable internal economical turmoil and constraints created intentionally by International predatory financial institutions...
On the other hand, India is treated as a “favorite kid” on the block because it is NOT a threat to the great international order of things … read the book called "
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” … fortunately for India as it is not targeted by such economic hitmen. There is a video below as well for a quick info...
And lastly please site any references where TLP acted as TTP… I need legit references and as far as their protests goes there is nothing wrong in protesting (yeh jhamoriyat ka husn hey) I mean almost all mainstream political parties including liberal and secular NGOs protests on streets, and some of them also turned violent but hey since they wear western clothing, sun glasses and chew gum our Police do not dare to touch them but since TLP followers are very common (Gharib) citizenry of the Country, we have the right to put acid on them and shoot them with live ammo. I am totally against destruction of public property and resorting to violence in protests but things become blurred in all such protests (as who knows who fired first etc), therefore I am hopeful that sanity prevails and pray that a peaceful and quick settlement of the current fiasco is reached.
5. Institutions should work within their constitutional domains. If these do not, countries could become Burmas, Egypts, Sudans, as well. How many uniformed/ex-uniformed individuals have their names in Pandora papers? Compare that with the Indians whose population is many times ours. Grade 20,21 employees of GoP amassing mountains of wealth a government servant could not even imagine about. When there is no accountability, actors in powerful institutions can enrich themselves without any fear. NAB cannot build cases against serving military men suspected of corruption. Everyone on this forum knows about the graft in defense procurement deals.
I concur that rooting out corruption is by far one of the biggest challenges for PMIK and I am a bit disappointed in that domain. I hope that this gap is realized as soon as possible otherwise it will be far more damaging for PTI in future.
6. I have no affection for any status-quo party. I wanted PTI to succeed regardless of what I have said. When I talk about subservience, I wanted PTI to remain subservient to the establishment for a prolonged duration until it could begin delivering good governance and the public started enjoying the fruits of its economic policies. Only then can a civilian government exert influence and start reclaiming the lost influence backed by grassroots public support. This would effectively put an end to the cycle of establishment intervention in politics.
That is good to know and I concur, and hope that PTI meets its goals, understand the threats posed to it from within as well. Making sure that “adal o Insaaf” is implemented and corruption is eliminated is the KEY… BTW apart from this TLP issue I am truly worried about the situation of Karachi as well as androon e Sindh…there have to be an alternative to PPP…
