Nahraf
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This is an excellent article. Pakistan shares very close ethnic, cultural, religious, historical ties with Iran. We should have very close relations with Iran but the Pakistan Army's obsession with Talibans has damaged our relations. If we don't stand by our old friends in time of need then nobody will stand by us when our turn comes.
Will Pakistan stand by Iran? | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
Will Pakistan stand by Iran?
By Dr Haider Mehdi | Published: August 6, 2010
With the growing war rhetoric against Iran by Israel and the US, it would be interesting to imagine a hypothetical situation: Quaid-i-Azam, father of the nation; Allama Iqbal, nationalist, political-philosopher poet; Ghalib, the soul of Urdu poetry; Faiz and Ahmed Faraz, each the heartbeat of peoples aspirations; and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, all sitting together in Pak Tea House, Lahore, and having afternoon tea while discussing contemporary geopolitical dynamics and the fate of human civilisation in the 21st century.
Precisely at that very moment in the hypothetical situation, the Zardari-Gilani incumbent government in Islamabad announces that this administration has decided to support the US-Israel-NATO launched military invasion of Iran that has just begun. The Prime Minister, in his usual endless oratory, explains the rationale behind this decision: The present global political stability and the balance of power in the region need to be protected. Pakistan is the historical ally of the US and is committed to safeguarding American global political interests and its security concerns. Pakistans friends in the Middle East are also supportive of the US-Israeli-NATO military action; justifiably, the US along with all of its allies cannot let nuclear proliferation take place. Irans nuclear ambition is a threat to world peace. Pakistan is a responsible state and cannot put the entire international community at risk from nuclear terrorism. The present global political status quo must be preserved in the interest of humanitys future. Pakistan has only one policy option and that is to morally and politically support the ongoing military invasion against Iran. Pakistan will fulfil its obligation to the world community: Pakistan Zindabad.
Mind it, this is a purely hypothetical scenario. What would one think that the spiritual political elders of the nation, who have gathered in the Pak Tea House, would say about the Zardari-Gilani governments decision? Indeed, a collective response of our elders would be one of terrible shock, a betrayal of our very national genesis and an utter disillusionment in Pakistans contemporary role in international politics. But their individual responses would be far more reflective of our failure in political nationhood, the ailing polity that we have become, and the permanent submissive role to the US-West that this nation has assumed in the management and conduct of its foreign policy.
I assume, hypothetically again, that our elders would react in the following manner to Zardari-Gilanis decision to support military invasion against Iran: Quaid-i-Azam would say that we (as a nation) are once again at the starting point of struggle against colonialism, foreign occupation and the US-Wests neo-imperialism covertly (under the disguise of so-called democracy) supported by Pakistans ruling elite. The Quaid will ask the nation to rise against the present political dispensation and free itself from this yoke of national oppression - to the Quaid this would be another political movement (massive mobilisation of people) for the national dignity, sovereignty and independence of Pakistan.
Iqbal, Ghalib, Faiz and Faraz would lament the degeneration of our ruling elites political-moral consciousness and the indignity that is being imposed on this nation. God knows how many verses of sorrow, sadness, betrayal and at the loss of our national innocence would fill the air with Noor Jehan and Mehdi Hassan joining the chorus grieving the demise of a nation that was built on a vision of a spiritual-humanitarian ideals dedicated to an ideology of peace, brotherhood and co-existence of a community of nations sharing common history and political thought.
But the most important reaction would come from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. ZAB would like Pakistans armed forces to immediately join the Iranian armed forces for a joint counter-attack military strategic operation against the incoming invasion. Pakistani pilots would fly the skies protecting Iranian air space and the ground forces would assist the Iranians in stopping the violation of its territory. But the most powerful response from ZAB would come in political and diplomatic terms. ZAB would warn the invaders that unless the invasion is terminated at once, Pakistan would administer massive damage by lethal force to the US and Israeli forces and their allies, in whatever form it might take, to safeguard its neighbours territorial and political integrity and national sovereignty.
At this point, considering the relatively lacklustre performance as the largest opposition party in the country, it is difficult to expect an aggressive stance from the PML-N.
Had ZAB been alive, the ongoing US-Israeli war mongering against Iran would not have taken place to begin with. ZAB (with all his political faults and misgivings) was a global political visionary. He understood the importance of national dignity and sovereignty. He conducted Pakistans foreign policy with an eye on the evolving international political dynamics and politically, as well as intellectually, appreciated the need for a regional power bloc in the Middle East to consolidate Islamic nations solidarity to counter the US-Israeli-Wests global hegemony. ZAB understood that the threat of western neo-imperialism ever increases, if not diplomatically and politically countered at the level of an international forum. ZAB believed that such a politically active forum could be structured and promoted by a commonality of purpose and solidarity amongst all Muslim nations. Indeed, ZAB argued that all Islamic states and their people had suffered and endured Western oppression and colonialism; he saw a common thread of this historical experience as a binding element in a brave new world of Islamic nations solidarity.
It was not an emotional, religious or faith-driven vision of a new global political era of Islamic power, as a stabilising force in the balance of power equation in an emerging post-independence world. It was a rational approach to conducting international diplomacy and global politics. It was a doctrine that was based on national integrity, equality of nations, independence and sovereignty, self-reliance and self-respect - way in the opposite direction of the existing status quo between the powerful US-Western nations and the subservient Third World countries - and their ruling elite, who could not survive a moment of their political life without the foreign backing of their imperialist masters.
But national dignity and independence come at a cost.
Our national tragedy is that the entire political leadership of our country is without vision - nor have they the intellectual-political ability to understand what ZAB had offered as a new global political order.
How could the nation anticipate an imaginative or inspirational leadership that owes its existence to a foreign-brokered NRO? The ignominious and humiliating compromises of the present political ruling elite are all too obvious to expect that the incumbent regime would espouse a doctrine that is fundamentally contrary to their self-interests.
If an invasion comes against the Iranians, Pakistans ruling elite would stand by their Masters! Beggars have no choices!
National political renaissance in Pakistan can only come with a revolutionary change in its political culture and its entire political leadership!
Didnt Imran Khan say that? !
ZAB would have advised the same to the PPP jialas!
Wake up before its too late!
The writer is an academic, political analyst and conflict-resolution expert.
Email: hl_mehdi@hotmail.com
Will Pakistan stand by Iran? | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
Will Pakistan stand by Iran?
By Dr Haider Mehdi | Published: August 6, 2010
With the growing war rhetoric against Iran by Israel and the US, it would be interesting to imagine a hypothetical situation: Quaid-i-Azam, father of the nation; Allama Iqbal, nationalist, political-philosopher poet; Ghalib, the soul of Urdu poetry; Faiz and Ahmed Faraz, each the heartbeat of peoples aspirations; and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, all sitting together in Pak Tea House, Lahore, and having afternoon tea while discussing contemporary geopolitical dynamics and the fate of human civilisation in the 21st century.
Precisely at that very moment in the hypothetical situation, the Zardari-Gilani incumbent government in Islamabad announces that this administration has decided to support the US-Israel-NATO launched military invasion of Iran that has just begun. The Prime Minister, in his usual endless oratory, explains the rationale behind this decision: The present global political stability and the balance of power in the region need to be protected. Pakistan is the historical ally of the US and is committed to safeguarding American global political interests and its security concerns. Pakistans friends in the Middle East are also supportive of the US-Israeli-NATO military action; justifiably, the US along with all of its allies cannot let nuclear proliferation take place. Irans nuclear ambition is a threat to world peace. Pakistan is a responsible state and cannot put the entire international community at risk from nuclear terrorism. The present global political status quo must be preserved in the interest of humanitys future. Pakistan has only one policy option and that is to morally and politically support the ongoing military invasion against Iran. Pakistan will fulfil its obligation to the world community: Pakistan Zindabad.
Mind it, this is a purely hypothetical scenario. What would one think that the spiritual political elders of the nation, who have gathered in the Pak Tea House, would say about the Zardari-Gilani governments decision? Indeed, a collective response of our elders would be one of terrible shock, a betrayal of our very national genesis and an utter disillusionment in Pakistans contemporary role in international politics. But their individual responses would be far more reflective of our failure in political nationhood, the ailing polity that we have become, and the permanent submissive role to the US-West that this nation has assumed in the management and conduct of its foreign policy.
I assume, hypothetically again, that our elders would react in the following manner to Zardari-Gilanis decision to support military invasion against Iran: Quaid-i-Azam would say that we (as a nation) are once again at the starting point of struggle against colonialism, foreign occupation and the US-Wests neo-imperialism covertly (under the disguise of so-called democracy) supported by Pakistans ruling elite. The Quaid will ask the nation to rise against the present political dispensation and free itself from this yoke of national oppression - to the Quaid this would be another political movement (massive mobilisation of people) for the national dignity, sovereignty and independence of Pakistan.
Iqbal, Ghalib, Faiz and Faraz would lament the degeneration of our ruling elites political-moral consciousness and the indignity that is being imposed on this nation. God knows how many verses of sorrow, sadness, betrayal and at the loss of our national innocence would fill the air with Noor Jehan and Mehdi Hassan joining the chorus grieving the demise of a nation that was built on a vision of a spiritual-humanitarian ideals dedicated to an ideology of peace, brotherhood and co-existence of a community of nations sharing common history and political thought.
But the most important reaction would come from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. ZAB would like Pakistans armed forces to immediately join the Iranian armed forces for a joint counter-attack military strategic operation against the incoming invasion. Pakistani pilots would fly the skies protecting Iranian air space and the ground forces would assist the Iranians in stopping the violation of its territory. But the most powerful response from ZAB would come in political and diplomatic terms. ZAB would warn the invaders that unless the invasion is terminated at once, Pakistan would administer massive damage by lethal force to the US and Israeli forces and their allies, in whatever form it might take, to safeguard its neighbours territorial and political integrity and national sovereignty.
At this point, considering the relatively lacklustre performance as the largest opposition party in the country, it is difficult to expect an aggressive stance from the PML-N.
Had ZAB been alive, the ongoing US-Israeli war mongering against Iran would not have taken place to begin with. ZAB (with all his political faults and misgivings) was a global political visionary. He understood the importance of national dignity and sovereignty. He conducted Pakistans foreign policy with an eye on the evolving international political dynamics and politically, as well as intellectually, appreciated the need for a regional power bloc in the Middle East to consolidate Islamic nations solidarity to counter the US-Israeli-Wests global hegemony. ZAB understood that the threat of western neo-imperialism ever increases, if not diplomatically and politically countered at the level of an international forum. ZAB believed that such a politically active forum could be structured and promoted by a commonality of purpose and solidarity amongst all Muslim nations. Indeed, ZAB argued that all Islamic states and their people had suffered and endured Western oppression and colonialism; he saw a common thread of this historical experience as a binding element in a brave new world of Islamic nations solidarity.
It was not an emotional, religious or faith-driven vision of a new global political era of Islamic power, as a stabilising force in the balance of power equation in an emerging post-independence world. It was a rational approach to conducting international diplomacy and global politics. It was a doctrine that was based on national integrity, equality of nations, independence and sovereignty, self-reliance and self-respect - way in the opposite direction of the existing status quo between the powerful US-Western nations and the subservient Third World countries - and their ruling elite, who could not survive a moment of their political life without the foreign backing of their imperialist masters.
But national dignity and independence come at a cost.
Our national tragedy is that the entire political leadership of our country is without vision - nor have they the intellectual-political ability to understand what ZAB had offered as a new global political order.
How could the nation anticipate an imaginative or inspirational leadership that owes its existence to a foreign-brokered NRO? The ignominious and humiliating compromises of the present political ruling elite are all too obvious to expect that the incumbent regime would espouse a doctrine that is fundamentally contrary to their self-interests.
If an invasion comes against the Iranians, Pakistans ruling elite would stand by their Masters! Beggars have no choices!
National political renaissance in Pakistan can only come with a revolutionary change in its political culture and its entire political leadership!
Didnt Imran Khan say that? !
ZAB would have advised the same to the PPP jialas!
Wake up before its too late!
The writer is an academic, political analyst and conflict-resolution expert.
Email: hl_mehdi@hotmail.com
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