Imran Khan, Reality and Delusion:

Imran Khan, Reality and Delusion:

 

            Imran Khan, after floundering for over a decade, has found focus. He appealed to people of Pakistan at a time of worse desperation than at any time since the creation of the country, except in 1971 and the people in the Punjab responded.

            And Punjabis constitutes 62% of the population of the country.

            He has offered a solution to all the problems of the country from feudalism, corruption, tax evasion, poverty alleviation, administrative inefficiency, illiteracy, unemployment to dependence on foreign countries.

            Almost every one attributes the bulk of the problems in Pakistan to 'corruption' in all walks of life. But the U.S.A and Pakistan are no different.

            People do not pay taxes in Pakistan, they cheat and lie, officials demand bribes, the rich deposit money in foreign banks and politicians do not keep their word. Well, in the U.S of A, all corporations practice tax evasion, nearly all affluent persons invent expenses to take advantage of tax loop holes, immigration officials smuggle illegal aliens for a price, most of the profits of corporation take shelter on off shore banks and all politicians including Obama have broken their word.

            Pakistan allocates 75% of the budget to defense and loan repayment, about equally divided between the two items. The declared U.S defense budget at $550 billion is 40% of the annual budget. Hidden budget for aggression is camouflaged in payment to mercenaries, corporations and foreign agents. Wastage is on top of that. Credible estimate for undeclared defense expense is 10 % of the budget-that takes it close to the Pakistan level.

            So the question to ask is why the U.S.A is doing relatively well and why Pakistan is on the brink of disaster. A larger picture would include the comparative development of India which is equally beset by corruption.

            One could point to the much larger pie of the U.S.A and in relation to India, the comparative destitution of Pakistan at the time of partition.

            But Pakistan was endowed with the monopoly of Jute and the fertile lands of the Punjab and Sind, so that India had to resort to officially backed rice and wheat smuggling from Pakistan. The Nizam of Hyderabad 'loaned' Rs 2,000 million, at the time equivalent to two years annual budget, to Pakistan and the Korean War was a veritable export bonanza Pakistan's exports.

            Ayub promoted industry in a significant way and till the end of his time the country was far more prosperous than India.

            So what are the core problems of the country and how Imran Khan proposes to deal with them and more important, if he is even aware of them?

            Population Explosion:

            West Pakistan, and since 1971, all of Pakistan, inherited a population of 35 million in 1947. 98% of the people were Muslim. Now conservative estimates put the number at 175 million, a 500% increase. India had a population of 320 million, out of which 20 million were Muslim. Now total population has gone up to 1,150, a 350% increase. But the Muslim population of India has gone up from 20 to125 million, a mind boggling 62.5 % increase.

            Economic conditions, % of literacy and social development play a part in population explosion. But a major role is played by prohibition of family planning, which is practiced on a large scale by non-Muslims of India.

            Foreign Policy:

            It is a largely forgotten fact that the Communist Party of India, under the behest of Stalin supported the Pakistan movement. The U.S.S.R sent an invitation to Liaquat before the U.S.A did. Liaquat, scion of a feudal house, went to Washington D.C.

            The U.S.S.R supported India in industry, commerce and defense supplies. The U.S.A just patted Pakistan on the back.

            Bureaucrats took over the government after Liaquat was killed. Army started playing a role in body politic and Ayub started visiting Washington, DC. Come 1954, Pakistan started participating in 'Mutual Defense Pacts' in the hope, which turned out to be vain, that the West would support it in its conflict with India.

            Pakistan started receiving 'Aid' in the form of weapons.

            Domestic Front:

            Bureaucrats, mortally afraid of January 1959 elections, handed over power to the army.

            Ayub, beset by the aftermath of the fraudulent victory over Miss Jinnah in the 1964 elections, launched the adventure of the 1965 war, lost it and was disempowered.

            The inevitable happened. The mercantilist party of Mujeeb won an overall majority. Feudal Bhutto won't accept it. The Evil Quad of landowners, the army, bureaucrats and Mullahs joined hands and waged a war of terror against the people of East Pakistan.

             Bhutto took over West Pakistan, and lost the last chance to control the army by pleading with Indra not to try Pakistani generals on charges of genocide. Further, true to the character of a feudal, he demolished the nascent commerce and industries of the country under the slogan of nationalization imposed in the most ham handed fashion.

            Not content with sabotaging the economy, he launched grandiloquent plans of the Islamic bloc and bomb, further impoverishing the country.

            The U.S.A is highly tolerant of dictators but not the once who are even a remote threat to Israel. Bhutto paid the price of defiance with his life.

            Islamization:

            The USSR gave a much longed for opportunity to the U.S.A to avenge the humiliation of Vietnam by going into Afghanistan. Loans poured in Pakistan.

            Zia with his 'Islamization', Benazir and Nawaz with their musical chairs and Musharraf with his enlightened moderation did not do a thing to restructure the economy, create jobs, improve literacy or create jobs.

Musharraf sold national assets at bargain basement price.

            The country only got further into the clutches of Multinational Corporations and their functional arms, the International Monitory Fund, The World Bank and other International Financial institutions.

            Now how does Imran Khan propose to deal with the issues?

Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham
(607) 776-3336
P.O. Box 469,
Bath NY 14810
USA
Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
All religions try to take over the establishment and if they fail, they collaborate with it, be it feudal or capitalist.