With a big bang terrorism is back again in Pakistan, the sacrifices of over 80,000 innocent people have gone down the drain and we are standing where we were in early 2013. Our sons in uniform who gave their lives in anti-terrorism operations have the right to ask from their graves whether they sacrificed their souls to reinstall terrorists in Pakistan. Their questions can include why they left their families by choice at the mercy of monsters who had been invited back to live in Pakistan.
On February 3, an Apex meeting was held in Peshawar to review the law and order situation in the country after the massacre of over 100 people who were praying in the Police Lines mosque, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was asking, who relocated terrorists from Afghanistan to Pakistan?
If all best become superclass and they rule the rest, then history tells us societies go through drastic changes and nature finds some way to free the “rest” from the “best” because, without this natural course, there is nothing to stop those who hold the most power doing what they want and tyrannizing everyone else
Do we not remember that the Parliament was briefed when the PTI-led government invited terrorists back to Pakistan and briefings were given by the former COAS and former DG ISI to politicians including Shehbaz Sharif? The PML(N) is blaming former Prime Minister Imran Khan for reinventing terrorism by rehabilitating terrorists in Pakistan while Imran Khan is naming the former COAS and the former DG ISI for this action.
We know that whosoever was responsible for this reckless action would never be questioned. Therefore, wasting the time in raising such useless questions that had answers within them must be avoided and we must move forward. We always move forward by forgiving and forgetting what had happened to us and who was responsible for our disasters. We are a very resilient nation indeed.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on February 2, informed parliamentarians that the PTI-led government after the Fall of Kabul sent a message to the then opposition (now the government) that “talks could be held with terrorists.” Khawaja Asif claimed that nevertheless briefings were given by the then COAS and the then DG ISI but meetings had remained “inconclusive” and politicians were only informed about the decisions that had already been taken and Parliament never endorsed decisions. I can only be sorry that a Defence Minister is asking Parliament who should be held accountable for the bloodshed nowadays Pakistan is facing.
Khawaja Asif raised questions that must be answered by Khawaja Asif himself as the Defence Minister and by his colleague, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari because Khawaja Asif asked the parliamentarians whether we are sovereign or a mortgaged nation. He is also not clear about who is taking decisions in the country.
Khawaja Asif, while remembering Ziaul Haq’s era, mentioned that Pakistan provided services to the USA on rent for fighting Afghan Jihad against Russian troops.
Khawaja Asif’s questions are appropriate but he knows he cannot hold anyone accountable because the powerful do not like to answer what they do and they are not answerable to anybody. Questioning someone is possible when you have at least some status and some leverage of power over that which is being enjoyed by someone you are questioning. How can a civilian Parliament ask anything from anybody that is a member of the all-powerful and supreme elite?
David Rothkopf, an American scholar in his famous book Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, writes that the network of business, government, military and cultural elites are redefining power in the global era. He is of the view that each one of them is over a million-strong and they run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, and, from the shadows, the world’s most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping the history of our time. You can disagree with him but questions he raises in his book need thoughtful introspective behaviour to understand that somehow or other, his viewpoint cannot be just thrown away.
He discusses commonalities among partners of the superclass and their common approach to controlling their own countrymen. His more important question is who sets the rules for a group that operates beyond national laws? The answer to his question needs in-depth investigation and this superclass that also controls aids and funds needed for research organizations would never allow working on this in-depth investigation. Meanwhile, the corporate media which is a soft-powered tool of the superclass redirects such questions toward poor, powerless, and orphan democracies.
Many of today’s corporate sector-sponsored thinkers and researchers say democracy is responsible for every ill in Pakistan because politicians are corrupt, incompetent, outdated, and work as the second fiddle to the superclass. These allegations are not unfounded because the superclass tailors the system where only hand-picked and chosen ones can reach the political institutions that are responsible for decision-making. Remember former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had been selling the dreams of sharing political opportunities with the working class, fielded only electable candidates in the 2018 general elections. Now he claims that others were taking decisions for his party as well as his government.
Our democracy is a legacy of Greek and Roman political systems where state-friendly philosophers like Plato and Aristotle favoured a kind of democracy that could ensure “the rule by the best over the rest, an aristocracy based on merit rather than blood”. Aristotle also said that a good monarchy was better than a democracy. Aristotle’s criticisms of democracy were often insightful and farsighted.
His key objection to democracy was that it undermined the rule of law while a functioning state requires that laws govern everything. Aristotle might understand that the superclass had resources and means to subjugate poor and weak politicians and it is difficult to control rich and powerful monarchies.
Anyhow it is a long discussion of what Aristotle thought about democracy and what kind of monarchy he promoted. Aristotle wanted the “rule by the best over the rest”. Do we find the best around us? The best are those who have the skill to acquire power and resources and they obviously are part of a superclass.
If all best become superclass and they rule the rest, then history tells us societies go through drastic changes and nature finds some way to free the “rest” from the “best” because, without this natural course, there is nothing to stop those who hold the most power doing what they want and tyrannizing everyone else.
While finishing my degree in Political Philosophy, I extensively read German philosopher Hegel because his ideas influence the generations to come since his death in 1831. He believes that “Rulers, Statesmen, Nations, are used to be emphatically commended to the teaching which experience offers in history. But what experience history has taught is – that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it”.
