A Letter from Prometheus
George Eliot was an English novelist, poet, and journalist of the Victorian era. She is known for the strong lines she used to write in her novels. One of her famous set of lines includes her historic comments about the braveness of humans for losing instead of winning a war. She says:
“Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing”.
I think Maryam Nawaz gets inspiration from famous philosophers, writers, and politicians like Eliot who had a firm belief that sometimes losing is actually winning. Maryam’s latest advice to her uncle, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is not to care about his government which according to her is a “leftover” of the previous PTI-led government, and to hold people accountable who are responsible for what Pakistan had been going through in last five years, resulting now a devastated economy and turbulent political weather.
She had given names of the “cabal of five”, and according to her understanding, they are behind the current political and economic crises Pakistan is facing. Her direct attack on the cabal of five can end her political career if she gets punishment for contempt of court like former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani had. Three out of five persons she accused of undermining the democratic process in the country are enjoying their retirements and the history of Pakistan testified that nobody would ever try them for anything wrong they had allegedly done when they were in service.
The late General Musharraf was a fugitive and got a death sentence from a special court in Pakistan but he was laid to rest in Karachi with full national honours and guard of honour. The Parliament he suspended offered prayers for his departed soul. This is what Pakistan is and we have to accept the realities. Moreover, history confirms that the brave are hanged and cowards are awarded, then why does Maryam Nawaz want to be brave? I have no answer.
Political circles are of the view that the PDM is not enjoying the government since April 2022 and the only role it has is to face the wrath of the people because of skyrocketing price hikes and a melting economy. The PDM would not contest by-elections that would be held in March because it has limited hopes of winning them. Moreover, it would be disastrous for PDM if courts direct the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold elections for provincial assemblies of KPK and Punjab. PDM circles fear that JUI would be a loser in KPK and PML(N) would be in Punjab. Ordering provincial elections in current circumstances would be a “masterstroke” of the cabal of five against the PDM and I believe the PDM realizes the situation.
The PDM leadership believes that before it is thrown under the truck, the masterstroke it can play is to take off its all guards and build a strong narrative that is needed desperately. The risk is high to accuse two retired and two sitting judges so Maryam Nawaz is acting as a suicide bomber, but she is not alone. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Defence Minister Kh Asif also accused judges of the Supreme Court of being biassed against the ruling PML(N) and demanded that both should recuse themselves from the cases against party leaders.
An audio leak in which a Suprme Court judge is allegedly talking with former Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi needs a forensic test because I cannot accept a judge of the Supreme Court could be so reckless that he is not only hiding a wanted person at his residence but also confirming his act on a telephone; informing Ch Pervaiz Ellahi that Muhammad Khan was at his (the judge) residence.
We had an audio leak of Mr Justice Abdul Qayyum Malik in the past, but he tendered his resignation after the Supreme Court termed his conduct ‘biassed’ while deciding an appeal of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto against her conviction in a corruption case. We will see what action the Supreme Court would take for the forensics of this audio leak and consequent actions against those who fabricate this audio or against former CM Punjab if the audio is not fake and fabricated.
The public is openly asking what the motherland is providing to the public. Is the public enjoying equal respect, rights, and living standards that an officer of the bureaucracy, military, judiciary, and members of parliament are enjoying?
Irrespective of the credibility of this audio, it has provided an opportunity for the PDM leadership to raise their fingers against the judiciary and expose the division in the higher judiciary.
One by one; important institutions in Pakistan are facing situations they had never thought of before. Just imagine, former and sitting members of powerful institutions are facing accusations but their institutions are still shy to take any action against those who are accusing them without reason, or taking action against former or sitting members if they were really involved in misconduct. People irrespective of the political divide are openly blaming powerful institutions for protecting their sitting or former employees even if they are involved in illegal activities, and the burial of former military dictator Musharraf with a guard of honour is enough to understand that the powerful are beyond any accountability in Pakistan.
Today, even a banana seller is talking that elites are real owners of Pakistan while the common citizen is a slave who works to provide taxes for elites to enjoy lavish livings in public sector offices and residences. I strongly believe that all powerful institutions are collaborating with each other and safeguarding each other by following the dual principles that they are “too big to fail” and “too big to jail” so they are neither ready to accept their failures nor ready to face any consequences for whatever transgression they are committing or have already committed against the public and the country.
I am of the view that Pakistan has entered into a phase where abuse of power is no more tolerable for the public, and although the public cannot limit abuse of power, at least it is now expressing the view that Pakistan is a model of modern slavery in which the public is a tool to collect and provide taxes to the State, and elite institutions are there to enjoy the hard-earned money of the public.
This realization cannot be handled by selling the idea of “protection of motherland” or by telling people that the public has some duties towards the state. Now the public is openly asking what the motherland is providing to the public. Is the public enjoying equal respect, rights, and living standards that an officer of the bureaucracy, military, judiciary, and members of parliament are enjoying?
Vladimir Lenin in his book The State and Revolution writes that the capitalist State has the inherent nature to work as a tool for class oppression and that it ensures the social control of the ruling class. He says that even in a democratic capitalist republic, the ruling class never relinquishes political power, maintaining it “behind-the-scenes”. Can we decipher “behind-the-scenes” operators?
