Democracy, civilian supremacy, civil liberties, human rights – Even at the best of times, Pakistan’s tryst with these concepts has been rather patchy. Abuse of authority, extra-constitutional interventions, and extra-judicial and extra-legal steps by the Pakistani state has always been the normal abnormal. During the brief interregnums when the civilian’s return to office – never in power because that is always elusive in the quasimilitary dispensation, also known as the Deep State and the military establishment which calls the shots – hope is kindled that civilians will ensure that the grundnorm rules. But within a few months these hopes are belied and the normal abnormal returns to stifle the people of Pakistan and their democratic aspirations.
In recent weeks, Pakistan has once again regressed into the darkness that is the death of democracy. The civilian regime of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is weak, ineffective, effete and surviving on the crutches of the all-powerful Pakistan Army led by the new man on the horseback, Gen Asim Munir. The latter seems to be a somewhat more quieter and less flamboyant version of the most notorious dictator in Pakistan’s sordid history – GenZiaul Haq – but just as ruthless. The new hybrid regime that has replaced the old hybrid regime of Imran Khan and Gen Qamar Bajwa has, in a matter of weeks, made Pakistan a wasteland of democracy, civil rights and human rights. Worse, it has made Imran Khan who was considered a predator of media freedoms look good when compared to the manner in which the media is being muzzled and dissent is being crushed by the ShahbazAsim Munir combine.
The crackdown on the press in Pakistan has gone to the next level. Journalists and Youtubers are being booked for sedition only for criticising the high-handedness of the military and its civilian handmaidens. Holding an independent political view is now a criminal offence, and supporting Imran Khan is akin to treason. TV channels are forbidden to even mention Imran Khan’s name, let alone report anything related to him.
Khan has now been confined to the digital media for getting his message out. Some will call this just desserts for Imran Khan who targeted his political rivals in the same manner. But things have gone far beyond what happened when Imran Khan was Prime Minister. Journalists are being subjected to enforced disappearances – one news anchor Imran Riaz Khan has been missing for nearly 7 weeks now; they have been kidnapped, beaten, brutalised; they have been booked for sedition; they have been forced out of their jobs; their families have been targeted, intimidated and blackmailed; newspapers are forced to censor inconvenient news – far more than what happened earlier; TV channels are given strict guidelines on what they can and can’t report.
Most journalists are being forced to sing paeans for the Pakistan Army and its chief. Just like dissing Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari was perfectly the done thing during Imran Khan’s regime, dissing Imran Khan and his followers is now the ticket to success in Pakistan’s “independent” and “free” media. Even social media is being stifled and strangulated by the military monitors.
If you thought the Pakistan media is now resembling Chinese or even North Korean media, spare a thought for the trials and tribulations of politicians supporting Imran Khan. The Army and government were both at sea on how to handle Imran Khan after he was ousted from office in April 2022. Imran and his supporters had successfully challenged the mighty Pakistan Army and its fearsome intelligence services with the support of the people of Pakistan. But after the protests that broke out following Imran Khan’s arrest on May 9, the Army and the government got the excuse they needed to pull out all stops to dismantle Imran Khan’s party, support base and eliminate him politically.
By-passing the normal judicial processes, the military decided to try the protestors and the political workers leading them in military courts. In short, the Pakistan Army is now all set to court martial civilians in kangaroo courts run by the Army. This means the Army is judge, jury and executioner. This is the new standard of ‘justice’ in the Islamic Republic, and this has been endorsed enthusiastically by Imran Khan’s political enemies. That this is grave miscarriage of justice and a violation of all judicial proprieties is clear. But such is the fear of the military that everyone seems to be acquiescing to this mockery of the legal system, even defending it in international forums.
At the political level, the military is bulldozing its way to force desertions from Imran Khan’s party. Political leaders and activists are arrested and then kept in jail until they declare that they are either disassociating themselves from politics altogether or are deserting Imran Khan and joining a new party. The brazenness with which PTI members are being bludgeoned, bullied, browbeaten, beguiled, bribed to dump PTI is apparent to everyone – the activists are arrested, they get bail from the courts but the minute they are released, they are re-arrested, and this goes on until they surrender to the diktat of the ISI and MI officials. At that stage, they are released from jail, and instead of going home, they go to the nearest press club and announce that they are no longer in PTI. Cabinet ministers, party officials, members of national and provn assemblies, senators, everyone has been given the ‘treatment’ and forced to quit PTI. Those who have refused are being hunted, their houses attacked, their relatives arrested, they are being imprisoned and tortured. Women folk of the families of Imran loyalists are being molested. Women PTI workers have reportedly been raped, abused, physically assaulted, molested, and subjected to all manner of indignities.
Despite Pakistan emerging as the most horrific example of a democratic backsliding, Western organisations like RSF, CPJ, V-Dem, Freedom House and others have actually improved its ranking in civil liberties, media freedoms and democracy. International human rights organisations and activists have maintained what can only be called deafening silence over the inequities being visited on ordinary Pakistanis who are only seeking their political freedoms and the right to chose their own leaders. There is not a peep out of Western countries like the US, UK, and EU member states, all of which have turned their backs on the sufferings of the people of Pakistan who are facing a massive loss in their civil liberties and denied their basic human rights. In fact, countries like the UK have cracked down on Pakistani dissidents like Maj Adil Raja and booked them on terrorism charges only for criticising the brutal Pakistan Army. According to some reports, the Pakistan Army has successfully blackmailed the UK by leveraging anti-terror cooperation and demanding the heads of Pakistani dissidents as quid pro quo.
Until the international community is ready to intervene and stop the murder of democracy and the flagrant violations of the civil liberties and human rights of Pakistani citizens, the conditions in Pakistan will continue to deteriorate to the detriment of the people. This is a crisis situation in which no person or country with a conscience can keep quiet.