A season among seasons

Human history is replete with periods in which certain powers ascended and then melted away. Nothing is everlasting except movement. From one phase to the next, from one episode to the other, from one realm to what follows it — life is an everlasting manifestation of various shapes and shades of change.

The challenge resides in one's ability to recognise this inevitability and then adapt to its varying colours. Not many people have this potential, and therefore, they usually end up in dark alleys. But recognising this inevitability is only one aspect of this challenge.

A more important aspect is cultivating space for your strategic engagements and working to lift its dark shades, allowing light to filter through.

History is also an embodiment of a high quotient of courage to resist to secure freedom and restore human dignity. In this endeavour, people have waded through prolonged periods of excessive oppression where the incumbent forces resorted to using every implement in their armoury to thwart the quest for deliverance. These struggles encompass a soul-elevating display of resolve and resilience, causing suffering to countless people. But the certitude of change remains paramount.

Pakistan has gone through its upheavals, oscillating from military rule to experiments in democracy. Unfortunately, all this has ended up in a mounting pile of uncertainties, with the way forward clouded in darkness. We have reached a point where those occupying seats of power are talking about a hybrid system that they say we are practising, and which should be accepted as the model for the future.

I am not aware whether any consultative sessions were held with stakeholders before declaring that this concoction is more suited to Pakistan's needs, or whether this is just a shot in the dark aimed at manufacturing some more crutches for prolonging their tenure in power.

What is this hybrid system which the government's stalwarts are promoting as an ideal fabrication for our future? Is there any sustainable rationale that is guiding our thought process, or is it just the fear of Imran Khan which is prompting the ruling elite to dig the pit deeper? Will the defence minister step forth to share its salient features with the people?

Every phase in a nation’s life provides a curve of learning. The challenge is how we address this: whether we profit from it, or we use it as material for igniting our next experiment. It is a reality that we have learnt little from all such phases that we have passed through. As a matter of fact, with the passage of every such tenure, we have ended up in a deeper pit than before. The same appears to be the case concerning this latest version of the hybrid system that the government is keen to promote.

I think it is time to stop this experimentation, which is only pushing us backwards. With each such venture, we have continued to lose ground in multiple realms encompassing security, economy, education, health, job opportunities and much else. In the process, we have been reduced to the stature of being an economically captive country controlled by the international lending organisations and some friendly nations, which pour some alms whenever we go to them holding our begging bowls.

Tragically, this has also led to a loss of dignity and self-respect, which is going to be difficult to retrieve. Notwithstanding the false projections, if we continue with our experimentation spree, the situation is going to get worse by the day. I don't see a reprieve as far as my eyes can stretch. As we move further, it gets steeper downhill.

Every country is run in accordance with a statute book called the constitution and the laws that flow from it.

It lays down the parameters for the state institutions and the people to observe in their interactions with others and among themselves. If this is not done, the likelihood is that the state and its institutions will be unable to deliver to the people what is contained in the social contract. This will, consequently, breed disaffection which will spread all around at an alarming speed. This is where we are at this critical juncture.

Through the decades, not only has the state failed to deliver on its responsibilities to its people, but its institutions have also been corrupted by the rulers to the point of collapse. The liquidation of the judiciary after the passage of the 26th Amendment has destroyed whatever faith people are left with in the provision of justice. The stature of the judiciary as an independent pillar of the state has been totally compromised, and the work of its judges has been rendered subservient. Its past had always been littered with grave queries about its conduct in dispensing justice and the questionable role it played in defining the direction the state would take to move into the future, including its bizarre coinage of the concept of doctrine of necessity, but it was never as bad as it is now.

Even worse is the way the state institutions, most notably the judicial system, have been used by the government against the PTI. Imran Khan has been incarcerated for almost two years now on account of the registration of fake and fraudulent cases. His wife and thousands of other leaders and workers are also jailed in lieu of cases which have no substance and would not stand in an independent court beyond a single hearing. Yet, cases are managed to the advantage of the rulers at the cost of the alleged victims.

I don't have a crystal ball to tell the future, but what I see paints a bleak picture. We seem to be caught up in our limited vision and even more limited objectives, topped by devising stratagems to prolong their stay in power and accumulate personal wealth for the rulers so anointed. There is no concern for the country, no anxiety for its people and absolutely no mention of a future which seems destined to remain captive in the hands of the internal exploiters and external manipulators.

This is a season that stands among other seasons in its absolute centrality in defining the fate of a state which has oscillated between one extreme and the other, but never quite settled down to implement its foundational charter of being a democratic country, jealously upholding the rights of its people. We must stop sliding any further into the pit that we have been assiduously digging.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

The writer is a political and security strategist and the founder of the Regional Peace Institute. He is a former special assistant to former PM Imran Khan and heads the PTI’s policy think-tank. He tweets @RaoofHasan

Originally published in The News