State failure

LAHORE: The Pakistani state, its political elite and institutions have failed to discharge their constitutional obligation to protect and guard its territorial integrity and defeat nefarious designs of foreign governments for destabilising it from within with the aid of abettors and facilitators. In 1919, after WWI, the United Kingdom and its allies embarked upon the process of redrawing geographical boundaries of all existing Muslim majority countries and are now in a similar exercise to achieve their global strategic objectives.

The fact that the UK government has not taken any action against its citizen Altaf Hussain, who resides in London, for his hate speech inciting violence in Pakistan which resulted in the death of one innocent Pakistani in Karachi and injuries to scores of others is suspicious. His telephonic speech inciting violence and spitting venom and hate against a sovereign country while addressing his loyalists in America has also gone unnoticed.

There are numerous Security Council resolutions and laws within the UK and USA where such incitement of violence is a crime. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s political ruling elite, members of its civil bureaucracy are slaves to their conflicts of interest because either their children hold foreign nationalities of these two countries or their properties acquired through non-transparent means are located there, making them susceptible to foreign pressures.

The political opposition and a few anchors in the electronic media asking for the extradition of Altaf Hussain or charging him under Article 6, knowing that he is a British citizen, are either playing politics or are incompetent. America, which is a superpower, has not been able to extradite Julian Assange, an Australian citizen involved in WikiLeaks who has sought refuge at the Ecuador embassy in London.

Pakistan, as a sovereign country, can legislate laws immediately through presidential ordinance banning any individual who holds a foreign passport or has sought political asylum. It could also ban persons any other permanent residential status, except on official duty, to head any political party, group or NGO involved in politics of any sort; nor should he be allowed to hold public office, either paid or elected, in Pakistan nor represent this country at any forum. The question is why this is not being done and why the opposition is not demanding this.

Malik Tariq Ali

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2016.

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