The Blackwater of lawmakers

Standing armies could be less threatening to sovereignty than sellout lawmakers who bargained public trust for cash

Treason has been the buzzword among political circles and media pundits since Sunday. PTI labeled the opposition as traitors because they have acted as puppets in this no-confidence drama the script of which was written across the Atlantic. The opposition has labeled the dissolving of the National Assembly by PTI as an act of high treason. To be clear, a traitor by definition is a person who commits treason and treason by definition is the act of betraying one’s own country by overthrowing the government to which allegiance is owed. Given this definition, the actions of the turncoats inside Sindh House and their enablers constitute treason. Suspending the Constitution is also a treasonous act. Given this fact, a traitor in Pakistan right now really is a matter of personal opinion.

But after dotting the i and crossing the t’s of the word traitor, one realises that this all boils down to the age old dilemma of security versus liberty. The government aims at the threat against the state sovereignty and the opposition makes it an issue of rights and constitutional sanctity. Let us examine this, shall we?

In the not so old days, weak nations were invaded using the national army and then kept occupied using soldiers and diplomats. Then came the age of new-imperialism. Nation states saw their citizens deprived of democracy and freedom by a brutal dictator who was glued to the throne with the strong backing of some of the strongest states on earth. Direct and physical presence inside the occupied state was no more necessary because the local strongman performed the job quite well. Like the Covid-caused work from home, this model was occupation-from-home, if you will.

If the local strongman was unwanted because he favoured the opposite camp then he would be removed using local shock troops if he was lucky because the cleaner and more efficient methods were assassination and coup. Local shock troops such as the Jihadists were used against the communist strongmen.

Even in the imperial model of hegemony-from-home, many states were directly invaded and occupied using the old-fashioned tanks, bullets and bombs. The US invasion of Iraq, the Nato attack on Libya, the invasion of Afghanistan by both America and Russia are some of the examples. However, there is one common factor to all these traditional armed attacks against other states: the invaded and attacked state is always a defenseless one.

Pakistan is a nuclear armed nation. States like that are not directly invaded and occupied because it could lead to consequences that could trigger a nuclear war resulting in the end of all life on earth. Assassination, coup or whatever other methods humanity has seen in converting such states to become protectors of the interests of the imperial power would be employed if the head of the government has such funny ideas as pursuing an independent foreign policy and speaking truth to the imperial power.

When people’s representatives are bought to decide on the direction of democracy where it will eventually favour the lords of the world, then this is perhaps the worst form of an invasion against the sovereignty of the state. Instead of marching soldiers, lawmakers-for-hire are marched in order to change the destiny and direction of the country. Private mercenary soldiers are being replaced by private mercenary lawmakers. Standing armies could be less threatening to a nation’s sovereignty than the sellout lawmakers who have bargained public trust for cash. It is ironic what the disguise of democracy could do to democracy.

The state did whatever it must to defend its sovereignty. Violating the constitution is not as grave as suspending it. However, allowing the country’s sovereignty to be violated with cash having dubious origins is the end of all that makes an independent nation-state. Should the document be kept untouched at the expense of sovereignty or should sovereignty be sacrosanct while the document is played with? Does the document serve the nation state or the reverse?

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2022.

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