Once upon a time in Pakistan

In the HBO hit show Game of Thrones, there is a scene where Petyr Baelish tells Cersei Lannister, “knowledge is power.” In response, Cersei orders her guards to get a hold of Baelish and cut his throat. The guards get a firm hold of him and put a knife to his throat. But right before they execute him, Cersei orders them to leave him alone saying she actually changed her mind. And then in her grim reminder to Baelish she says, “power is power.” I was just reminded of that scene when I heard about the ouster of Imran Khan.

Anyway, American power disguised as the Pakistani process titled no-confidence vote resulted in Khan’s exit and the installation of a new regime. Well, old actually. You can belong to any political party in Pakistan and still call Shehbaz Sharif the selected Prime Minister, because it won’t be a politically motivated or anger driven expression. The Parliament actually selected him as the Prime Minister. This author would refer to him as the selected PM for the sake of clarity and in solidarity with the Parliamentary process and norms.

The oft-repeated phrase ‘I want results’ is not always true. Some people or rather some countries don’t want results. They want the method. They don’t care if the intended result is achieved, they care how it is done. In other words; they want their dictates obeyed. And that causes problems because the end becomes secondary, the means take over and becomes the end. This is one of the major reasons behind the never ending American conflict with other nation-states. This is the reason why America and Imran Khan got into a conflict of opinion.

Khan said ending terror was what Pakistan needed and desired more than America. But he said he would do it on his own terms. The American sledgehammer Whack-A-Mole method had not worked. It had actually made things worse, especially for Pakistan. Little to almost no airtime is given to the fact that the Americans finally did what Khan had been advocating for in the pursuit of achieving peace in Afghanistan. For the Americans, it was not only getting defeated in its longest war but also the defeat of its method.

The Musharraf regime reminded the Americans right after 9/11 how the US should proceed with caution instead of the irrational behaviour of bombing Afghanistan. But the generals in Musharraf’s inner circle such as Mehmoud Ahmed also promised support in case war is what America wanted. This time around, when the US left Afghanistan, the CIA wanted to use Pakistan’s soil for bases in order to keep an eye on the Taliban in Afghanistan. Imran Khan said, “Absolutely not”. And then he went on and on reminding the Americans how Pakistan paid such a heavy price in the form of lives lost and treasury emptied when it chose to join the American led war on terror. Pakistan became the target of that hatred that America generated with its heavy hammering around the world.

Allowing the Pakistani soil for the purpose of flying drones and unleashing hellfire missiles in neighbouring Afghanistan was going to have a blowback for Pakistan more than for any other state. That method was not the right one, warned Khan. Putting Pakistan’s interests before the American interests and not obeying the ‘how’ part of ending terrorism left a bad taste in the American mouth. When it comes to Pakistan, historically America is used to never taking no for an answer.

Raymon Davis was cut loose, Bin Laden raid and Salala came and went, Memogate author is living freely in America, Pakistani communications are being spied upon without much or any resistance, Trump went to India but not to Pakistan, and so on and so forth. And then here was this man speaking truth to power. Power systems never like that. Once upon a time in Pakistan Khan thought that idealism would win against power.

The End.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2022.

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