“Occupation corrupts.” IDF Major Gen. Matti Peled, San Francisco May 1992
This article predicts the duration of the military capture of the rule. To clarify my thesis, the military capture does not mean how long the current fascist regime could survive. Instead, it suggests sending the army permanently back to their barracks and allowing politicians and citizens to thrive.
The beauty about critical thinking and science is that you can be productively wrong
In support of my arguments, I present essential questions to predict the span of the military’s rule. If I were to narrow down my inquiries to a single factor responsible, what would it be? I formulate my one factor two essential questions as follows:
What is the one factor in the United States that holds the country together?
What is the one factor that can develop the esthetics of humanity?
To show that these are the central questions in making a prediction, I share the challenges the people of Pakistan are facing and my assessment of a few historical facts.
Throughout my life, I’ve encountered a certain truth in the Pakistani army referring to Pakistani civilians as “Bloody Civilians.” For instance, civilians could not envision projects to better the population. Example, civilians could not give masses a K-12 public education system with higher scholastic standards, but the armed forces have. Critics have attributed the civilian’s incompetency to the army and the feudal lords’ combined goal to keep population indigent.
The aforesaid is a naïve assessment. The fact remains, during 1947 to 1950s, the civilians could not govern the country. The civilians from their incompetency around 1954 had to dissolve provincial assemblies in all of the provinces from an ethnic pandemic, except in the NWFP, now KP province. Even the most educated population of that time, the Urdu speaking immigrants were incapable to run the country from their discord.
Mr. Roedaad Khan attributed this discord among the men in high offices to their spouses’ lack of social harmony among them that led to their influence over the men, and contributed to the governance issues. What an assessment of the statesmen. “Bloody Civilians” is aptly said.
Another noteworthy fact: Over the past few decades, the two ruling families of Pakistan have acted in compromising the national interest. Zardari allowed drone attacks, fully aware that the Pashtun trait of revenge was channeled towards recruitment by organizations involved in terrorism. Nawaz Sharif, with his investments in India, was seen as an extension of Indian interests.
The two families in question, with their cultural and ethnic traits, proved to be inadequate rulers. Consequently, the army found itself at odds with them as they posed at times a national security threat. At other times, at the corrupt army’s convenience, the army would use the two political family’s corruption as reason to ouster them.
The primary reason for institutional decay within the army can be traced back to sycophancy, a trend that originated in the days of Field Marshal Ayub Khan. The secondary reason was the true and tested warriors of WWII were either replaced with peace time paper tigers or many good officers decided they did not want to be a part of the club. The tertiary reason was acting on the idea of making a national army. In this experiment, the army quickly recruited young men from all walks of life remained ungroomed.
While the officers’ mess was essential for grooming soldiers, these young officers picked from a set of less desired habits and values, were not interested in a mess life. As a result, the officers’ mess etiquettes were not seen in officers. The old traditions were lost and replaced with materialism.
The army had no filters and safety nets as the recruitment fell from the traditional military families with moral and social grounding. Here, I pick at random one general, the army chief Gen. Kayani. He was a son of None Commission Officer (NCO) and climbed the ladder—a morally defunct, coming from a socially disadvantaged beginnings, a creed of ethnic subjugation, though scholastically adept soldier, should not have risen to a rank of the army chief.
Imagine the crowd Kayani promoted to become a part of the club. The membership sequence in the club took a devastating turn as a mole was promoted. Gen. Bajwa and those who take command hereafter are offshoots of a sequence of treachery and treason committed by Bajwa.
The generals, the Air Force and Navy chiefs, and their high-ranking officers have decided to be a part of this treachery. These men in question, now led by army chief Asim Muneer, have adopted tactics and social norms outside of the norms of Pakistani society is a disturbing episode.
With acts repugnant to Pakistani society, deteriorated traits, abhorrent foul senses, dysfunctional acumen, maniacal and megalomaniacal deformities, what means do Pakistanis have to purge these men from their community? I have primed the premise to answer the essential question.
The one factor in the United States that holds the country together are the Chief Justices.
With Pakistan’s history before us, the one factor that can develop the esthetics of humanity is developing a civic sense (or Civitas.)
Developing civitas is means to replacing the Justices subservient to the fascist with Supreme Court Justices held in high regard as the U.S. Justices. These Justices can then continue to maintain the esthetics of humanity and keep the country together.
It took Imran Khan twenty-six years to cultivate a generation that is beginning to exhibit civic duty, yet they exist in fear, aiming to curtail the duration of the fascist regime. The transformative changes needed to eliminate this fear are inherently generational. Could it entail another twenty-six years in a cyclical pattern for an ethnic subjugated population to overcome the fear of retaliation by a fascist regime?
A prediction of liquidating the fascist regime depends on assumptions, factors of prediction against the intensity of oppression—more corruption intensify oppression, which makes the timeline unpredictable.
Assumptions are: Pakistan should not expect international support. The regime is stable. The regime is highly oppressive. Occupation corrupts. There is resilience and unity in population.
The factors of prediction are: Gradually overcome fear as population witness successful protests and civil disobedience. The population arming.
We are well aware. In the United States to have democracy, it requires population to be fully armed—the right to bear arms. Dr. Quigley has gone as far as to say, the citizens must be equally armed as the State.
The idea in the U.S. to bear arms is not to encourage their use, but to possess them for the purpose of protecting individual liberties.
The February 2024, elections in Pakistan serve as a means to grant the oppressive rule an uninterrupted and extended span. What can the country do when, regardless of the people exercising their democratic vote, the results are announced as the regime pleases? Not much, especially, if on election day the people succumb to fear, as expected, and do not protest as peaceful warriors to safekeep their vote.
We can learn from the Black Americans enslavement era (17th to 19th century) in the United States how long repression can last. In the case of Pakistan, the American Civil War taking Black Americans into the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) does not apply.
What applies to Pakistan is the outcome of the American Civil Rights movement, but not its timespan that lasted from 1950s-1960s. The reason is, in the United States, the founding fathers desired reconstruction and the law accommodated the ongoing struggle and activism, along with its faults. No such law is favoring Pakistan.
We have witnessed the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) or (the army fascist regime) torturing political candidates, exposing their women’s bodies to nudity, and subjecting their children to beatings. With the onset of protests, the implementation of rape and genocide as a severe repressive measure is anticipated to be inflicted upon the people.
It could take two generations to end the span of army rule
A change in global geopolitics or strife from poverty are likely immediate solutions to eject the CDF. The people arming themselves to protect their dignity can mitigate repression. However, the majority ethnic population with numerous good virtues will learn to protect themselves over a longer period. It may take a few generations.
The people’s ability to protecting themselves will plant the seeds of Civitas. Civitas will undo the regime and is means to cultivating Justices becoming of holding high offices. The Supreme Court Justices are necessary for Civitas to take hold and effectively contribute to the stability of the nation. These justices would play a pivotal role in upholding the principles of justice, interpreting and safeguarding the constitution, and ensuring the rule of law.
Bio: Mian Hameed is the author of MANIPULATION OF THE MIND: Our Children and Our Policy at Peril. He is a student of the U.S. and South Asia foreign policy. My articles do not present the conventional thoughts of the mainstream media. To read my work, click the Home link below.