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The Unfortunate tale of Pakistani Revolt

In a larger political discourse of Pakistan, Imran Khan too is going to be irrelevant. What will stay relevant is that citizens stood agains...

In a larger political discourse of Pakistan, Imran Khan too is going to be irrelevant. What will stay relevant is that citizens stood against the decades-old oppressive system established by the GREAT ESTABLISHMENT. It will have to honour people’s will or like it has always been in the history of nations, people’s will will certainly find a way to get honoured. And the establishment must fear that day.

Written by Hamdah Tahir



Usually when writing one knows where to start. What to begin with. How to stay rational. How to objectively analyze the situation and how to stay emotionally detached. In the case of your country burning in flames, in whose streets you grew up, whose landscapes you cherished, whose culture and people you fell in love with,  all doors of objective impartialness and emotional detachment seem to be shutting down, enclosing you in the darkness of despair and paramount grief. I deliver these words of mine to you with an evident emotional bias for my country and with a deep emotional attachment with the people of this country who are suffering at the hands of decades of established systematic suppression by the very institutions and legislators of this country. Let there be no truth kept untold.

The decades of Pakistani romance with its army has ended. Pakistanis are calling out generals of the army while their hearts still beating for the soldiers standing at the borders in the same uniform, representing the same institution. How unfortunate! The question arises why? What could have damaged this romance that remained unwavering, firm and resolute even after three martial laws and the 1971 fall of Dhaka? To be precise, the widespread belief that the army keeps politicians in check is now dented. Now Generation Z is more interested in asking: who will keep the powers of generals in check? 

In a nutshell, Pakistanis have seen violations of their fundamental right to freedom of speech, right to security, right to protest, right to assembly, right to information and right to vote. All this happening while the country is at the brink of economic default with sky-rocketing inflation.

Imran Khan played a vital role in putting this dent across the nation’s heart. The middle class has been rallying around Khan since 2011 to put an end to the system of political dynasties ruling over the country and jeopardizing national progress over personal gains.

The Khan’s opposition has always alleged that he had the establishment’s support since the very inception of his political career. What still remains is a fact that his motto of ending corruption and freeing Pakistan from the shackles of political dynasties greatly resonated with the masses of Pakistan. Fast forward to 2018, he became Prime Minister of Pakistan. The same old faces of crooked system in his cabinet and government really damaged his popularity. He didn’t have a magic wand to fix the institutions but even his supporters believed he could have performed better. In April, 2022 he was removed from office of Prime Minister, by a coalition of 11 parties named PDM, through vote of no confidence. Apparently, it was a democratic and constitutional procedure but the veterans of Pakistani political history keep no secret in pronouncing it Civil-Military Joint Coup. The driving force behind the successful vote of no confidence is widely believed to be khan’s fallout with the establishment.

Since Khan’s ouster, PTI supporters, political workers and party leaders, including Imran Khan, have been facing the worst sort of crackdown on freedom of speech. They have been facing media censorship and illegal abduction by law-enforcing agencies. Even some political workers were also killed. Arshad Sharif, a renowned journalist, was also murdered. Imran Khan survived an assassination attempt. Zaman Park clashes between police and PTI workers showed how desperate the establishment is to arrest Imran Khan. At the foremost, the government’s refusal to hold elections as per the orders of the Supreme Court and the Constitution of Pakistan has left the masses extremely frustrated. In a nutshell, Pakistanis have seen violations of their fundamental right to freedom of speech, right to security, right to protest, right to assembly, right to information and right to vote. All this happening while the country is at the brink of economic default with sky-rocketing inflation. The final strike of arresting Imran Khan, a day after he accused an army officer of trying to assassinate him, has turned the extremely frustrated masses into a revolting mob. This revolt would have already occurred, had it not been a widespread hope among Pakistanis in the form of Khan and the restoration of his government through elections. When the only hope of a desperate and hungry mob is snatched, what do you expect them to do? They go wild! It seems like the establishment misread the pulse of the nation.

Another reason that provides reason behind this violent resistance is the belief that Imran Khan’s life is in danger. And this belief does have rational grounds considering what we have seen in past months and what we have witnessed in the major part of our history; popular leaders getting dethroned and killed by the establishment. And if he is killed or unqualified, what will be the fate of Pakistan? Back to the bouncing of government between two political dynasties? The middle-class masses are more driven in this resistance by common distaste for PDM than love for PTI.

The only way out from this crisis is to hold elections. Let the people decide. Let the Constitution prevail. Let the people’s trust in the judiciary be restored. Let democracy takes its own course.

What we have been seeing since the arrest of Imran Khan is people’s declaration of revolt against the state. The past 13 months under PDM government explain the genesis of this revolt. When the masses were not safe from their own law enforcement agencies, when the masses were not delivered justice by their own courts, and when the government itself was violating the fundamental rights of the masses, it was destined to turn into a mob. Testing the patience of the masses has backfired. When the state itself puts its people against the wall, what option do they have other than to revolt? The damage this revolt is causing, the government and establishment are more responsible for it than the mob because the responsibility of pushing the masses to the point of revolt lies on their shoulders.

That, however, doesn't imply in any way that masses turned mob share no responsibility. In times like this, the morals, resilience and conscience of a nation is tested. Violence never breeds liberation. Security services are bound to contain this mob violence which results in violent clashes between front-line soldiers (who have a family to feed regardless of their own political affiliations) and political workers. The only victim of these clashes is the peace and prosperity of Pakistan. The violence must be condemned but there is a dire need to understand the frustration of the public that lead to this violence. While there is roughly 3% of the masses going violent, the other 97% believe in asserting their dissent and resistance through peaceful protests. But the question is would they be allowed to peacefully register their protest? Would Pakistanis be granted their right to vote and elect their representative?

What bleeds my heart is the dead bodies of protesters that I have seen. Khan gets released or not, who will bring culprits of these murders to the execution of justice? Or these murderers will also keep on roaming in our Parliament and Bureaucracy like the murderer of Nazim Jokhio, like the culprits of the Model Town massacre like the killers of Arshad Sharif and Zille Shah. Will these murders be treated as forsaken “collateral damage” just because the victims belong to the class of “common people” with no political influence to penetrate into the houses of power? Just because these victims are children of a lesser god? This depends on general public. If they can take to the streets for the elite if they can storm the GHQ for the already privileged ones, what stops them from doing the same for their own kind?

The only way out from this crisis is to hold elections. Let the people decide. Let the Constitution prevail. Let the people’s trust in the judiciary be restored. Let democracy takes its own course. Military and rangers might end these protests forcefully, what they won’t be able to do is remove this growing resentment from people’s hearts. Army would never be able to rule these hearts again. This is the beginning, it won’t end today. People have taken bullets for this resistance. They have carried corpses on their shoulders for this resistance. What has been done cannot be undone. Imran Khan or no Imran Khan, the systematic revolution is on its way. In the larger political discourse of Pakistan, Imran Khan too is going to be irrelevant. What will stay relevant is that citizens stood against the decades-old oppressive system established by the GREAT ESTABLISHMENT. It will have to honour people’s will or like it has always been in the history of nations, people’s will will certainly find a way to get honoured. And the establishment must fear that day. In the greater political landscape of Pakistan, this revolt is going to define Pakistan’s history. I hope history witnesses this revolt as the turning point where civilians took their country back. In the history of centuries, everything is going to be irrelevant. PDM and establishment are going to be irrelevant. Khan too is going to be irrelevant. The only thing relevant will be the fury of the masses, the anger of the masses, the rage of the masses and the revolt of the masses.