News Analysis |
Pakistan’s World Cup cricket hero Imran Khan was sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan Saturday (Today), after promising a new era of responsibility and prosperity in a fighting speech in parliament. Khan won a simple majority from lawmakers in a Friday confidence vote, three weeks after the elections held on July 25th.
After taking the oath as premier, Khan and his wife stepped down the stage to greet various guests. After the ceremony, he proceeded to the Prime Minister’s Office, where he was presented a guard of honour. His swearing-in ceremony marked the end of decades of rotating leadership between two parties.
Many in the end of the two-party democracy have begun to see an end to a decades-long system used by the West to keep the decolonized world in line. This would explain the disquiet among the global establishment over the ascendance of the PTI Chief to power. The roots of the system lie in colonial history.
The state TV BBC has confessed that Altaf Hussain not only is involved in money laundering and human trafficking but also terrorism yet he still enjoys asylum on British soil.
The British came to rule the subcontinent for economic reasons. They needed the raw materials of the area to build up their economy back home. They used to transport raw materials such as cotton, jute and silk from their colonies to their factories in Manchester, turn them into products and then sell them to earn revenue. While they got richer through the same process, their ruled lands would sink in the quicksand of poverty.
In order to keep these lands in line and avert rebellions rising from adverse conditions, they would use segments of the local population against them. Their loyal locals would be given huge estates and power in return while the colonial masters looted the resources. In contrast, those that stood against the foreign invaders were labeled traitors and punished in a brutal manner. The biggest example is the war of 1857 which is remembered in the subcontinent as the War of independence but the British historians call it a mutiny.
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But the conditions that occurred after World War 2 forced Britain and other European colonial powers to relinquish their colonies. The Second World War also saw the rise of the Brettonwood system that led to the founding of the World Bank, IMF and other financial institutions. Due to these institutions, capital became more important than raw materials. Those nations that had huge reserves of cash led the world economy.
While the rules of the game changed but there was little change in the players and their pawns. The West specifically Britain started using the rulers of the third world the same way they had used their touts in the old days.
This would explain the disquiet among the global establishment over the ascendance of the PTI Chief to power. The roots of the system lie in colonial history.
These new loyalists through corruption began to send the hard earned money of their nations to their foreign masters. The other way they served was by trapping their nations in the debt traps of institutions like IMF & World Bank forcing them to keep on paying interest while the original amount of the debt was siphoned off to western banks and properties through corruption and money laundering.
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The new loyalists were rewarded through lavish properties on western soil, big bank accounts and above safety from the punishment of their respective country laws. However, those that stood against Foreign interference were labeled“dangerous” through overt and covert smear campaigns. A prime example is Mohammad Mossadeg, Iran’s prime minister whose crime was to free his nation’s oil reserves from British control. In response, Britain and America overthrew his government and installed Reza Shah Pehlavi in the decade of 1950.
The Second World War also saw the rise of the Brettonwood system that led to the founding of the World Bank, IMF and other financial institutions.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is no different, it has seen how so-called democratic leaders have enriched themselves and found safe havens in the West. British media has been abuzz about the corruption of the Sharif family since the 1990s but the Sharifs have turned London into a mini Raiwind without a hitch. British newspapers advised their Prime Minister David Cameron to count his fingers after shaking hands with Asif Ali Zardari but Zardari enjoys many luxuries in Britain during visits.
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The state TV BBC has confessed that Altaf Hussain not only is involved in money laundering and human trafficking but also terrorism yet he still enjoys asylum on British soil. The whole world is also witnessing how the foreign soil was used to craft the Charter of Democracy and the NRO, that were used to rule Pakistan with the start of the “Revenge of Democracy” in 2008. This decade saw massive levels of corruption, economic downfall and brutal terrorism running rampant across the country.
However, with the rise to power of the PTI and Imran Khan, it seems a new player has entered this century’s long game. This new player, who the Pakistani people, have in a single stroke negated the gambit of all other parties and seem to be on the verge of winning the entire game.