On September 20, demanding PM Imran Khan’s resignation, the country’s major Opposition parties (including PPP, PML-N, JUI-F) at ‘All Parties Conference’ (APC) passed a 26-point joint resolution. They decided to launch Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) which in the first phase, will hold joint rallies in all four provinces in October, in the second phase in December will hold huge rallies across the country and in the third & final phase a long march towards Islamabad would start in January next year to oust the government (if Imran does not resign).
No doubt the elections which brought Imran and his party in power were not fair elections because (in addition to rigging charges made by APC) through the judicial coup Pakistan first removed Nawaz from the office of PM and then denied the head of the major political party PML-N (Nawaz) an opportunity to contest the election which illegally put PML-N at great disadvantage electorally.
Political parties with transparent finances need to be developed
Therefore the opposition has every right to demand the resignation of Imran and of all the people’s representatives of PTI whosoever contested elections in and after 2018 (similarly from APC should also resign). But whether Imran remains in office or not these opposition parties (rather Pakistan) will not succeed in their stated objectives without developing political parties and without addressing Chinese interests, US-concerns, the Kashmir problem, working language, Currency, and Islamic-duty issues, as mentioned below: –
First and foremost political parties need to be developed through inner-party democracy and through transparent party funding. The elected representatives work only for those who spent money for their elections hence the expenses for elections of people’s representatives (including in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies) should be borne by the parties because then and only then these MPs, MLAs, etc will work for the people / their political parties.
Interests of CPEC should be protected
Moreover, political parties in Pakistan should shape their policies (to eliminate communalism from Pakistan) as enunciated in Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s first Presidential Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, where Jinnah said that -[You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.
Pakistan should protect the interest of the CPEC and Gwadar port being constructed with the support of China. In this age of globalization better transport connectivity is good for the entire world including for Pakistan.
At the same time Pakistan should address the concerns of the USA about CPEC. Pakistan should not allow China to develop any military assets in Pakistan at and through CPEC and Gwadar port and should make the financing & contract awarding process about these projects, transparent and as per international laws.
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The concerns of the Pakistan military can be addressed satisfactorily only when the Kashmir problem is solved as per justice as mentioned below: –
Not merely the UN resolution but even the ‘Instrument of Accession’ (IoA) of J&K to India also mandates plebiscite in the united J&K which reads as -“[the question of Accession should be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people of the State, it is my Government’s wish that, as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir, and her soil cleared of the invader, the question of the State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people. Yours Sincerely Sd/- Mountbatten of Burma]”.
India has been accusing Pakistan of not cooperating about the plebiscite in united-J&K. Hence Pakistan should work for the plebiscite in united-J&K in the presence of the UN Observers and international media. Because de-jure secular but de-facto communal India will create all the problems in this plebiscite hence Pakistan should not be over-sensitive about bringing the entire united-J&K under the administrative control of India for carrying out plebiscite as per UN resolution.
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The Kashmir problem is the result of communalization of the entire Indian subcontinent through illegal population transfer during the partition of India. Hence Pakistan should work for dual citizenship of the displaced people (about 40 million in India which is ~ 20% of the present population of Pakistan) who were violently expelled through illegal population transfer during the partition of India (similarly from India to Pakistan).
No advanced country (including the USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan) has progressed without working in its mother tongue. Hence Pakistan should develop the Urdu language to the level where its hospitals and factories/government- departments (using civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, electronics, etc engineering) would start working in the Urdu language.
The Islamic society is nothing if it does not eliminate unbridled usury (interest-earning) and fake money (without proper asset back-up which is nothing short of legalized loot). Presently under the influence of usurers money is generated (in the air) unethically and illegally against fiscal deficits without proper asset back-up. Hence Pakistan should make its currency / high power money (M-0) wholly backed up by gold which is very easy because nowadays due to electronic money transfer the cash money/currency is needed very less.
In addition to setting its house in order, Pakistan should also discharge its international/neighborly obligations (including related to its Islamic duty), as mentioned below:-
Pakistan should take initiative in resolving border disputes between its two most important neighbors China & India (who are presently foolishly & irresponsibly engaged in a military stand-off at Eastern Ladakh). The Indo-China border dispute is a legal dispute unlike India’s dispute with Pakistan (which is a political dispute about united-J&K).
Indo-China border dispute can be solved by UN Judicial Commission
Hence this Indo-China border dispute can easily be resolved by referring it to the ‘UN Judicial Commission’. [It is like resolving a dispute between two parties in a country. In Pakistan, the Executive Magistrate maintains status-quo of the disputed property and directs the contending parties (under section 145 of Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan) to get the title decided by the civil court which will justify the possession]. Hence Pakistan should persuade India & China to refer their border dispute to the UN Judicial Commission.
Nothing has harmed the interests of the Palestinians than the two-State solution. Hence Pakistan should work for one State of Israel-Palestine where Jews and Muslim-Palestinians will live together in peace & harmony in one country.
In all the Muslim countries of NAME region (including Syria, Yemen, etc) Pakistan should work for finding a solution through democracy which is being practiced by Pakistan too. After all for any democracy what is needed is only the elections that Pakistan can easily ensure.
For ensuring elections in troubled countries of NAME region if needed then Pakistan should be prepared to use military force. Saudi Arabia tried to raise a Sunni-NATO type military force for this purpose with former Army Chief of Pakistan as its commander but this experiment failed because it was partisan and was against Shia Iran & its allies. Pakistan can solve this problem by talking to Saudi Arabia and Iran for raising Islamic-NATO which will ensure elections in all the troubled countries of the NAME region.
Otherwise also Islamic-NATO under one command is needed because there are mainly four major human groups in this world namely Christians, Muslims, Chinese, and Hindus (Most of the Christian West has NATO and Chinese and Hindus have only one country hence they have one military command. Whereas only Muslims do not have one military command hence tens of millions of Muslims are bleeding & weeping profusely all across the world).
It is hoped that not only the opposition political parties but also the ruling party PTI of PM Imran will endeavor to shape the political culture of Pakistan commensurate with the modern practices, generally as mentioned above, which is the only way to achieve peace, justice, and prosperity for Pakistan, for the region and for the entire Muslim world.
Hem Raj Jain is the author of ‘Betrayal of Americanism’