The photographs are as galling as they are predictable: U.S. Congressmen Jack Bergman, Tom Suozzi, and Jonathan Jackson grinning alongside Pakistan’s de facto ruler, a man whose forces crushed protests on November 26, 2024, killing dozens of unarmed civilians. This betrayal stings all the more because it comes mere weeks after Bergman posed with Pakistan’s former president, tweeting demands to “Free Imran Khan.” The hypocrisy is a dull blade, slicing through the hopes of millions. Bergman, once a vocal supporter of the Pakistan Democracy Act – a bill languishing in Congress under Joe Wilson’s stewardship – has unmasked himself. That Act, meant to fortify Pakistan’s democratic aspirations, now feels like a cruel mirage, its promise drowned in the shallow waters of diplomatic photo-ops and mineral deals.
For those who dared to hope that the U.S., even under Trump’s erratic stewardship, might nudge Pakistan’s junta toward democracy, this visit is a gut punch. Bergman’s delegation, joined by Suozzi and Jackson, met not only the army chief but also glad-handed Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who had the gall to call Pakistan a “wall against terrorism” while his regime keeps dissenters like Imran Khan captive – nearly two years now in a crucible meant to break him. The delegation’s platitudes, praising Pakistan’s “strategic potential” and signing tech-training MoUs, drip with transactional cynicism. Democracy, it seems, is a small price to pay for a slice of Pakistan’s mineral wealth. The congressmen’s smiles reveal a bitter truth: for all their talk of “mutual respect,” they are content to prop up a regime that rigs elections and batons its people into submission.
This is a bitter pill for Pakistani Americans, many of whom have tied their hopes to Trump and his Republican allies. However, Trump, with his dealmaker’s instinct, is no ally to democracy abroad. His obsession with quick wins—whether in trade or counterterrorism— makes him an unreliable partner for a cause as complex as Pakistan’s democratic struggle. Groups like PakPac must pivot. Clinging to the GOP, or worse, to Trump’s unpredictable whims, is a fool’s errand. Instead, they should forge alliances with progressive Democrats – figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna, or Greg Casar – who, despite their domestic focus, are more likely to champion human rights over corporate handshakes. Even within the Republican Party, there are voices of conscience worth courting, those who might recognize the moral decay in this betrayal. Pakistani-Americans, steadfast believers in democracy and free speech, must build bridges where principles, not transactional cynicism, prevail. More crucially, they must galvanize broader American support, rallying like-minded groups and the public to a cause that, though difficult, promises a more reliable foundation for lasting change.
For Pakistan’s democracy movement, this betrayal must not breed despair. The nation is a husk, hollowed out by a predatory elite – dynastic titans, profiteering vultures, and the armed enforcer of the mafia’s writ. From Islamabad’s gilded corridors to Faisalabad’s groaning mills, the living dead feast on power: political zombies in the PMLN and PPP, institutional ghouls fattened on corruption. This isn’t governance; it’s a sham, echoing the decay of Batista’s Cuba before Castro’s revolution swept it away in 1959. The parallel is stark – brutish thugs, an abandoned populace, a regime propped up by the enforcer working at the behest of foreign masters. Yet history offers darker lessons: think of Iran under the Shah, where U.S. support for a dictator in the 1970s birthed a backlash that still haunts the world. Pakistan teeters on a similar precipice, its people’s rage simmering beneath the surface.
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Imran Khan and his PTI remain a spark in this darkness. Khan, a defiant blade despite his imprisonment, has galvanized a youth desperate to shatter feudal chains. Yet PTI falters, its ranks clogged with the same parasites that infest its rivals. Beyond Khan and his young firebrands—Aliya Hamza, Sadam Tareen, Murad Saeed, and countless unnamed comrades— the party’s stale lieutenants dull its edge. If PTI is to lead a transformation, Khan must wield the katana: sever the bloated old guard and elevate the visionaries ready to raze this decaying order. The movement needs a purge, not of blood but of complacency, to sharpen its steel for the battles ahead.
The path forward demands resilience, not surrender. Pakistan’s freedom fighters must draw inspiration from Ho Chi Minh, whose decades-long struggle against colonial and imperial powers was as brutal as it was transformative. Ho Chi Minh didn’t merely fight; he educated and politicized his people, preparing them for the moment of victory in 1975, when Saigon fell and Vietnam was unified. Pakistan’s democracy movement must emulate this – organize, educate, and mobilize the masses, especially the youth, who already see through the junta’s lies. Use this time to build networks, craft strategies, and hone the tools of resistance so that when the regime’s cracks widen, the people are ready to tear it down. History reminds us of another unyielding spirit: Nelson Mandela, who endured 27 years in prison yet emerged to dismantle apartheid. Setbacks are not defeat—they are the forge in which true movements are tempered.
The U.S. congressmen’s visit may have betrayed Pakistan’s democratic hopes, but it has also clarified the stakes. Freedom will not come from Washington’s tepid gestures or Trump’s deal-making. It will come from within, from a people who, like Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam or Mandela’s South Africa, refuse to break under the weight of betrayal. The fight is long, but the fire still burns. Let it forge a new dawn.
Miyamoto Musashi, a Kensei of markets and power, wields a pen as sharp as his blade.