By Samuel Baid

A fish jumps out of a frying pan for freedom, but, alas, it falls into the fire.  This is the tragic story of the people of Gilgit – Baltistan.  The British, when they held Gilgit on lease from Maharaja Hari Singh of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, treated the locals as slaves, who had no rights or voice.

Before independence in 1947, the British returned Gilgit to Maharaja Hari Singh. Subsequent assessment in Pakistan presume that the Maharaja wanted to make Gilgit a province of Jammu and Kashmir.  But the Gilgit scouts revolted against the Maharaja and temporarily handed over its administration to Pakistan.  This decision of the Gilgit scouts proved hell fire for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pakistan took over the administration and began considering itself as the successor of the British.  It retained all the inhuman laws with which the British tamed the locals. Pakistan was also not willing to treat them as full-fledged human beings.

Years of suppression by the British, when they had Gilgit on lease, had conditioned the locals to timidly bear their deprivations and humiliation.  They might have had some hopes when fellow- Muslim Pakistan took over the administration of Gilgit.  But they were rudely disillusioned when they found their fellow-Muslims were worse than the non-Muslim whites.

Pakistan just didn’t bother that these people were Muslims.  Perhaps the fact that these Muslims were mostly Shias made Pakistan’s Sunni fanatics hostile to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. It was something they did not suffer even during the British tyrannical rule.

There had been no reports that the British starved the locals to keep them tamed.  Nor were these reports that the locals were deprived of their land. The British, known for their divide-and-rule policy, did not apply this policy by dividing Shias and Sunnis in Gilgit.  They had equal contempt and suspicion of all locals in the territory.

When the people came under the administrative control of Pakistan they got to know how torture, humiliation, and frustration and deprivation go together. They had suppressed aspirations to have some identity and civil rights. They could not possibly struggle when the British controlled them.  They might be having some hope when the British returned the lease to Maharaja Hari Singh. But the Gilgit scouts pushed the people to another phase of slavery by revolting against the Maharaja and offering Gilgit to Pakistan on a platter.

Hoping Pakistan would understand their aspirations for civil rights and a constitutional identity, they started a movement.  But how wrong they were.  How could Pakistan understand them if after 75 years of independence, it has itself not understood democracy and civil rights.

In 1988, military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq decided to put an end to the demands of the people of Gilgit- Baltistan by a three-pronged action:

1. Deployment of the Army which alleged Iranian hand in the Gilgit- Baltistan stir;
2. Invasion of Gilgit-Baltistan by armed Pakistanis who plundered locals farms and shops and snatched their businesses and;

• Divide Shias and Sunnis: From now on Shia-Sunni riots became frequent.  Their demands of civil rights disappeared.

A greater blow to their aspirations was given by then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1994, when she announced new reforms for Gilgit-Baltistan allowing party-based elections.  As a result, all Pakistani political parties and Islamic groups began opening their branches to fight the coming elections.

Now, a new chapter of misery started.  After 1994, Pakistan based political parties took control of Gilgit Baltistan. These parties are ignorant of the problems of this region and its people, but they assert themselves to uphold the interest of Pakistan.  Worse, at the time of elections, the local voters prefer these Pakistan-based parties’ candidates to their own local candidates who know the local problems and their solution very well.

The current crisis in Gilgit-Baltistan is due to the locals’ preference for Pakistan-based candidates who neither are aware of the local problems, nor they want to know them.  Their indifference to the problems of GB is like the British attitude towards them.

Today, the people have been deprived of all fundamental, civic and political rights. If they agitate, their leaders are hauled up illegally under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Law. The so-called assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan does not discuss people’s problems.  The ruling elite allocates funds for luxury and increase their salaries and allowances but for public work, they say, there is no budget.  The government perpetually fails to provide necessities like clean drinking water, electricity, health facilities, roads, wheat, pulses and education facilities.

Revolt is brewing up against Pakistan in Gilgit Baltistan. The locals are questioning Pakistan’s right to divide and alter Gilgit-Baltistan’s geographical make-up.  Perhaps it is a reference to dividing occupied Kashmir into “Azad” Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and giving away a large chunk of Hunza (Gilgit-Baltistan) territory to China in March 1963.  The local people are intrigued why Pakistan is keeping the boundaries of Gilgit Baltistan unknown. They want United Nations Military Observer Group (UNMOG) to intervene.

(The writer can be reached at samuelbaid.work@gmail.com)

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

The Army seems to be cooking political khichri in the messy Kitchen of Pakistan.  It first raised Imran Khan to the Prime Minister’s post.  Then a year before he could complete his term, he was thrown out through opposition’s no-confidence vote with the Army’s backing. The opposition called the ‘Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)’ was helped to form a coalition Government under Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).  The PDM has begun cracking as the elections draw near. Amid this, a new party called Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) has sprouted. The father of IPP is Imran’s former friend and notorious sugar mafia Jahangir Tareen. The Army is said to be behind this party too.

In the next elections (if they really happen), pollsters will find it difficult to make any predictions because of unclear identities of political parties and the Army’s choice. Currently the parties are: (I)Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf  (PTI), which is supposed to have good influence in Pakistan’s most important province, Punjab. His ex-friend Jahangir Tareen has also a great influence in this province.  What is puzzling here is that, it is not known how serious is the Imran-Tareen rift.  It is notable here that after this rift became public, Imran inducted a cousin of Tareen in his Cabinet; keeping the door open for reconciliation with Tareen. Also, Tareen’s IPP is mainly made up of Imran’s former supporters. This mean if the Army decides (on whatever conditions), we cannot rule out a PTI-IPP link up, possibly minus Imran. There were suggestions of in-house change when Imran was facing opposition’s onslaught.  In other words, an Imran less PTI is not impossible. But there are other signals, too which dim the above scenario. This is the future of the Army supported present coalition government. The PDM conglomeration stands on two feet of clay with the Army’s support. These two feet are Nawaz Muslim League (now headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif) and the Pakistan People Party (PPP).  Corruption and inefficiency have eroded people’s confidence in them.   After the 1980s, these two parties gained tremendous political strength not because of their work but because of shameless and merciless loot of their country. PPP leader Asif Zardari did not bother about his country when nick named “Mr 10 percent”.

Between 1988 and 2017, the PPP and the Muslim League (N) ruled Pakistan alternatively and when in power punished each other for corruption. Out of power, they can pretend bonhomie. For example, when they were in exile in London, then chairperson of the PPP, Benazir Bhutto and then president of the Muslim League (N) Nawaz Sharif signed a charter of democracy, vowing to keep aloof from the Army. Army chief Gen. Parvez Musharraf, who overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Government in October 1999, repeatedly said he would not allow these two corrupt leaders to return to Pakistan. But ultimately, he signed an NRO (National Reconciliation Order) to allow them to return home and play a part in its political life.

Back home, Benazir was assassinated in 2007 and in the general elections that followed in 2008, the PPP won and Asif Ali Zardari became country’s President. Zardari was reluctant to reinstate Supreme Court judge whom Musharaf had sacked. Nawaz Sharif came out in favour of the judges against the PPP.  The charter of Democracy bonhomie broke and the PPP and Muslim League (N) parted company. The formation of PDM was inspired by Nawaz Sharif from London to oust Imran from power. First, he emboldened the opposition against the Army. But Army was not the target of the PDM. The target was Imran’s PTI Government.  The Army supported the PDM’s no-confidence motion against Imran’s government and ousted it in April 2022.

Ousted Imran is in trouble-facing about 100 cases.  But ironically Imran’s trouble are weakening the unity of the PDM as its members are getting over-confident. The PPP wants to recapture Punjab in the coming elections challenging Muslim League (N) which it thinks has become weak there. The PPP is condemning the shehbaz Sharif’s government for causing economic mess in the country.

While the PDM is showing signs of cracks, the Army is reportedly toying with the idea of making present Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari next Prime Minister. His father Zardari will surely back it. It was on his insistence that Bilawal was made Foreign Minister. If the Army goes ahead with this reported idea, the PDM will certainly break apart now that the Muslim League (N) has made arrangements for the home return for Nawaz from London to become Pakistan’s Prime Minister a fourth time.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

Kabooter bazi, as some Urdu newspapers in India described human smuggling a few years ago, has been a big money spinner in Pakistan- less for visible agents but more for invisible high-ups in the government and foreign embassies.  This racket is lucrative because it seems every Pakistani is dying to leave this country.  Perhaps it was in 1980 that a University Survey showed that if foreign countries allowed, all Pakistanis would want to leave their country.

The agents are well-trained in Chicanery. They know how to exploit Pakistani’s disgust with their country and make them have dream of countries they have never heard of. This shows Pakistanis desperation to run away from their country.

They must run away from their country unmindful of frequent stories of migrant’s ships or boats being deliberately sunk before they reach the coast of their dream country.  This means mass burial of men, women and children in their watery grave.

A tragedy like this happened in the Mediterranean water on June 14 when a Greek fishing boat carrying 750 migrants (400 of them Pakistani) sank. It charged $9,000 or 27 lakh Pakistani Rupees per head. Pakistani survivors alleged Greek coastguards had deliberately left the boat to sink.  At least 12 of them related the same story in the relief camp in Greece. Stories of killing migrants on sea before they reach their destinations are not new. Perhaps mass drowning of the migrants is part of the deal between the agents and boat owners. The Pakistani government said that 350 Pakistanis perished in the tragedy. It arrested ten persons who took the money from Pakistani passengers. Confining ourselves to Pakistan, being our close neighbors, we are really interested to know who are these people who are so desperate to leave the country?  Those who are worried about the rising stream of migrants from poor countries to Europe should study why the people want to quit their country. Or, who are those Muslim people for whom Pakistan has never been a homeland.  Or, who are those people who after when Pakistan was created in 1947 were never allowed to feel at home in their native land.

Migration has been ignored as a partial cause of human rights violations in a country like Pakistan where the slogan that “Pakistan was created in the name of Islam” at once drops non-Muslims or, in fact, non-Sunnis to non-entities. That includes Shias also, or religious or ethnic minorities.

Migration of these Pakistani non-entities began in the 1960s, when non-muslims became disillusioned with Pakistan’s first governor-general Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s word of honour that in Pakistan there would be no Muslim, Hindus or Sikhs.  They will all be Pakistanis.”

Those who migrated to European countries in the 1960s were mainly people from oppressed Provinces like Baluchistan.  East Bengal, when it was a part of Pakistan till 1971, was also very oppressed. That part of Kashmir which Pakistan occupied in 1947 and kept undeveloped, was also oppressed.

There are those also who flee the country because their criticism of the government makes it unsafe for them to stay in Pakistan.  So, instead of taking a regular flight to wherever they want to go they take such risky boats to quietly escape.

It is noticeable that, 21 illegal passengers including 22 young men were from occupied Kashmir where people are demanding for vacation of their land and an end to Pakistan’s tyrannical rule.  For such protesters, illegal boats are safer than a regular flight. The 21 Kashmiris who were on the ill-fatted boat belonged to a lesser-known village Bandali.  From the Kotli District thousands of Kashmiris flee every year.

There are other persecuted people who want to run away from Pakistan. They are Shias, Ahmediyyas, tribal Baluch and Hazaras.  They are a persecuted lot like minorities who have never been treated as equal Pakistanis.  Such persecutions are a big boon for human traffickers.  The United Nations Human Rights Council should urgently take note of it and seek remedial measures.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

In Pakistan’s federal capital Islamabad stands about a four-decade old mosque that preaches against the state, its democracy and constitution and holds its establishment and judiciary in terror.

It is Lal Masjid or Red mosque which came on the scène in the mid – 1980s when then military dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq encouraged establishment of anti-Shia organizations to prove his Sunni fundamentalism and keep close to Al-Qaeda  ideology. He helped build the mosque.  He had also blessed the formation of Sipah-e-Sahaba which made killing its Shia brethren an Islamic duty.

Lal Masjid, however, did not show much anti-Shia enthusiasm: it, instead, turned to be an anti-State centre.  Its Khatib Maulana Abdul Aziz one morning claimed that Prophet Mohammed told him in his dream that he should revolt and implement Sharia in Pakistan on his own.  Aziz, who has been described as the front man of Al-Qaeda’s policy of Islamic vigilantism, set out to cleanse the society in the federal capital Islamabad without bothering about Pakistan’s very special relations with China.

In 2007 students of Lal Masjid, including girls in burqa, raided a massage parlor run by Chinese women in Islamabad’s posh area.  They forcibly took away with them seven Chinese women and three guards of massage parlor to be kept as hostages in the girl’s madarsa Jamia Hafza in the Lal Masjid.  They also raided other establishments in the capital which they thought militated against sharia.

China was furious.  It is said it was on China’s instance that Army Chief-cum-President Gen. Pervez Musharraf willy-nilly acted against the Lal Masjid fearing the consequences.

While Maulana Abdul Aziz regaled himself with success stories of his students’ vigilantism, Gen. Musharraf ordered commando action called Operation Silence against the Mosque in June 2007. The dreaming Maulana tried to escape in a burqa and 6000 boys and girls, all students of the Mosque’s madarsas surrendered to the Army.

About 100 students were killed who mainly came from Pakistan’s tribal areas and thus creating hostility towards the federal government.

Maulana Aziz, while running away in a burqa from the Lal Masjid when the Army launched Operation Silence, was removed from the post of Khatib (prayer leader) but he has stuck there as a leech. His strength lies in his glib tongue against Pakistan democracy and its constitution.  He makes it a point to go against the majority public opinion in Pakistan. For example, in December 2014 when the entire country, including its Islamists were condemning the killing of 140 students of Peshawar Public School by the Tehrik-i-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) gunmen, Maulana Aziz refused to condemn it.  The TTP has close relations with Lal Masjid.

When the newly emerged Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) began havoc in Iraq and announced the revival of Khilafat and named the Khalifa, Lal Masjid’s girls’ madarsa Jamia Hafza announced its acceptance of the Khalifa.  Jamia Hafza is headed by Aziz’s wife Umme Hassan who is no less fearless fanatic and militant than her husband.

Aziz has been removed a number of times from the post of Khatib, but he would not go.  His resistance has caused four incidents of violence in the past six months.  On June 21 things became serious when the police came to arrest him.  He snatched an AK-47 from a policeman and began firing on the policeman while walking into the shelter of his mosque.  A large number of people had collected who made Aziz’s escape into the mosque easy.  He was also helped by the girls of Jamia Hafza who came out with stick and beat up the policemen.

It said that Gen. Musharraf was forced by China to take action against Lal Masjid.  He could not disobey.  But Musharraf did not have peaceful sleep after that.   The Supreme Court insisted that the government pay full compensation to Lal Masjid for the damages caused by China ordered Operation Silence.

Pakistan has many cradles of terrorism.  Lal Masjid is one of them.  The TTP owes its existence to Lal Masjid.  This Masjid supports some sectarian terrorist organizations like the Jaish-e-Mohammad and it certainly has links with Daesh or ISIS.

By Samuel Baid

If it defaults on its debts like Sri Lanka, Pakistan has already sketched the face of the culprit- the IMF or the International Monetary Fund. The country’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said “Geopolitics is behind a halted loan programme so that Pakistan defaults”.

Dar made this statement while addressing a Parliamentary committee on finance and revenue.  After the IMF raised objections to Pakistan’s budget for 2023-24 hinting that it (the IMF) may not revive its loan programme. It is said the IMF was not satisfied with budgetary framework for 2023-24 before it finally approved the release.

Dar said the IMF’s demand for a guarantee of $6 billion on external resources was unjustified and delaying the plan apparently suggested a political agenda. He said foreign hostile elements wanted Pakistan to turn into another Sri Lanka by making IMF negotiate with Islamabad. He said in its 2023-24 budget, Pakistan had proposed some tax exemptions, which the IMF didn’t like.  But Dar told the IMF that Pakistan was a sovereign country and therefore, could not accept everything from the IMF.  He said IMF or no IMF, Pakistan would not default.

But Pakistan understands that without the IMF’s help, it runs a real risk of defaulting on foreign debt repayments.  Its foreign exchange reserves have fallen below $3 billion which is enough for three weeks import. This will mount more pressure on rupee which is already as weak as Rs 287 against the dollar.

Dar’s claim that Pakistan is a sovereign country is not to be questioned, but the concern of IMF is very genuine. In Pakistan, a very large number of people avoid giving tax.  Those who cannot escape it will now be given tax exemption in the budget for 2023-24. This will mean two losses.  One less revenue and two revenue loss plus favour to the upper stratum of the society; widening  the gulf between rich and poor.

A few months ago, the IMF had suggested to the Pakistan Government that it should give attention to its poor. Right from 1947, the Government has not bothered about economic potential of the poor people and women.  They were not given equal economic opportunities. There are areas in Sindh and Baluchistan, where the poor people live a horrible life, specially during rain and flood. What economic contribution can they make?

It will be a good exercise to study why a country with natural wealth is poor and not poor with not so much of natural wealth. For example, why Pakistan with its natural wealth has become an international basket case?

Therefore before criticising the IMF, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ should accept its right to be safe. In a recent statement, he accused the IMF of only benefiting rich countries instead of poor ones.  He said the response of the IMF and the World Bank to the Covid-19 pandemic was a glaring failure that left dozens of countries deeply indebted.  Mr. Guterres’ criticism of the IMF seemed to echo.

The fact is that Pakistan is not a poor country, it is massively mismanaged country where corruption, money laundering and tax evasion are child’s play for those in powerful position or close to it.

The IMF may not be upto some mischief as Dar alleged. It may be trying to ensure equal economic opportunity for all Pakistanis so that its economy is lifted from the present morals.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid
A cat is said to have nine lives. In Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif can say a Prime Minister can survive a plan to hang him and two long exiles- one forced by the then ruler and one voluntary- to bounce back from London to become his country’s Prime Minister a fourth time.
The way for his fourth Prime Ministership was paved on June 18 when the Nawaz Muslim League- led governing coalition met in Islamabad and decided to remove life bans on all parliamentarians. This means a possibility that Nawaz Sharif may participate in the elections which should happen before the end of this year.
Mr. Sharif went to London in self-exile in November 2019 following a Supreme Court ban on him in the wake of the leak of the Panama papers related to money laundering and other financial misdemeanors. The Supreme Court forbade him from holding any public or party office.
Mr. Shehbaz Sharif had said a day earlier that his brother Nawaz would return to head the Party’s campaign. He made this announcement after his party’s Central General Council re-elected Shehbaz as party President for another four years. Shehbaz had become party president four years ago when then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court and banned from holding any party office. Shehbaz said when his brother returns, he would hand over party presidency to him. He appeared quite sure that under his brother’s leadership the party would win the next elections and Nawaz Sharif would become the country’s Prime Minister for the fourth time.
Whatever the critics say, in the assessment of this writer, Nawaz Sharif, in the final analysis was most productive of all the Prime Ministers. Pakistan has had Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, of course the most intelligent, but he wasted his talent in vindictiveness. His nationalization programme was unthoughtful; meant to harass businessmen.
Shehbaz said his brother was the builder of modern Pakistan. He eliminated energy shortages and laid down a network of roads, built infrastructure and developed agriculture, industry and other vital sectors of the economy.
The Supreme Court verdict against Nawaz did not convince many legal experts, especially its resort to Article 62 of the Constitution. In his interview, Army Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after his retirement said the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Justice Aseef Saeed Khan Khosa had two grouses against Nawaz Sharif. (1) He would not give him an extension (2) Sharif’s brother Shehbaz had divorced Khosa’s sister. But, Gen Bajwa does not say that the main reason could be that Khosa was aware of the Army’s “Project Imran”. That is, Imran must be made Prime Minister and for that Nawaz Sharif’s Prime Ministership and his party leadership must be sacrificed.
In the past one year i.e., after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Coalition government took over, it has been vainly announced a number of times that Nawaz Sharif was returning home. This time, Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement is seen in the context of the coming elections. Shehbaz government is still afraid of the influence of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan on the voters despite threat to disqualify and try him in the military court for the May 9 mob attack on military installations.
Worst, voters have no faith that the PDM can solve the economic problems. Also, it has seen about four years of Imran’s rule. Imran could not convince the common man that he understood their economic and other problems all the four years he ruled. He went hammer and tongs to expose the Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari. The present civil and military leadership will take Pakistan to the point of no return.
In this situation the return of Nawaz Sharif is a must by removing legal hitches. Legal hitches are not more important than the country.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.