Zia Sarhadi
The Tirah Valley in KP province has become the latest hunting ground for Pakistan’s mercenary army. In the early hours of September 22, air force planes bombed four houses, completely destroying them, according to a senior police officer. Dozen of women and children were killed leading to protests in both Tirah as well as Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Why is the military attacking and killing its own people? And what is special about the Tirah Valley? Unable to fight external enemies, the army has tasted the blood of its own people. The Tirah Valley, like Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan, is believed to be rich in critical minerals that the US covets. Ever the slaves of America, the army top brass wants to suck up to Donald Trump. All regions are being targeted by the army under the rubric of fighting terrorism.
Theoretically, Pakistan is supposed to have a ‘civilian’ government. In reality, it is under martial law. Even worse, it is under the control of one man—General Asim Munir—who has pompously elevated himself to the rank of field marshal. One wonders how many battles has this mousy-looking creature, notorious for deviousness, won?
The political system, euphemistically called a “hybrid system”, meaning military-civilian rule, is a complete fraud. It is a pathetic attempt to camouflage the military’s usurpation of all powers by projecting it as a system where the military acts to support the civilian government. The army chief is the real boss.
The constitution is quite clear. The military’s role, of which the army is the largest component, is to defend the country’s borders. It has demonstrably failed to do so. Since 1947, the army has lost every war it has engaged in, mainly against India. Yet, looking at medals on the generals’ chests, one would get the impression that they have conquered half the world.
The generals have become real estate agents. They grab the choicest lands in every city and turn them into gated communities where the generals, brigadiers, colonels and lesser breed of their ilk reside. Every general’s family also has foreign citizenship, be it American, Canadian, British or Australian. Upon retirement, the generals go abroad to live off their ill-gotten wealth.
Since its emergence on the world map, Pakistan has been ruled directly by thuggish generals for 34 years. Even when civilians are nominally at the helm, the generals exercise immense power and influence. They have wormed their way into every institution of governance.
They insist defence is their exclusive preserve. But they also dictate foreign policy, domestic policy and now they have put their grubby hands on agriculture, ports, mines and minerals. They make their own deals with foreign governments without consulting civilian rulers who are told to follow what the semi-literate morons tell them.
Young men are eligible to join the military academy with grade 12 education. Nobody has ever accused the army wallas of any intellectual prowess. They use brute force to get their way. The constitution expressly forbids their interference in politics but who will enforce this rule? The generals refer to the constitution as a “piece of paper”.
Since 1947, Pakistan has piled up huge foreign debt. It has surpassed $130 billion and this year alone (2025), Pakistan must pay $27 billion in interest on this debt. The country is bankrup. Successive governments have been forced to roll over these interest payments and add them to the mountain of debt.
Neither the generals nor their civilian puppets pay any taxes. They also do not pay electricity or gas charges. Similarly, they get free vehicles and petrol as well as drivers whose salary is paid from the treasury. What have these parasites done to deserve such perks? These policies are carry-overs from the British raj.
In Pakistan, there is indirect taxation whose burden is borne by ordinary people. Prices of commodities—food, petrol, electricity, gas etc—have skyrocketed. People are crushed under ever-escalating prices. The rich and powerful do not care because they get many of these items for free. And they can easily afford high food prices because of their ill-gotten wealth.
The rot has spread far and wide into every segment of society. The feudal lords and industrial barons that masquerade as politicians, the bureaucracy, the police and the judiciary are all thoroughly corrupt. Even the media has been corrupted.
Journalists are willing to prostitute themselves for a fistful of rupees paid by the intelligence agency that has spread its tentacles into every nook and cranny of the country. Journalists that refuse to sell their souls are hounded, imprisoned and even murdered (Arshad Sharif, for instance).
There is no rule of law. Land mafias led by the army are everywhere. They grab other people’s properties and there is nothing a victim can do to seek redress. Courts do not deliver justice, only orders of the army.
Let us look at some specific examples. Asif Zardari is the country’s president. This is the second time this venal character has entered the presidential palace. An uneducated street urchin who used to sell cinema tickets on the black market, now struts about in the presidential palace.
Zardari and his ilk as well as the army treat Pakistan as their personal fiefdom. He awarded a medal to his son Bilawal Zardari. What great feat did he accomplish to be awarded such a medal? The jury is still out about his gender!
The Sharif family (it should be called the Badmash family) rules at the centre as well as in Punjab. Shehbaz Sharif had scores of corruption and murder cases against him. These were wiped out once he agreed to serve as the army’s handmaiden. The same applies to his older brother Nawaz and the latter’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz.
An immoral woman, she has been installed as chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province. Dim-witted and with little formal education, she is busy naming every bridge, every hospital, every block and every lamp post in major cities after herself or her father. People are waiting for the day when she will name the province after her family.
Punjab province also has the dubious distinction of having the largest brothel in the country—Heera Mandi (Diamond market) in Lahore. Prostitutes openly solicit customers in the “Islamic” Republic of Pakistan. Amsterdam’s red light district would look like a Nuns’ residence by comparison.
In August, massive floods swept the country. Millions of people were affected by the deluge. Several thousand died. The effects of flooding have not been dissipated yet the Punjab government has done little to alleviate people’s suffering.
Adding insult to injury, private welfare organizations that want to help the people are forced to print Maryam Nawaz’s picture on packages before they can be handed out to people. Organizations failing to comply with this demand are not permitted to carry out relief work.
How low can these people get? The Punjab government is unable or unwilling to help but those that want to do so through their own efforts are forced to promote Maryam Nawaz!
Dignity and self-respect are unknown quantities in their lexicon. They will sell their mothers for a few thousand dollars, as the American ambassador in Islamabad had said in a cable to the State department in Washington.
Pity the people of Pakistan.
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