Crescent International
At a time when people thought the country could not sink any lower, Pakistan’s thick generals proved them wrong.
The same bunch of crooks, thieves and rapists have been installed in power yet again.
Not only do these people indulge in mega-theft, they have also stolen the February 8 elections.
And they did so brazenly, helped of course by the army.
In the past, if the two family-based parties took turns at power-sharing, this time they had to form a coalition to scrape a bare minimum of seats in parliament.
The two parties—Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group), and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)—were forced into a shot-gun marriage by the over-bearing generals.
Both parties were rejected by the people in the polls.
The PML-N got barely 15 seats in the national assembly.
The PPP did slightly better with about 30 seats.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i Insaf (PTI) of incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, garnered more than 180 seats, a two-third majority in the national assembly.
Yet the thugs in uniform stole the people’s mandate in a midnight operation that surpassed all previous records.
The thieves—PML-N and PPP—were given 75 and 54 seats respectively.
Since these were still not enough to get a vote of confidence in parliament, a third party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-P (MQM-P) was roped in to help the army-crafted coalition.
Will it work?
Nobody is holding their breath.
In the meantime, in the crucial Punjab province, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Safdar Nawaz has been sworn in as chief minister.
Television commentators on the army’s payroll are drum-beating about the ‘first woman chief minister of Punjab’.
Like her father, Maryam Nawaz also stole the vote, or was stolen for her by the generals to enable her to enter the assembly.
She not only lost her own seat in Lahore but the PML-N got barely 50 seats in a 371-member Punjab assembly.
Yet the mandate bandits were sworn in as members of the assembly on February 25.
Typical of Pakistani politicians, they shamelessly swore on the Qur’an to uphold the law and the constitution.
They may get away with hypocrisy in this world because Pakistan’s criminal generals are backing them but how will they face Allah on the Day of Judgement after falsely swearing on the Qur’an?
Why are the generals so keen to have these crooks in power?
Money and personal interests are involved.
The PML-N and PPP bought the February 8 election by spending Rs 250 billion to bribe the generals and their minions.
Neither Nawaz Sharif nor Asif Ali Zardari, the two parties’ head honchos, earned this money through fair means.
They and their family members have stolen this money from the people of Pakistan.
Neither man or their off spring can explain where they got their wealth from.
There is no money trail for the tens of millions of dollars’ worth of properties they own in England and elsewhere.
The current army chief, General Asim Munir also occupies his post illegally.
His term as general expired on November 27, 2022.
Yet, he was appointed the army chief on November 29, 2022, two days after his retirement!
Such illegal acts can only occur in Pakistan.
The two coalition parties are only concerned with the distribution of posts.
They have no policy programs to get the country out of its dire economic straits.
Their only recourse is to go to the IMF to get another bail-out package.
Pakistan is already being crushed under a mountain of debt.
Its overall external debt stands at more than $120 billion.
Interest payments alone on this huge debt of $28 billion are due in 2024.
In three years, Pakistan must repay $75 billion in interest payments.
Nobody has a clue where will such huge sums come from, nor do they care.
The debt burden will be pushed onto the poor people who are already reeling from high food and fuel prices.
Only a tiny minority of people, some 200,000 people, pay taxes in Pakistan.
Successive regimes have, therefore, had to resort to indirect taxation by increasing the prices of essential commodities.
This is where the masses are hit hardest.
There are growing calls within and outside Pakistan that IMF should not advance any more loans because there is an illegitimate regime in power that has no mandate from the people.
In a letter to the IMF, PTI leader Imran Khan reminded the organization that when he gave the go-ahead for the loan last year, it was predicated on the condition that there would be free, fair and transparent elections in Pakistan.
He has called upon the IMF to demand an election audit, as part of the deal, to make sure that there is a representative government in power.
A regime with a stolen mandate is not entitled to any loans.
If the IMF proceeds with its loan to the crooks, a future representative government will have no obligation to repay because this would be considered odious debt.
This is a well-established rule in international economic theory.
The IMF and its officials are fully aware of it.
The United States itself has invoked this concept on several occasions in the past.
In Pakistan’s case, the situation is crystal clear.
The people’s mandate has been stolen and thieves, crooks and criminals have been imposed on the country.
The Pakistani masses have no obligation to repay any loans that the IMF may advance to the current set-up in Pakistan.
The choice is theirs.
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