The political crisis in Pakistan has been exasperated after the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif. Few in the establishment and their political allies had expected a rather insipid Nawaz Sharif, a creation of the state, to march along the GT road ‘on the way home’ with a mutinous cavalcade defying the deep state and the judiciary. His stance became more rebellious with the raving crowds swelling along the way. There was a split between the top leadership of the PML(N) on the question of the route for his home sojourn. The faction lead by Ch. Nisar was adamant that he should abdicate unobtrusively. While others in majority tacitly having Sharif’s support wanted a confrontationist exit.
In the NA-120 by- election Maryam Nawaz led a defiant campaign playing a ‘Joan of Arc’ in this election, emanating fury against the ‘establishment’. She defied all odds including the vile ravening of the most corporate media channels. In her interviews, she vowed to go down fighting than to surrender. Last Tuesday she said that her father ‘must not’ appear before the accountability court and fall prey to ‘political & personal victimisation in the garb of accountability. The state responded by freezing their assets with a threat to confiscation of all their wealth. These are testing times for the Sharifs’ mettle.
However, Nawaz Sharif is no Lenin and Maryam is not Rosa Luxemburg. They are fabulously rich and are part of Pakistan’s ruling elite. This revolt of the ‘bourgeois’ partisans against their state reflects the gravity of the prevailing predicament. Political and state structures are tottering from its infliction. The equilibrium that was previously in the favour of the establishment seems to be disintegrating.
The Sharifs’ acts of attacking revered institutions is astonishing. The state’s response seems to be hesitant and non-cohesive. Symptoms of the internecine conflicts within the elite and the establishment are laid bare. There’s and increasing dissent and indecisiveness of the masters of the state. The corporate media is intensively influencing the decision-making in the highest echelons of the system.
However, the validity of these traditional centres of the power is now in disarray. In the past, there was one main imperialist intruder, the USA, calling the shots and a more or less a unified establishment that decided the politicians fate to enter corridors of power. But now there are many imperialist ‘friends’ who are intervening in Pakistan’s quagmire and have their conflicting interests that often erupt into fierce conflicts of their local proxies eroding the political and social structures of the country. The intrusion of massive black capital is unravelling the cohesion of the system. Hence, we are witnessing an increasing indecisiveness and eroding political and state authority. Some sections of the state are desperately trying to obliterate the Sharif’s from Pakistan’s body politic while others are more cautious of losing out an old-time cohort.
Some sections of the state are desperately trying to obliterate the Sharifs from Pakistan’s body politic while others are more cautious of losing out an old time cohort
The other aspect of these imperialisms’ and establishment factions is their unreliability with frequent changing of loyalties and mutating their proxies. The oppressed masses in Pakistan have become victims of the geopolitical and economic ambitions of these imperialist intruders. The strategic location of their country has become the liability of its inhabitants. Balochistan suffers more due to its mineral wealth being targeted by the ferociously scavenging conglomerates. The undermining of the formal economy by the ‘parallel’ economy has also intensified the crisis. The upstart crony capitalists with their massive black capital plundered in short stints through criminal means are overwhelming the so-called classical bourgeois. The arbitration of the state in the disputes of the corrupt bourgeois factions blemishes itself in these quagmires of crime infested capitalist accumulation. The burgeoning crisis of world capitalism and its even more decayed character in Pakistan aggravates this turbulence.
The prospects of any profound improvements in the economy and social conditions are bleak. There is a deep pessimism amongst the top experts of the state and the system. Sharif’s rival political leaders and parties are adhering to the powers that be. But with the contradictions within these centres of power these ‘opposition’ politicians cannot beget the favours of being inducted into the echelons of political power according to their whims. There is a widespread notion that it’s the state’s agencies that can fabricate the election results, install and oust governments and can execute any act with impunity. This is not the whole truth. The state agencies particularly in elections can only manipulate to a limited extent. And that is only possible in periods of political lull. The parties who have lost the support of the masses and are unable to garner a certain percentage of votes cannot be brought into power by the spooks. Nor would those centres of power be willing to do such favours. Why would they?
The ultimate aim of all the manoeuvres of the system’s elites is to keep the masses in check. With the advent of a mass uprising these very adversaries who are now at each other’s throats would coalesce in no time. However, the current turmoil proves that even without wide spread movement and apparent lack of mass resistance the ruling classes cannot sustain political and social stability.
Ordinary people have lost hope in this politics and the system. These stand exposed. With or without Sharif, the ruling elites cannot develop a prosperous, peaceful and stable society. Their economic foundations are corrupt, eroded and debilitated. There is a seething mass discontent in the womb of society. Even if it has not erupted into the arena of politics its reverberations are disrupting the rulership of the incumbent system. With the worsening crisis this simmering revolt in the arteries and nerves of the working classes will inevitable spill onto the streets. At that juncture, the politics based on class struggle for salvation of the oppressed shall commence.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times,September 25th 2017.