Since its formation Pakistan has flip-flopped between military and civilian rule. Both military and civilian rulers have failed the people and let the nation drift from one crisis to another. The people have all but lost hope for any real improvement in their standard of living. They have resigned themselves to a life of apathy and desperation.
The recent Supreme Court ruling allowing Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan has opened the door for his to return to Pakistani Politics. Benazir Bhutto has also made her intention clear to return to Pakistani politics. Many observers believe that moves are afoot to relieve Musharraf from the increasing opposition that he is facing from the people.
Many Muslims from Pakistan and beyond are asking themselves why the only candidates to look after their affairs are proven to be crooked and corrupt. Musharraf’s selling out to the US, Nawaz Sharif’s humiliating stance at Kargil and Benazir’s Mr Ten Percent husband come to the mind when these names are mentioned.
The Need for Functional Politics
For any nation to look after its affairs at least some of its people must propose, debate and implement solutions to problems faced domestically and internationally. How should the basic infrastructure like roads, electricity, clean water and other necessities be provided for the people? How should a nation develop its literacy, how can economic opportunities be created? What should be the basis of relations with other nations, how should the nation deal with external threats? It is the politicians that deal with these issues. Unfortunately, the politicians in Pakistan have failed miserably in this regard. They have accepted a framework in which to work, that does not allow them to achieve satisfactory solutions to the issues faced by society. Pakistan, despite its huge potential languishes in the ranks of failed states and third world nations.
A False Choice
The likes of Benazir and Nawaz are the only choices presented to the Muslims as people that can run the country. Muslims are given a false choice. If the Muslims of Pakistan are sick and tired of their US puppet military dictator then the alternative is corrupt civilian rule. When the people have had enough of the corruption of civilian rule, then the military can step in to rule. All other alternatives have been ruled out in Pakistan.
The Islamic alternative has been dismissed by many people. Taking seats in parliament has silenced Pakistani Islamic parties, in the eyes of many. They are perceived as having a vested interest in keeping the situation as it is. As a joke, MMA a coalition of Islamic parties is often said to stand for the Mullah Military Alliance. Many are resigned to these choices as an unchangeable reality.
Poisoned Politics
The politics of Pakistan have been poisoned since their very start in 1947. Pakistan was established in the name in the name of Islam, as a state for Muslims. Unfortunately this vision has not truly been realised. The politics of Pakistan have been based on a cocktail of un-Islamic political thought and alien ideologies.
This is not just the case for Pakistan but the entire Muslim world. When they left, the colonial powers knew that they must ensure that such newly ‘independent’ countries are still politically dependent. They ensured that the politics in such countries should still serve them. The politicians within them would serve to line their own pockets and preserve the interests of the colonial Kafir nations. They made sure anyone in politics was in fact aligned to their way of thinking and dependent upon them to formulate polices. Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Washington DC at the height of the Kargil crisis to seek what to do and Musharraf’s usage of Neo-con language when addressing the so called “war on terror” in Pakistan, are clear examples.
Such individuals have no basis apart from self-interest, ego and a smattering of patriotism to base their politics upon. They are entirely dependent upon the enemies of their people to formulate their policies. This is why Pakistan has failed politically since its inception. The political atmosphere has been corrupted ensuring that the politicians cannot effectively rule the country and Pakistan moves from one crisis to another.
Breaking The Political Shackles
Increasingly Muslims are rejecting the false political choices put in front of them. If Benazir or Nawaz return to power, people have little hope in any improvement of their lot in life. Muslims are searching for a politics that gives an alternative to the misery inflicted upon them by the corrupted system. What Pakistan requires like the rest of the Muslim world is a shift in thinking. They must to reject the so-called solutions offered to them by the corrupt system and politicians. Increasingly people are realising that a more radical change is required, a break from the past.
Islam and Khilafah
For Pakistan to truly progress it needs politicians that can look after its affairs both domestically and internationally. The failure of the likes of Musharaf, Sharif and Benazir show that the existing form of politics is inadequate. This is because it is based upon western political thought, which cannot bear fruits in Muslims societies. Muslims must return to looking after their affairs on the basis of Islam. It is only then that they can proceed in all aspects of life.
Without the Khilafah ruling system, the politics of Pakistan will continue in its chaotic, confused and corrupt path. This will make it easy for its enemies to destroy it, enslaving its people and resigning them to a life of misery and despondency. The Khilafah ruling system will allow good people to enter into politics, letting them do good for the people. Today the rotten system only allows the crooked to enter politics, who when in power do nothing for the betterment of the people and state. If the political framework in Pakistan is not changed only the faces will change but the corruption will remain. Muslims must take Islam in its entirety, which includes politics. Ruling by Islam will end the corruption and allow Muslims to progress.
“and rule between them by that which Allah has revealed, and do not follow their vain desires away from the truth which came to you.” [Al- Ma’idah: 48]
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