(An Open Letter to Pakistan’s Caretaker PM, A. Kakar)
(Fatima Khan)
Mr A. Kakar, Caretaker PM of Pakistan,
The words that you sent in the air to express your solidarity with us, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, took every Kashmiri aback. Your words and promising ‘unwavering support’ to the Kashmiris’ political aspiration– probably you won't believe it– shook our minds and left us in awe and amazement! The awe and amazement did not overwhelm us due to your words. No, not! But your shamelessness indeed put us in amazement!
Mr Kakar, Pakistan’s position, in fact, before us, the people of Kashmir, is nude and mother-naked now. The camouflage, Pakistan Ka Matlab Kiya Laila Ha Ilallah, got ripped off. The camouflage had given you an attractive appearance. Time took the camouflage off and left your face shorn before the world, particularly Kashmiris. Your face fetches shame to us for being obsessed with Pakistan’s name. I mean it! I know my words will be hurting you, giving you pain, I know. But I hope you will cool-mindedly ponder over the following undeniable facts reflecting the lateral picture of Pakistan as a state:
Pakistan is the most corrupt state. Pakistan is the dirtiest corrupt state in South Asian Countries. I hope you, Mr Kakar, remember that once Aadil Geelani, an Adivisor for Transparency International(TI), said that if Pakistan checked the menace of corruption and ensured good governance, it would not require a single penny from the outside world. Alas! Your economic level by dint of bribing culture in the state is the most sickening in the civilised world. You are such a poor state concerning its moral conduct, which has lost credibility in international financial institutions, even the IMF. Discredibility of yours as a state is lamentable. Your senate, bureaucracy, judiciary, health services, and the army are the worst examples of corrupt institutions. Your stock market is the whore of some feudal families and their favourites. In 2022, your begging for finance from the IMF was the most circulating news item on social media in Kashmir, looking at with debasement. Would that you could see that! Sending solidarity to us doesn’t suit the country of lost integrity.
Pakistan is an oppressive feudal state: Your feudal socio-political mindset couldn’t accommodate East Pakistan. Your feudal hegemonic attitude proved autocratic for them. Your feudal political stomach could not digest their democratic behaviour. No doubt, your ruthless feudal hands inflicted colossal pain upon them, but their love for democracy and progress made them resist what was immensely cold-blooded on your part! But now, look at their growing economy and prosperity and simultaneously reflect on your economic decline and the political commotion shoving off the federal integrity of your state. By comparison, I am sure you will feel ashamed of your being Pakistani. You will wish to be a teacher in “East Pakistan” than a PM in West Pakistan. Extending solidarity to us doesn’t suit the country of felony!
Your corruption is your recognition. While pillorying you, people despisingly say that Pakistani feudal lords and the army, for their greed for dollars, have sold out nuclear weaponry. It is indeed wretchedly pathetic if one deeply thinks it through.
Terrorism is your culture now. Mr Kakar, I hope you have gone through Mr Faiz Ur Rehman’s PhD thesis, ‘Essays on the Law and Economics of Terrorism in Pakistan’. Mr Faiz has written that violence is the culture of Pakistan now. He says, “Violent conflicts in Pakistan vary from the insurgency of the ethnic separatist, sectarian conflict, organised crime, target killing, extortion and to the deadliest of all, terrorism. Pakistan is one of the most terrorism-plagued countries in the world.” Should a country such as Pakistan extend its message of solidarity, whose culture is violence and fanaticism? Civilised people will look at it as indecent, so we do.
PoK’s people– the most abused. United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) reports that “the Interim Constitution of Azad Jammu & Kashmir places several restrictions on anyone criticising the region’s accession to Pakistan, in contravention of Pakistan’s commitment to uphold the rights to freedom of expression and opinions, assembly and association. Journalists in PoK continue to face threats and harassment in the course of carrying out their professional duties. Enforced disappearances of people from PoK, including those who were held in secret detention and those whose fate and whereabouts continue to remain unknown”.
It is, Mr Kakar, your Azad Kashmir, where you have enchained people like slaves. Azad Kashmir’s political status is not different from that of British India. Here, Pakistan’s Kashmir Council is the King, and Azad Kashmir’s politically weightless Parliament is the Suzarian dictated by the King, PKC. Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan are your colonies. They are nothing more than colonies for you. You mistreat and exploit them as Britishers used to mistreat and exploit India in the past. In Pakistan, your country, Mr Kakar, democracy is a mockery. And justice and human rights are just nugatory items. You have not even touched the feet of such civility and decency where democracy, justice and human rights reside.
Pakistan’s brutality in Balochistan. Your security and your ISI are now quite notorious for the brutal and inhumane acts they carry out in Balochistan. Your Frontier Corps and ISI pick Balochi youth and then dump them. A Journalist, Malik Siraj Akbar, has reported that dozens of people lose their lives per day in Balochistan at the hands of the army and the ISI of the country. Enforced disappearance in Balochistan is as brutal as Hitler’s Holocaust.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, “Bullet-riddled bodies, several of them bearing marks of torture, were discovered in the province”. There are thousands of such examples of ‘Pick and Dump’ cases.
Does expressing your solidarity with us have any moral weight? The civic world condemns you, and you express solidarity with us. How strange!
Pakistan’s Sind and Human Rights Abuse: As per Congressman Brad Sherman, “ The disappeared persons (in Sind province) also include teachers, intellectuals, writers, and publishers. Pakistani security forces or their agents assaulted two daughters of the disappeared Hidya Lohar, a school headmaster, and two daughters of Khadim Arijo, a civil servant”. These innocent daughters were ‘guilty’ of raising voices for their disappeared fathers.
Mr Kaskar, this is your country’s face– ugly and brute! And you express solidarity with us! How astoundingly dismaying!
Pakistan’s judiciary and democracy are an illusion. Four successful and three unsuccessful military coups betided since the creation of your country, Mr Kakar. Now, Mr Kakar, could you please tell me how you can justify that your country is a democratic country?
How independently your judiciary works is now evident to every sensible person after you threw Imran Khan’s government out of the ‘Senate’!
Pakistan robbed Kashmir. Mr. Kakar, your country robbed us. Our ancestors, such as Lalla Ded and Nunda Rishi and so many rishi personalities with their spiritual teachings and preachings had fostered a secular culture which we know as Kashmiri Ethos (Kashmiriyat) where Mandir, Masjid, Gurdwara and Monstery are simply upstairs to reach the truth and your ill-designs robbed us of our beloved ethos. You murdered our culture; you destroyed our ethos. Before the ‘90s, if sometimes clouds happened to be red on the western horizon of the sky, people would speculate that someone had killed an innocent person. On your country’s neck is the blood of thousands of Kashmiri youths, the crime of thousands of widows, thousands of supportless parents and thousands of orphans!
Mr Kakar, your country is the culprit Kashmiriyat. The injuries your country inflicted upon us are unforgettable and unforgivable. Thus, better for you is to stop this political dramabazi of celebrating 5th February and expressing solidarity with us. Forget that you can ever befool Kashmiris again.
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