Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. If history repeats itself and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience?” On many counts, successive governments in Pakistan have been living in a consistent state of denial since 1948. Consequently, the vicious cycle of history repeating itself with ugly and unexpected happenings has never ceased, with sham democracy by the corrupt being the worst outcome. When people at the helm of affairs are confronted with this reality, the often repeated cynical response is, “It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.” Although the refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position, denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd. However, with the rise in political status or bureaucratic pay grade, the tendency to adapt to a blurred vision and indulge in denial of stark reality becomes a way of life with unending pitfalls. One wonders as to what will convince the ruling elite in Pakistan that “you will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously; and you will find peace not in denial, but in victory.”
A brief look at our state of denial is considered imperative to underscore the moot point. At the time of the birth of Pakistan, both the military and the civil bureaucracy were affected by the disruptions wrought by partition. The politicians were corrupt and interested in maintaining their political power and securing the interests of the elite, so having them as the representative authority did not provide much hope of a democratic state that provided socio-economic justice and fair administration to all Pakistani citizens. Ranging controversies over the issue of the national language, the role of Islam, provincial representation, and the distribution of power between the center and the provinces delayed constitution-making and postponed general elections. In October 1956, a consensus was cobbled together and Pakistan’s first constitution was declared. The experiment in democratic government was short but not sweet. Ministries were made and broken in quick succession, and in October 1958, with national elections scheduled for the following year, General Mohammad Ayub Khan carried out a military coup with confounding ease.
What started as a denial of the Father of the Nation’s vision about the state of Pakistan’s concept with respect to the domestic, foreign, and defense policies and guidelines for the role of the state institutions has unfortunately kept multiplying the backlash. The mysteries and intrigues surrounding the demise of the Quad e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the murders of Liaqat Ali Khan, Fatima Jinnah, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, General Zia ul Haq, and Benazir Bhutto, and the murder attempts on former Prime Minister Imran Khan have been kept under wraps, and historical facts are either denied or obscured in a deliberately spread confusion. The dirty machinations which commenced by Iskander Mirza prompting himself as a major general, quick dismissal of elected prime ministers and governor generals, becoming president, promotion of General/ Field Marshal Ayub Khan declaring Martial law, becoming the president for ten years, followed by three more military rulers i.e. General Yahya, General Zia and General Musharraf, repeated dismissal of PMLN and PPP governments and a short lived PTI Government, writing off all corruption and criminal charges and even removing proven crimes of the PPP and PMLN overnight, and quick fix return of the yesterday villain in the power seems as imminent as is the PTI leadership facing the same fate as was the case for his predecessor; sadly, it is considered an insult to even a mediocre thinking mind and a passionate heart. Even the two greatest tragedies of 16 December 1971 and 16 December 2014 have not shaken the ruling club’s joint conscience to learn from the past blunders and take all micro- and macro-national steps to avoid the recurrence of such devious man-made calamities.
The whole nation is haplessly watching the same old putrid political experiment being repeated, suppression of political dissent by the state oppression, use of force and immoral techniques to silence the people, crippled economy, slaying inflation, treating the constitution as wax nose, lawlessness, unending terrorism, fissures in senior judiciary with questionable dispensation of selective justice, overstaying and highly politicized and biased caretakers governments busy in foreign tours, enjoying undue and controversial media spotlight day in day out, and doing everything way beyond their constitutional obligation that was to be performed in three months and not in years, putting on sale precious national assets and resources without due process and approval by an elected government are only a few example to point out the state of denial and the murky environment in which we are forced to live. On the foreign policy front, Pakistan seems to have lost stature and credibility to be of any value, and our response to the ongoing genocide of Palestinian Muslims is as deplorable as has been the case of mere lip service to the too obvious abandoned Kashmir cause, although the paid professionals and denial mode elite are prone to jump and prove it wrong by untenable flimsy narratives. The powerful elite club in Pakistan needs to remember that “each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.”