Kabul: Pakistan is not pursuing a conventional foreign policy but operating within a system of layered subservience with its military establishment at the top offering its services to major powers, from the United States and China to Saudi Arabia, in exchange for financial support, weapons, diplomatic protection and immunity for its domestic abuses, a report said on Thursday.
It added that beneath that hierarchy, Pakistani civilian politicians compete for the establishment’s favour, endorsing constitutional arrangements that elevate “one unelected” Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir above judicial scrutiny and beyond the reach of future governments.
“Pakistan is one of those countries emerged from the post colonial era, and the country has long presented itself as a fiercely sovereign state and proud of its nuclear system, but when one starts following the actual decision-making in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, a different reality emerges that shows in contrary, a state that is deeply reliant on others and lost if not for its dependency. For decades, Pakistan’s political order has been built around the needs of outside powers,” a report in Afghan media outlet Amu TV detailed.
“Externally, first Washington and its allies, then Beijing, and now the Gulf countries, and internally, around the interests of a military establishment that trades geopolitical services abroad for undisputed supremacy inside Pakistan. The result is a system in which elected politicians are weak and often play a role already scripted by others,” it added.
According to the report, this external dependency is mirrored domestically by a system in which civilians are expected to follow the directives of military Generals. It noted that no Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history has ever served a full five-year term, and even in nominal democratic phases, significant decisions on security, foreign policy, and aspects of the economy are made by the military in Rawalpindi.
The report further stressed that instead of easing, the military’s grip on the country has grown more entrenched. The current Pakistani administration has approved a constitutional amendment expanding the powers of the Army Chief and granting him lifelong legal immunity after the end of his tenure.
“Lawyers are already challenging the new constitutional change; journalists, despite heavy repression, continue to challenge the government; and people of Pakistan have shown repeatedly that they are willing to protest when their votes are stolen. Yet time is not on their side. Each year under this dependency on foreign powers and the Pakistan military makes it harder to imagine a country where important matters are argued openly by elected representatives, instead of being whispered in back rooms by military generals,” the report mentioned.
(IANS)
