August
14, 2007: Beginning Of
The 61st Year Of The Slavery Of
Salves In Pakistan
By Abid Ullah Jan
15 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Cannons
boomed a dawn salute and thousands of Pakistan's olive-green and white
flags were raised across the country to mark its 60th anniversary of
independence from British rule. People hardly realise that they were
in fact celebrating their 60th year of volunteered slavery under de
facto colonization since the British strategic withdrawal in 1947.
Dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf
and minion Shaukat Aziz, in speeches and appearances celebrating the
milestone, praised Pakistan's emergence as a Muslim nation with an important
international role, but warned its people they must not succumb to extremism
in response to their policies.
They renewed vows not to
let any nation publicly violate Pakistan's sovereignty - doesn't matter
if they do so without announcing it as they have been doing since October
7, 2001 war on Afghanistan.
Every Pakistani must realise
that they are slaves of the slaves.
Of course this is not what
a Pakistani would like to hear as they wrap the green flag around themselves
and fly it high on their cars and homes, but it is the unpleasant truth
that we all face going into the next year of our chequered existence
under indirect occupation - de facto colonization, which has been more
fruitful for the modern day colonialists than the past.
We are not bound by chains
and beaten with whips, yet that hardly matters. Slaves remain slaves
irrespective of the more or less cruel treatment they receive from their
masters of the chosen slaves of their masters.
Setting aside the stereotyped
image of a slave as a bleeding chain-bound wretch, slaves like Pakistanis,
are often hard to recognize. It has been like this throughout history.
In some cases, such as the Medieval Serfs, they were held slaves to
the rulers by religious belief. They did not see themselves as slaves
even though they were treated as such. The favored slaves of Asian potentates
wore jewels to make a movie star gasp, yet were still slaves for all
their finery and comfort.
So, what is a slave? What
makes them different from free people?
To see if Pakistanis or their
rulers and so-called leaders are slaves, judge everyone with a simple
criteria:
· Free people can
say “no.” Slaves cannot.
· Free people can
refuse demands for their money, time, children and life. Slaves cannot.
· There is no freedom
without the freedom to say “no.”
· If someone demands
that you do something and you can say “no” and refuse to
do it, then you are a free human being.
· If you can be forced
to do something or surrender something against your will, you are a
slave. No other test need be applied.
When you do not have a say
over more than half of the resources of your country that go into black
budget for feeding the most powerful sector of your country –
the armed forces - then you are a slave.
In Pakistan the tax collection
system is not very effective. However, people have no control, whatsoever,
over the resources the government generate from the wretched masses
or in their name from the outside world. Throughout history, slaves
have been expected to perform the work needed for their own upkeep,
then perform additional work for the rulers. In Pakistan, there is not
social support system; no public health coverage; no welfare support.
If you are sick and dying and cannot afford treatment, there is no alternative
other than rot in your bed and die. If you cannot afford a house, beg
and live on streets. At the same time, your little income may not qualify
for the income tax, but you pay the government through covert taxes,
covert fees, tariffs, excises. In the end we find that Pakistani masses
are at more than “half-for-self” versus “half-for-rulers”
ratio! Can you say “no” to the confiscation of more than
half of your life? Can you even get the masters to maybe reduce the
burden by a significant amount? No? Congratulations. You are a slave.
The puppets that rule you
have decided to join the wars of their masters on anyone living demanding
freedom and the right to self-detrmination. The idea is that it is better
for American corporations and colonialists to keep the weak colonised
so that they could steal their wealth and resources than to pay for
it. Millions of Pakistanis and millions more around the globe, did not
want the wars, but the masters started them anyway, by lying to the
people. Our puppet leaders joined them in the butchery of their own
people. Could you refuse the war? Can you refuse being lied to? Could
you do anything to the people they sold to America? Could you save others
from illegal detentions in the ISI detention centers? No? Congratulations.
You are a slave.
Our puppet rulers want your
children for the future wars of the their masters in London and Washington.
Instead of dying for Pakistan in the cause of Allah, they are dying
for the cause of America. Can you challenge the generals? Can you stop
your children from killing other innocent Pakistanis? No? Congratulations.
You are a slave.
The military regime has been
caught lying over and over again to the people, from accepting responsibility
for the US bombing of our civilians to removing uniform, to its role
in the war on terror to the mystery of disappeared people. For eight
years we were told Benazir was corrupt. Now she has been exonerated
as if all the cases were false. Were we lied to then, or we are being
deceived now? The regime lied that there were foreign militants in Lal
Masjid and therefore the massacre of hundreds of Pakistanis with them
was justified? Can you refuse to be lied to? Can you punish the liars?
No? Congratulations. You are a slave.
Human rights abuse is rampant
in the country. Your loved one disappeared and you don’t even
know where did they go. You protest against the high handedness of the
government agencies and you are harassed and publicly humiliated. Can
you stop it? No? Congratulations. You are a slave.
Just because you cannot see
the slave-chains doesn’t mean they are not there. Chains made
of steel are obvious, but chains made of beliefs are not always recognized
for what they are. Hitler enslaved the German people to war with a belief
that Poland was about to invade. Musharraf enslaved the American people
to the war on Afghanistan war with the belief that he has seen the evidence
of Osama’s involvement in 9/11 and he can be tried in a court
of law, whereas the FBI still says it doesn’t have any concrete
evidence to indict Osama for 9/11. Poland wasn’t invading. There
were no torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin, but the slaves, held by invisible
chains of beliefs, went to war. Millions died.
Under Musharraf regimes,
however, the chains started to become visible. The Constitutional right
to freedom of expression was confined. Newspapers have to exercise self-censorship.
A slave may have an opinion, but it cannot find space in the “mainstream”
press and TV where it might upset the other slaves.
Other basic human rights
and protections have been set aside. The government can now search through
your private records without cause and without warrant, even break into
your home and not have to tell you. The same government was the only
supporter of the Taliban up until October 7, 2001. Now, simply by declaring
a citizen a Talib, or a Taliban sympathiser, the government can now
lock up Pakistani citizens without a charge and without a lawyer, without
a trial in undisclosed locations for as long as it wants.
The government sold your
kids to feed modern day torture camps of its masters. It has borrowed
billions of dollars, mismanaged and embezzled it, and stuck your coming
generations with the payments of interest and the actual loan. Children
not even born will be paying off the debt. To declare the lives of children
not yet born, let alone old enough to vote, indentured to the satellite
state at the mercy of its colonial masters is slavery most obvious and
odious. Can you refuse responsibility for payments on debts the government
incurred without your permission? No? Congratulations. You are a slave.
Zakat funds under government
control are being looted. Public land is being given out to the military
generals in gifts and rewards. One hundred and eleven Army men got 400
plots in Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan districts at throwaway prices,
paying Rs. 47.50 per kanal (1/8th of a acre) as against the actual price
of Rs15,000 to Rs20,000 (1US$=Rs. 56). Another 35,000 kanals were distributed
among them.
Six respondents got 400 kanals
in the Punjab while former NAB chairman Lt. Gen Mohammad Amjad was allotted
a two-kanal plot on the Sarwar Road in Lahore for just Rs. 800,000 -
payable in installments over 20 years. The market value of this plot
was Rs. 20 million.
Air Chief Marshal Abbas Khattak
(retired) received Rs180 million as kickbacks in the purchase of 40
old Mirage fighters. Air Chief Marshal, Farooq Feroz Khan was suspected
of receiving a five per cent commission on the purchase of 40 F-7 planes
worth $271 million. In 1996, the Army bought 1,047 GS-90s jeeps, at
a cost of $20,889 per unit. The market value of a jeep then was only
$13,000. According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s
main accountability organization, some senior Army officers made Rs.
510 million in the deal.
General Pervez Musharraf
acquired a commercial plot worth Rs 20 million at DHA in Lahore for
just Rs. 100,000, payable in 20 years. "As mentioned in the report
of defense services director-general, a loss of Rs 5 billion was incurred
due to such allotments."
The Army awarded a contract
for the purchase of 1,000 Hino trucks at $40,000 per unit while the
local Gandhara Industries had offered trucks of the same specification
for $25,000 a piece. In the purchase of 3,000 Land Rover jeeps in 1995,
Army officials allegedly received around Rs. 2 billion as kickbacks.
The Army management at WAPDA
raised the power tariff 13 times during the last three years besides
purchasing electric meters at Rs. 1,050 a piece against the open market
price of Rs. 456, causing a loss of Rs 1.65 billion to the national
exchequer.
A former military regime
sold the Pak-Saudi Fertilizers for Rs. 7 billion and earned a Rs 2 billion
commission on the deal.
In 1996, the Pakistan Navy
spent Rs. 13 million on installing air-conditioners at the Islamabad
Golf Club without any justification.
Some other major scams involving
serving or ex members of the military junta are as follows:
- Ex Army chief General Jahangir
Karamat took kickbacks of more than US$ 20 Million from Ukrainian tank
company for purchase of 300 Ukrainian tanks for Pakistan Army through
a middleman named as Colonel Mahmood , a brother tank corps officer
of Karamat . Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent the present chief
of the WAPDA Major General Zulfiqar, then serving in ISI, to Ukraine
and Azerbaijan to investigate the scam.
- General Zulfiqar compiled
a complete report of the transaction and the bribes given. But the Army
tried to buy him out by rewarding him with the post of WAPDA Chairman
and promoting him to the rank of a three star General. The then Army
Chief, General Jahangir Karamat was forced to resign, based on the threat
that if he did not, he would be charged for corruption.
- Many road contracts were
given to a firm Hasnain Construction company without any public tenders
by the recently removed Railways and Communication minister General
Qazi. The company, owned by a relative of General Pervez Musharraf’s
son, was also awarded the lease of a lucrative real estate in Lahore
for construction of a Golf Course under frontmanship of Palm Country
Golf Club, Singapore. The relative of General Musharraf admitted publicly
that he was working for a commission to use his contacts and influence
for the company.
- Prime commercial land developed
in Defence Housing Authority Karachi was leased at dirt heap rates to
McDonalds operated by Amin Lakhani by the then Corps Commander, Karachi
Lt. General Afzal Janjua.
- The Army’s coercive
organ NAB struck various under the table deals with various individuals
accused of high profile economic crimes in addition to arm twisting
NAB defaulters, into joining the present government. These include the
present Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and at least one fourth of
all elected legislators.
Are you able to refuse corrupt
and dishonest military and civilian governments that are imposed on
you with the help from outside? No? Congratulations. You are a slave.
You are a slave because the
military and political feudal lords and the ruling class can do what
they want, take what they want, and you cannot refuse. You may have
freedom to decide what TV channel to watch tonight, or just which food
to cook today, but little power over the rest of your life. Can you
do anything about it? No? Congratulations. You are a slave.
Our schools are broke, hospitals
under-staffed, the roads and bridges and rails of the nation are crumbling
while millions are going to the pockets of the few which makes the rich
richer and the poor poorer. Millions are given away to supporters of
the regime, the collaborators and spies. The priorities of the government
are not the priorities of the nation but the priorities of its masters
in Washington and London. On the fourteenth of August 2007, Musharraf
said our biggest problem is extremism. Go the street and ask him who
he thinks is the extremist.
I think the state of the
nation can be summed up by a simple contrast. Petty thieves are in jail,
while Benazir is preparing to become prime minister for the third time
with the billions he stole from the nation.
Our forefather had a dream.
They wanted an independent Islamic State, where they would be able to
exercise their right to self-determination and self-rule. We are left
with feudal lords and military dictators to rule us and continue the
with the left over colonial systems. De facto colonization replaced
direct colonialism and we are suffering more than our forefather did
under the direct colonial rule. The knew their enemy and could struggle
against. Today, the enemy within us is in the garb of our defender,
our saviour and our guardian that still confuses the people about the
very objective and raison d’etre of Pakistan. The present military
regime in particular, has made a mockery of the constitution and the
objective behind creation of Pakistan. It discarded the Constitutional
limits on its power and authority while at the same time piled more
and more obligations onto the people. Were you able to refuse them?
No? This, more than any of the other reasons, is why you have ceased
to be a free human being, and are now a slave.
You are a slave of the salves.
When you live under a government that serves not you but its foreign
masters; that takes your wealth and your children to serve the interests
of Washington, and lies to you to keep you docile and terrorise you
to keep you obedient, how can it be otherwise?
You are a slave of the salves.
You can stay that way, or not. It’s that simple. Nobody is coming
to save you. There are no Mohammed bin Qasim from riding to the rescue.
Whether you and your children will live as slaves or as free human beings
is entirely up to you.
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