August: The Month of Grim Anniversaries in Pakistan

Developing Just Leadership

Zia Sarhadi

Safar 18, 1448 2026-08-01

News & Analysis

by Zia Sarhadi (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 56, No. 6, Safar, 1448)

The month of August marks three anniversaries in Pakistan’s tortuous history. On August 14, 1947, Pakistan emerged on the world map as an “independent” country. Its degree of independence is debatable.

There are two other anniversaries that occur in August, both falling on the 5^th. Seven years ago (August 5, 2019), India unilaterally abrogated the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir under its occupation.

Unable to liberate Kashmir from the clutches of India, notwithstanding their rhetorical volleys directed at India, Pakistan’s thuggish generals arrested and imprisoned the country’s most popular leader, Imran Khan three years ago. Again, it was August 5. Perhaps, it was a cynical way to divert attention from their cowardice in failing to liberate Kashmir from India’s clutches.

To determine how much independence Pakistan enjoys, we must first define it. To be free, a country must be able to make its own decisions without having to look over its shoulder. Political, economic, security and social policies are domains where a country must be free to choose its own course.

Pakistan is not free in any of them. Its policies are dictated by the US and the IMF. Licking the boots of the Americans is one constant in the Pakistani rulers’ behaviour.

On July 21, Pakistan’s finance minister, Muhammad Auranzeb begged the Americans for $10 billion bakhsheesh for facilitating US-Iran talks. It was euphemistically called ‘Exchange Stabilization Support Facility’.

Begging comes as naturally to the greedy Pakistani elite as breathing. They are busy plundering state resources and sucking the blood of the people. The thought that they should curtail their rapacious lifestyle never occurs to them.

The Hindu caste system best describes its socio-political setup. The Hindus practice religious segregation that determines people’s socio-economic status. The Pakistani elite also indulge in socio-political and economic segregation.

The military sits at the top of Pakistan’s caste pyramid. Being the most organized and heavily armed group, it dictates every policy of what is erroneously referred to as the state. The military—or more accurately the army—determines what the country’s security, political, economic and social policies should be.

Civilians installed in power by the army have now asked the men in khaki to tackle the country’s population problem. Since the army has long experience in installing surveillance cameras in people’s bedrooms, it is only natural for them to tackle the country’s population explosion as well.

Perhaps the army will set up a special cell for population control. It will be headed by a retired general. It will monitor couples’ noctural activities. Those not using condoms will be hauled before the special cell and given a tongue-lashing.

Repeat offenders may be physically lashed. In extreme cases, they may even be forced to undergo vasectomy. Of course the operation will be performed—you guessed it—by army medical officers. People will be forced to pay hefty fees. Given Pakistan’s 250 million population, it will bring in windfall profits for the army!

It will come as no surprise if the army opens condom factories. They could call them “patriotic condoms”! They have factories for cornflakes, cement, fertilizer and other products. Why not condoms?

Apart from army surveillance activities in people’s bedrooms, it also determines who Pakistan should befriend and who it should consider as enemy. Since it is terrified of India, it launches wars on its own people. Ask the people of KP and Balochistan. And now, the hapless people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have also been added to the long list of its victims.

The army’s carefully-crafted image as ‘defenders of state’ has crumbled. It has become so unpopular that army personnel do not venture out in the public in uniform for fear of being attacked.

The army’s brutal policies have riled even veterans. On July 8, the Veterans of Pakistan issued a press release in which they roundly condemned the regime’s current policy.

The press release said: “Our sons are not numbers for your scoreboard. We strongly condemn the cold, bureaucratic normalization of casualties, where the sacrifice of our brave jawans is reduced to a macabre mathematical comparison of ‘They killed 42, We killed 54, so WE win.’

“We utterly reject this cheap political tally. The sacred blood of Pakistan’s soldiers is far too precious to buy survival for a failing, incompetent hybrid regime.”

The Veterans’ statement demanded full accountability for regime failures. The army is not going to heed any such calls.

After all, no one has been accountable for the army’s shameless surrender in Dhaka to the invading Indian army on December 16, 1971. So, the death of a few dozen soldiers and officers is not going to cause the big bellied generals to loose any sleep.

They raise their whisky and wine classes and toast the ‘shahadat’ (martyrdom) of their troops. And the muftis in uniform declare that all of them will go to Paradise!

We must, however, reflect on the root causes of Pakistan’s never-ending problems. They began right at birth. The departing—or not so departing—British colonial masters handed over power to the Brown Sahibs. They were created for this very day.

The Brown Sahibs have continued the colonial policy with even greater vigor. They treat the masses with contempt and see them as an inconvenient intrusion impinging on the enjoyment of their rapacious lifestyle.

It is also important to identify the parasites that control Pakistan. After the army, bureaucracy is the other leftover of the British raj. Its mindset is shaped by British thinking.

The bureaucracy, far from solving the people’s problems, is a cesspool of corruption. No problem is solved without greasing the bureaucratic palm.

Judges have been compromised and far from dispending justice, they indulge in gross injustice. A colonel or brigadier dictates what verdict to hand down. It will depend on the victim’s attitude toward the army and its role in politics.

Imran Khan’s case illustrates the point. He has been held on bogus charges for three years. The Adiala Jail where he is held in a deathrow cell has been turned into a courtroom.

The generals are terrified of Imran Khan’s appearance in public. He has been held in solitary confinement for more than eight months now. Even his family—sisters and other relatives—are barred from visiting him. This is a fundamental right that is denied to him.

There are four other groups responsible for Pakistan’s plight: the feudal lords, politicians, media houses and the maulvis. There is not one feudal family that can trace ownership of their vast estates beyond 1857.

The conclusion is inescapable. These families betrayed their own people in the 1857 uprising. For their treachery, the British colonialists rewarded them with vast estates.

The ill-gotten wealth from these estates is used to indulge in politics. They force the serfs working on their lands to vote for them and buy the votes of others.

Media houses and TV anchors have all sold their souls. They bark for the men in khaki who rule from their temple in Rawalpindi. Perish the thought if they would tell the truth. Their job is to please the gods of Rawalpindi.

And then there is the priestly class: the maulvis. Far from imparting knowledge about Islam, their sole purpose seems to be to create fitna and denounce others as kafirs. They allow themselves to be used by the army, the politicians and other assorted criminals for a sack full of rupees.

As long as these parasites exist, there is little hope for Pakistan to make progress.