Pakistan: Praise The Pig To Get Your Bacon

Zia Sarhadi

Muharram 06, 1447 2025-07-01

News & Analysis

by Zia Sarhadi (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 55, No. 5, Muharram, 1447)

Pakistan resembles George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm rolled into one. Big Brother, watching from every street corner, has handed over the farm to the pigs. Nothing escapes Big Brother’s omnipresent gaze. Deviation from his orders invites instant wrath. Arrests, beatings, torture and humiliation not only of the “errant” individuals but also members of their families, especially women, follow.

People are free but compliance with the orders of the head honcho is the only available option. Applauding Big Brother’s every move, order and action is compulsory to survive. Refusing to comply results in imprisonment without trial.

Even if there is a trial, the kangaroo courts deliver no justice. Judges have not only been corrupted, they have been neutered. Justice is an unknown commodity in Pakistan.

Ask the family members of thousands of “missing persons” in Balochistan. The powers that be provide no answers. Asking a question is considered treason and results in more disappearances of family members.

Let us be specific. The army whose sole function is to defend the country’s borders against external enemies is everywhere except on the borders. It has ursurped all power and authority and treats civilians with disdain. The common refrain used by the army is “bloody civilians”.

Since its emergence on the world map on August 14, 1947—incidentally Muslim soldiers and officers in the British Indian army played no role in its creation—the army has acquired enormous power and wealth. It would not be wrong to say that the army wallas, especially the generals, have become real estate tycoons. Their grubby hands are over all aspects of life: real estate, cement and cornflakes factories, mining, agriculture, drugs, gun-running, you name it.

They pay no taxes on income from these enterprises because they have established the Fauji Foundation as a charitable trust. It must be nice. They take these assets from the state without paying a paisa because their actions are all meant to serve the “national interest”, whatever that means. The “defenders of the state” need defending from the people, hence the need to live in gated communities with high walls, barbed wire and massive security checks at entrances.

Cowardice, shamelessness and greed are their main characteristics. The skirmishes with India in May once again brought these to the fore. The army played little or no role in the latest confrontation. It was the Pakistan Air Force that performed well against India yet the army chief, Asim Munir elevated himself to the rank of field marshal.

Most observers are still scratching their heads to figure out what precisely did Munir do to deserve this elevation. He does not even have the personality to go with it. A mousy looking creep, he has gained notoriety as a deceiver. He suffers from a deep inferiority complex that he hides by behaving obnoxiously.

He is also a coward. This was clearly evident during the four-day skirmish with India. Despite threats followed by attacks from India, he and his spokesman in the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) were constantly harping on ‘restraint’. They said if India does not escalate, we will not retaliate. It was the air force chief, Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu who insisted Pakistan must retaliate for Indian aggression. His pilots gave a fitting response.

Yet Munir started thumping his chest as if he himself had flown a plane that hit Indian targets. As Professor Junaid Ahmad remarked succinctly: “At the center of this farce stands Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, a man once praised as principled and incorruptible. Today, he presides not over a disciplined military but over a caricature of governance in fatigues. His regime has suffocated dissent, jailed political opponents, and weaponised the judiciary to dismantle democracy under the guise of ‘stability.’

“His failure is not merely administrative; it is moral. Under his watch, the military has not only tightened its grip on the country—it has loosened its grip on reality. Foreign observers no longer speak of Pakistan as a regional power, but as a cautionary tale. A state capable of launching a nuclear missile, yet incapable of generating reliable electricity.”

Munir’s greatest crime against Pakistan is that he stole the people’s mandate in the February 8, 2024 general elections. Even though the most popular political leader in Pakistan’s history, Imran Khan was thrown in jail on trumped charges, his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI) swept the polls.

Army goons on direct orders from Munir stormed polling stations and snatched the ballot boxes. They were stuffed overnight to steal the election from PTI and handed it over to the Pakistan Muslim League (N), a party of criminals, thieves, rapists and murderers. The PML(N) had secured only 17 seats in the 343-seat National Assembly.

As if this farce was not enough, on November 26, 2024, Munir ordered his troops to shoot and kill completely peaceful protesters in Islamabad. How many innocent people were murdered is anybody’s guess but the most conservative estimate put the figure at several hundred.

Continuing the farce, Munir and his boot-licking prime minister Shehbaz Sharif went for Hajj. It takes gall. How can these people visit the most sacred House on earth and seek Allah’s forgiveness when their hands are drenched in the blood of innocent people?

Allah may forgive people who have violated His commands but the Sustainer will not forgive those who have perpetrated dhulm against innocent people. This applies especially to those who have committed murder. Munir and his henchmen are guilty of coldblooded murder. Allah will never forgive them because that is the right He has given to those whose loved ones have been killed.

The question is: why do these people indulge in such gimmicks? Aware that the masses like their rulers to be ‘pious’ and ‘God-fearing’, being seen performing Hajj or at prayers adds to their religious aura. In Pakistan, however, such gimmicks no longer work. People have wisened up to the ugly reality of military domination and the parasites that occupy its top echelons.

No amount of lipstick can make a pig look pretty. Once a pig, always a smelly ugly pig!