well in advance.…..”When
Imran laid out the plan, I said to Imran, ‘Khan sahab what are you
doing?…..He
said, ‘I am telling you there will be elections in September and everything has
been worked out'”……
….
What is being proposed is a rule by zero-corrupt technocrats acting in the best interests of the nation (without being harassed by ankle-biting, low-information voters). We wonder why such a common-sense approach has not been acted on before in Pakistan, and elsewhere, and why there is a lack of durable, successful techno-dictatorships (Chicoms are probably the closest to this ideal).
….
It is notable that Pakistan now (publicly) aspires to follow the example of Bangladesh, when right after Partition-I she imagined herself (with some justification) to be the new Medina in South Asia.
One more point of interest (for parochial Bongs): a look at the map above and we note the likelihood of Bangla herself experiencing a coup in 2014, along with sister nations Nepal, Burma, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was a hundred years ago when the freedom fighter from Maharashtra, Gopal Krishna Gokhale noted: “what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.” This dictum updated for the C21 may read as “what Bangla thinks today, South Asia (sans India) thinks tomorrow.” We speak in jest, of course.
…….
Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) President Javed Hashmi’s startling claims of a scripted
political crisis being engineered in Pakistan has led to widespread speculation
among analysts that a version of the ‘Bangladesh Model’ may be in the works.
……
“Imran
had told the PTI core committee it won’t be called a martial law,” Hashmi
alleged at a press conference, hinting at a covert form of takeover by the
military establishment, using PTI Chairman Imran Khan and Chief of the Pakistan
Awami Tehreek Tahir-ul-Qadri as their instruments.
…
The
‘Bangladesh Model’, a soft coup, is based on the idea that the political system
must be cleansed of corrupt elements for the welfare of the public, which
perhaps has been left incapacitated to elect honest leaders.
…
The model
works on the premise that the military and judiciary must intervene to help
differentiate the ‘right’ from the ‘wrong’ before it is too late. The model
stipulates that the democracy that follows such a ‘cleansing’ is therefore a
truer form since the people have been rightly ‘guided’ and are now able to make
informed decisions.
…
Technocrats, current and former officials aligned with the military and
judiciary play a vital role in the implementation of the ‘Bangladesh Model’ of
which the strings are pulled from the background and through an interim
government that remains in power for a lengthy period as happened in Bangladesh in 2007.
….
“If Nawaz
Sharif survives, for the rest of his term, he will be a ceremonial prime
minister—the world will not take him seriously,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, an
Islamabad-based analyst told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. “A
soft coup has already taken place. The question is whether it will
harden.”
Reacting to the drama in Islamabad, the International Crisis Group (ICG) had
also warned last week that the possibilities of a coup were very high and that
such a development “would imperil any progress that has been made in
addressing grievous economic, development and security challenges.”
…
“The
protests rocking Islamabad threaten to upend the constitutional order, set back
rule of law and open the possibility of a soft coup, with the military ruling
through the backdoor,” the ICG said in its statement.
…
According to the PTI president Hashmi, a script for such a move was laid out
well in advance.
“When
Imran laid out the plan, I said to Imran, ‘Khan sahab what are you
doing?'”
“He
said, ‘I am telling you there will be elections in September and everything has
been worked out.'”
..
In January
this year, the Washington Post cited Pakistan as ‘high risk’ on a list of
countries likely to face coup attempts.
……
Link: dawn.com/javed-hashmis-allegations-what-is-the-bangladesh-model
….
regards