Pakistan's internal political fighting resumed. On May 9, local time, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was in court after attending a hearing on the sedition case and was about to leave by car, when he was rushed into the courthouse by the Ministry of Home Affairs (paramilitary organization Pakistan Rangers) and took away. Imran Khan's Pakistan Justice Movement Party (PTI) immediately stopped and mobilized the masses to "stand up for the country", and the demonstrations turned violent.
Pakistan, which does not exist
We all know that Pakistan was split from British India. Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was educated in a wealthy Muslim leather merchant family, educated in madrasahs and England, and was elected president of the All India Muslim League (Muslim League), which fought for independence with the Congress Party in 1916.
In 1947, Governor General of India Mountbatten came to India to deal with India's independence, and it took only half a year to come up with the "Mountbatten Plan", which established the principle of partition between India and Pakistan. THE BIGGEST BUG IN THIS SCHEME IS THAT THE DOMINIONS ARE DIVIDED BY RELIGION, NOT ETHNICITY, CULTURE, AND LANGUAGE.
The name of Pakistan is also interesting, with the letter P referring to "Punjab", A for "Afghanistan" (Northwest Frontier Province/Kepur-Pashtun), K for "Kashmir", S for "Sindh" and Tan for "Baluchistan". Pakistan has a total of 72 ethnic groups, the main ethnic group has 6, Punjabi, Pashtun, Sindh, Zoryang, Muhajir, Baloch, in order to stabilize the rule, Jinnah chose to unite the strongest Punjab + Sindh forces to suppress other ethnic minorities.
The Punjabis and Sindhi people will not support Jinnah in vain, they will definitely exchange benefits, so Pakistan has given priority to Punjab and Sindh in various resources and policies since independence. Jinnah died of illness in 1948, and no one had the prestige to bridge the differences between the parties, so in 1958 the commander of the three armed forces, Ayub Khan, staged a military coup d'état and began the military junta era. Due to the defeat of the two Indo-Pakistani wars, the military junta collapsed, and Pakistan entered the era of democratically elected politics.
Family wealth
The People's Party (Bhutto family)
Located in the Karachi region of Sindh Province in southwestern Pakistan, it represents Pakistan's landlords and elites. With the death of two generations of politicians in the family, the Bhutto family is not currently the dominant force in Palestinian politics.
Second largest family, the Muslim League (Sharif)
Located in the Punjab region of eastern Pakistan, it represents Pakistan's emerging industrial and commercial bourgeoisie. The Sharif family came from Kashmir, and Mian Sharif founded the Itfaq Industrial Group, which was mainly involved in the steel, sugar and textile industries, and moved his family to Lahore after the partition of India and Pakistan. Mian Sharif had three sons, Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, and another son, Abbas Sharif, chose to go into business (died young).
After graduating, Nawaz Sharif helped his father run a steel mill and was a well-known entrepreneur. In the 70s, Prime Minister Ali Bhutto nationalized private enterprises, and the Sharif family suffered a heavy blow. Nawaz Sharif chose to join the Muslim League with the simple intention of bringing back the family steel mill nationalized by the Bhutto government. In 1977, when Zia Haq came to power in a military coup that overthrew Ali Bhutto's rule, Nawaz Sharif immediately sided with the military and declared allegiance to the military.
In 1985, Nawaz Sharif was successfully elected to parliament in his home sphere of influence in Punjab, was promoted to governor of Punjab in 1985, successfully re-elected in 1988, became prime minister for the first time in 1990, and soon implemented the privatization route, taking back the Itfak group that had been taken away from him. Nawaz Sharif and President Uram Ishaq Khan had a long and sharp confrontation that eventually led to their resignation in 1993. The post of Prime Minister was succeeded by Benazir Bhutto, a politician from the People's Party and Bhutto family.
In 1997, the People's Party government led by Benazir Bhutto resigned dismally due to corruption scandals that aroused public doubts. Nawaz Sharif made a comeback as prime minister for the second time. In order to achieve the constitutional amendment, he and his brother Shahbaz Sharif also used family power to remove the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Sajad Ali Shah, who was unwilling to cooperate with them. But this monopoly of power eventually annoyed the military. The 1999 battle for India-Pakistan Kargil became the trigger for open conflict between the two sides.
Muslim League (Leader)
Pakistan has not experienced a social revolution, political parties simply cannot represent the interests of the population, national resources are divided among elites, and civilians want to get ahead, and there is only one way: join the army. Musharraf was like this, graduated from the Pakistan Army Academy, became an artillery officer, participated in the two Pakistan-India border wars in 1965 and 1971, major general, lieutenant general, general to army chief of staff.
In 1999, Musharraf was abruptly dismissed by Sharif on his way to Sri Lanka for opposing the intervention of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's civilian government in military affairs. Musharraf's cronies staged a military coup, arrested Prime Minister Sharif and his top cabinet officials, and welcomed Musharraf back at Karachi airport. In 2000, the Pakistani Counter-Terrorism Court sentenced Nawaz Sharif to life imprisonment on charges of corruption, hijacking, tax evasion, embezzlement and terrorism. Under an agreement with the government, Sharif began exile in Saudi Arabia to offset his sentence of life imprisonment.
Musharraf came to power in a coup d'état, but he was committed to building a moderate Islamic state. Musharraf tried to implement his program by forming a new national political party, the Muslim League (Leader). But due to the haste to be established, the core members are still the old bureaucrats that the Muslim League (Hsieh) splintered from.
In 2007, Nawaz Sharif returned from exile to run in elections, this time against Musharraf, the leader of the long-standing Muslim League. To win, Sharif chose to work with his old rival Ben Bhutto and the People's Party behind her. In December of that year, when Bhutto was assassinated, her husband Zardari "took over" and joined forces with Sharif to form the "Alliance for the Re-establishment of Democracy" to boycott Musharraf's re-election as president, and to the Supreme Court of unconstitutional candidacy for the presidency as a land senator. Finally, under joint pressure from opposition parties and the military, Musharraf announced his resignation, ending nine years in power and going into exile.
When that was achieved, Nawaz Sharif withdrew from the coalition government. In May 2013, Nawaz Sharif became prime minister for the third time. In July 2017, Nawaz Sharif was dismissed as prime minister by Pakistan's Supreme Court on suspicion of corruption by his family. In 2018, Islamabad's anti-corruption court sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison, a fine of £8 million, and confiscation of his property. Although Nawaz Sharif left the center of power in Pakistan, the Sharif family still controls the Muslim League, and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif served as the chief minister of Punjab for three consecutive years, ruling for 10 years.
Imran Khan
Over time, people began to tire of the two families taking turns. Imran Khan was not a Punjabi or a Sindh, but a Kepur. In 1992, Imran led Pakistan to defeat the former suzerainty England in the Cricket World Cup, making Imran Khan a national hero of Pakistan. With his unique charisma, Imran Khan quickly won the hearts of the Pakistani people and founded the Justice Movement Party, a political party.
In the 2018 general election, Imran Khan relied on a tough image and anti-corruption and reform slogans to defeat Shahbaz Sharif by an overwhelming margin and became Pakistan's 22nd prime minister. Imran Khan's domestic and foreign policies have certain populist characteristics, changing the traditional pro-American tendencies of the Sharif family to develop relations with Russia, such as visiting Moscow at the beginning of the Russian special military operation and finalizing food and energy import contracts. It is also not polite to the two major Pakistani families, the Sharif family and the Bhutto family, and hit it again and again. Now it seems that it is not enough for Imran Khan to completely bring down the family power. Even if the people are tired of the two families taking turns to govern, the new government will not be able to secure its position if it cannot improve the economy and make political achievements.
The two families were reluctant to tie their hands, so in April 2022, Pakistan's National Assembly's motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan was supported by more than half of the members. Imran Khan also became the first prime minister in Pakistan's history to be ousted by the National Assembly, and Shahbaz Sharif was elected the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan. Fearing a comeback, Pakistan's judiciary began trying to detain Imran Khan on corruption charges since the beginning of this year. Khan has always claimed that his removal from office was a conspiracy by the current Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the United States, and the current government's accusations against him are witch persecution and he has refused to plead guilty.
Today, Pakistan is in a severe economic crisis and is on the verge of national bankruptcy. Affected by the foreign exchange crisis and rising energy costs, Pakistan's domestic industrial sector has underrun and unemployment is extremely serious. According to statistics, the overall unemployment rate of the industrial sector in some industrially strong provinces has reached about 20%. The Russian Satellite News Agency reported that Pakistan delivered about 50,000 155mm shells to Ukraine in January this year, and on February 13, Pakistan provided Ukraine with 10,000 rockets used in BM-21 "Hail" rocket launchers.
Ba Tie Cultivation Record
While declaring its adherence to the principle of neutrality and refusing to condemn Russia, it is also supplying Ukraine with weapons and equipment, ammunition is not provided for free, but Pakistan first sells it to Britain, which then transfers it to Ukraine.
Whether it was during the Soviet Union or after Russia's independence, Pakistan's relationship with Mao Xiong was actually not good. Pakistan's worst enemy is India. And Soviet Russia has long been friendly with India, and all weapons that can be exported have been fully open to India for sale, and Pakistan has long been pro-American and pro-British.
The United States will not bet all its cards on Pakistan, and at most form a strategic pattern in the subcontinent in which India and Pakistan balance each other and jointly deal with China. After seeing the United States on both sides and seeing China's handsome lesson to India in 1962, Pakistan has since identified China, and the relations between the two countries have become more and more ironclad and have become all-weather strategic partners.
China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, that is, China only cooperates in terms of economy and people's livelihood, strengthens infrastructure construction and commercial investment in Pakistan, and does not interfere in the specific operation of a country. Even Imran Khan, who has a strong populist flavor, came to power and accepted the "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" signed between former Prime Minister Sharif and China worth about $60 billion, and said that "the target of my accusation is the Pakistani government, not China", emphasizing that he is not opposed to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.
Shahbaz Sharif said immediately after his election that maintaining good relations with the United States is of paramount importance to Pakistan, which contrasts sharply with the hostile relationship between Imran Khan and the United States. In its relations with India, the Sharif family is also considered moderate "doves". Pakistan is pro-American or not, the people do not care, the economy is the basis of all problems, life is good, there is money to spend, many problems will be easily solved. Pakistan's food self-sufficiency rate has further declined in 2022, with domestic rice production expected to be only 6.6 million tonnes. The Russian-Ukrainian military conflict does not see the end, and the difficulty of obtaining cheap food for Pakistan has greatly increased.
The Russian side did not have deep contacts with Pakistan, and Ba's ability to pursue a neutral policy on the Ukraine issue was already supportive, and it did not add Pakistan to the list of unfriendly countries because of the arms incident, but also talked with Pakistan about food and energy export business, which flattered Pakistan for a while.
However, in the face of such a country firmly controlled by the family, it is useless to borrow money, no matter how much money China gives to Pakistan, can there be more Saudi Arabia, a big household next door? If Pakistan wants to change the fate of the country, it must change the old social system, otherwise it can only stand still and do things in a hurry.