While many citizens in Pakistan are happy with former cricketer Imran Khan’s victory in the elections, some intellectuals in India are promoting the nation as peace-loving because they didn’t select Un-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed as their leader. The Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek party, a proxy front for terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, did not win a single seat in the Pakistan elections.
What many seem to be forgetting is that the PM in Pakistan has little power. There are numerous reasons for choosing Imran Khan over Hafiz Saeed and expecting peace, democracy, and secularism from the country is like searching for drinking water in the sea. If people from India have high expectations after the Pakistan election, then I think it’s their foolishness.
Imran Khan’s image is more secular than Hafeez Saeed but it doesn’t change the ground reality
Khan is more acceptable than Saeed because of his image as a cricketer and of course, as a public figure, he is careful with his words. Most importantly, he is not a wanted terrorist. The army tries to convince the US and the rest of the world that their country is as secular and democrat like India and other democratic nations. Let me clarify that the percentage of the minorities is continuously decreasing at an alarming rate since independence.
Even if there were no speeches against the minority communities, that doesn’t mean they are supporting them, and Pakistan should not be an example for India in this matter. The biggest reason is that their constitution is not secular and is based on the religion, whereas India is a secular nation from the beginning. In a country where minorities have to hide their identity to survive can never be an example of secularism. In 1941, the percentage of Hindu population in Pakistan was 14%, but it’s at 1.85% today. In addition to this, the repeated prosecution of Ahmadiyya Muslims, gunning down of four Hindu doctors and the forced conversion of Rinkle Kumari, are a few examples of recent incidents of violence against minority communities. The situation is worse for Christians, Sikhs, and atheists who are facing repeated attacks on their religious places, tortures, killing, humiliation. Imran Khan as PM won’t make any significant changes to control the violence against minorities. No matter how hard they try unless their intention changes, the reality will be the same, and Imran Khan can’t hide the ground realities.
Hafeez Saeed is difficult to control
Saeed is popular among the people like Imran Khan, but for the Army, he may become Bhashmasur (self-destructive), something they don’t want. I don’t think the Army will accept a person outside of their control with popularity like Jinha as he may not act as per their wish, and the nation will be out of their hands. On the other hand, Imran Khan is popular but doesn’t have the power like Saeed to go against the military, and he certainly doesn’t want his fate to be like Nawaz Sharif or Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The deal is a win-win negotiation for both, and at the same time, they can put Hafeez outside of power without hurting his supporters’ sentiments. Saeed can be useful for further propaganda against India and can continue terror activities without any direct relation with officials. In the last few years, the army has been desperately trying to wash its terrorist image to get more funds from the US, and Trump’s sanction has become a headache for it.
Imran Khan as a PM promises peace talks and development but Kashmir as a priority
Hafeez Saeed cannot become an image of peace and development, and most importantly it would be difficult for Pakistan to handle international pressure if a most wanted terrorist becomes the PM. Imran Khan promised the development, and peace but will continue his Kashmir agenda as the first priority. He said that this should be resolved and again just like a usual Pakistani leader, he refused to accept it as an integral part of India, after all, this is what the shadow government wants.
The result of Pakistan election is not sudden and seems to have been carefully planned to destroy the Sharif legacy in a legal and democratic way to show the world that Pakistan is ready for a change.