October 17th, 2020 

By Asra Haque 


LAHORE

General Asim Saleem Bajwa, whose involvement in toppling the PML-N’s government in the Balochistan government and snatching its seats in the Senate, constitutes high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution. His innumerable assets have been revealed. Yet, no action has been taken against these crimes, at least not under the current government.

NAB’s unfortunate new habit is to pick up people without any evidence or warrant. Then why is this man allowed to roam free? The answer, Imran Niazi! Why is he roaming free? Even now, he is the CPEC chairman. Under what qualification is the heading CPEC? He earns thirty-five lacs a month. Thirty-five lacs is the monthly salary of General Asim Saleem Bajwa.

The government did no worthwhile work, but in terms of corruption, we are now all witnesses to another scandal. And even in the face of all this, just look at the stubbornness of the NAB chairman – despite a mountain of evidence, not a single case could be registered. NAB is nothing more than a dictator’s black law. It is Musharraf’s black law, and its purpose is to quash political dissent.

But Javed Iqbal and his accomplices have crossed all lines. They are completely unmoved by the criticism levied against them by the Supreme Court and lower courts of Pakistan, and by national and international institutions. There is no end to their vengeful agenda; Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, Khurshid Shah, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, and several leaders of the opposition are behind bars. Neither they and likely even you, the people, do not know what their crime was.

Javed Iqbal, how long are you going to play guardian to the interests of these profiteers? How long are you going to follow their vengeful agenda? How long are you going to oppress innocents under NAB laws? How long are you going to put a lid on the corruption of the likes of Imran Niazi and Asim Bajwa? Do not forget, your day of reckoning will come, and it will come soon.

My brothers and sisters, martial law is not the only way of abrogating the Constitution. Any violation of the Constitution is grave. By god, when they forcibly stifle the media, they are violating the Constitution. When they harass cable operators to run only those channels they want to run, they are violating the Constitution. When they force judges to give verdicts according to their whims, they are violating the Constitution. They steal the public’s mandate and make an ineligible person the Prime Minister, it is a grave violation of the Constitution. Remember that all those backing or obeying an individual who abrogates the Constitution are also equally guilty of the very act.

My brothers and sisters of Gujranwala, the ones responsible for all your troubles and grievances are those who have sacrificed you for their personal gain and benefits. They are responsible for your troubles and they are responsible for drowning the Pakistan army in controversy. Not us, not the public… they [the sitting Generals] are the ones behind disgracing the Pakistan Army and pushing it into controversy.

Nawaz Sharif salutes those brave sons of the nation, those soldiers who are laying their lives on the frontier and amidst cloud-piercing mountains. Just yesterday, twenty were martyred in Waziristan and Balochistan; every Pakistani is in mourning. My warrior sons and brothers and these martyrs are the pride of the army and of the nation. The nation salutes them, the nation salutes their mothers, their parents. They are the heroes of the nation, and Nawaz Sharif is indebted to them. The nation is thankful for them. The nation is proud of them.

But a select few claim that they are bound by the law and the Constitution, and do not partake in politics. My question then is who were those people who scaled the Prime Minister House to arrest Nawaz Sharif? Who toppled the government, and threw Nawaz Sharif into lockup? Who were the ones who imposed martial law in the country four times? Who were and are those people who have created a ‘state above the state’? Who is responsible for all this, for the ‘two parallel governments’ in this country?

Who is responsible, according to what Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui claimed? I have those videos which I will show you all, god-willing. I will release them on Twitter, and you can all listen to what he is saying. Who is responsible for all the injustices being wrought against Justice Qazi Faez Isa and his family? Who is responsible for silencing the media? Who is responsible for muddling the Senate elections? Who is responsible for all the horse-trading before the general elections? Who is responsible for abducting journalists and subjecting them to torture? Who is responsible for the destruction wrought by Imran Khan Niazi’s inept government?

General Qamar Javed Bajwa, these are all your ‘gifts’. You are the root of this nation’s problems and grievances. General Qamar Javed Bajwa, you ruined our properly functioning government and laid ruin to the hopes and dreams of the nation. The ‘buying and selling’ of members of parliament, which we had finally done away with after ages… you brought it back. You forced judges to give verdicts in your favor. For the crime of being just, every move against Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Qazi Faez Isa was taken under your orders. You brought in your inept party of choice by tossing out the people’s vote.

You are responsible for all this destruction.

General Bajwa, you will have to answer for all of this. You. Electricity bills are leaving the nation in shock, and Bajwa, you have to answer. Pakistan’s poor are dying for want of medicines, and Bajwa, you have to answer. The poor man’s bread now costs ten rupees, and Bajwa, you have to answer. You are responsible for the tears of the destitute, Bajwa, you. You have to answer. Sadness, emptiness, and worry now rein on this once-smiling and laughing faces, and Bajwa, you have to answer. A crore and a half Pakistanis are unemployed, and Bajwa, you have to answer. Wheat and sugar thieves have absconded with millions of the nation’s hard-earned money, and the government has done nothing to control inflation. Bajwa, you have to answer for all this.

And General Faiz, all of this happened by your hands. You have to answer as well.