Rear View Mirror

While the wind screen shows us the present and future scene often filled with optimistic and beautiful landscape; though sometimes blemished by ugly roadblocks. However, the rear view mirror shows us the immediate and distant past and keeps us in the right lane; alarmed of overzealous drivers trying to overtake from left, right or from unexpected nooks. A rear view mirror is a crucial safety feature in vehicles, allowing drivers to see behind them through the rear window to monitor traffic and hazards without turning around. Similarly, the inevitable looking back and reference to the lessons learned in the past is crucial for our personal as well as national decision making for reaching the aimed destinations and for achieving the desired aims without recurrence of mishaps.

When one is in an age past sixties, the time seems to move too fast; a year passes by like a month. While the Happy New Year greetings for the year 2025 are still fresh in our minds, yet we find ourselves only a few days away to greet 2026. In our national lives, the timelines are moving past even at a greater pace. The political rhetoric and bombast notwithstanding, one stupefying constant in  Pakistan is the inability to look into the rear view mirror and learn from the past sad experiences. Despite sporadic glad moments, the overall national political, economic, judicial and security environs are far from desirable. The worst ever political polarisation is attributable to almost the same reasons as has been the case in the last 78 years. The power greed, undermining the constitution and bending the laws for self interests continues to cut at the national roots relentlessly. The national economy standing on IMF/ World Bank crutches is finding the noose ever tightening around its neck with leash in the hands of those sent by the lenders to happily sit in the helm of economic affairs as parachuters. The public is subjected to unbearable taxes and asphyxiating inflation. The unemployment and lack of opportunities is forcing the talented youth to flee away through legal channels as well as by suicidal escape routes to destinations considered better than own country. Sadly, the GOP terms it brain-gain instead of brain-drain.

The controversial constitutional amendments made in the recent past are too obviously aimed at personal survival and for escaping the law. The judiciary has been effectively clipped and subjugated with only a few brave-hearts dissenting by paying a heavy price. Former British PM Margaret Thatcher said, "Any country or government which wants to proceed towards tyranny starts to undermine legal rights and undermine the law." The US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stated, "What it means to have a system of government that is bounded by law is that everyone is constrained by the law, no exceptions__The Court's decision to permit the Executive to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law." And Wilfred Wright said, "A government that undermines the rule of law is inadvertently undermining the foundations of their own existence." The fissure in the superior judiciary in Pakistan is not a secret and selective application of newly invented self serving laws are causing a greater public ferment and anxiety than perceived by the perpetrators.

Despite heroic acts of valour and supreme sacrifices rendered by the men in uniform as well as people of Pakistan  bravely facing the brunt of terrorism since 2001, the security challenges on the internal and external fronts continue to germinate and become more complex.  Needless to say, a strong internal political front, a progressive economy, a true democracy and independent functional judiciary are indispensable prerequisites for ensuring security of the State against all sorts of threats as was envisaged in the unaltered 1973 constitution; and it has to prevail in that order and not in the reverse disorder. The three pillars of the State i.e. Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary have to function in their  respective spheres without trespassing. Montesquieu (from Spirit of the Laws, 1748), a key figure in the theory of separation of powers, stated that if the same person or body held the power to make laws, execute public resolutions, and try individuals, "there would be an end to everything". Andrew Jackson, U.S. President, believed that the rights of citizens were "worth nothing...except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary". The Senate of Pakistan stated that "The whole edifice of democracy rests on three pillars; legislature, judiciary and executive where each pillar has to function autonomously". The current state of affairs in Pakistan under a so-called hybrid system is defying all the above pearls of wisdom.

If the people as well a the Government of Pakistan had been looking in the rear view mirror showing them the scars of 1948, 1958, 1969, 1970/71, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1988, 1993, 1999, 2001/02, 2008, and 2022-2025, many a hard knocks as well as current distressing state of affairs could have been avoided. ‘May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion’. Best wishes for the year 2026.  Long live Pakistan!