Is Being a Dual National a Crime in Pakistan?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
One may count on Pakistan’s perennially-in-politics ruling elite—which pampers itself by giving its dubious characters the sobriquet of Ashrafiya –to conjure up a crisis out of nothing. They are capable of beating a magician at his game of pulling a rabbit out of their hat.
Not being able to come up with any solid or viable agenda of opposition to Imran Khan’s government, they thought of hurting him where they perceived was his Achilles’ heel: the battery of Special Assistants and Advisers larding his team in Islamabad—most of them holding dual-nationality, i.e., being nationals of another country in addition to being overseas Pakistanis.
IK’s rivals in the not-so-combined ‘opposition’ perceived him to be vulnerable on that front and detected chinks in his armor they thought could be expanded on and exploited to make inroads into his citadel of power. Even if they couldn’t bring down his house, they, at the very least, sought to embarrass him.
Why did IK have to have so many technocrats—in addition to his party comrades and nominees of his coalition partners serving as cabinet ministers—to serve his agenda of reforming Pakistan; and that too, mostly from amongst the Pakistani diaspora in the West?
The answer to that question should be sought in IK’s passage to political power at the end of a quarter century quest. Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party started off as the façade of his agenda of change that he perceived was the key to reforming Pakistan’s hackneyed and decayed governance.
PTI was an ideological party, geared and dedicated to bringing about a change of mindset that IK rightly sensed was at the root of a bone-corrupt political system. PTI was welcomed by the younger generation of Pakistanis thoroughly disillusioned with the way traditional politicians and dynastic politics had corrupted the country and retarded its progress. But these young men, imbued with their leader’s idea of massive change, couldn’t win at the ballot box where tribal mindset and ‘biradarie’ system ruled the roost.
PTI suffered from electoral reverses, not once but thrice. This forced IK to make amends in the way he sought to navigate the thorny passage to political power. He was convinced to open the floodgates of his party for ‘electable’ candidates to come in. ‘Electable’ was the euphemism for traditional and jaded politicians whose turfs were their castles of which they were the masters.
It was reminiscent of undivided Punjab, of pre-Pakistan 1947, when, on the heels of The Muslim League’s spectacular success at the polls, Muslim feudal lords who’d been kingpins of the Unionist Party of Punjab and had opposed the idea of Pakistan, tooth and nail, deserted their old affiliation and rushed to get on board the League’s bandwagon. The Quaid, not swayed by their onrush to beef up his League’s ranks, aptly described them as the ‘counterfeit’ money (khotey sikkey, in the local jargon) in his pockets.
IK did manage to win at the 2018 elections thanks, largely, to the electable candidates running on the PTI ticket. But just like the Quaid never being too enthused by the counterfeit money in his pockets, IK too soon discovered that his winnable horses were hardly of much help to him in reaching his goal of a ‘Naya Pakistan.’ They were wedded to the very status quo that IK wanted to change. In that sense, they weren’t instruments of change but, to the contrary, obstacles in the path to a new Pakistan that IK had gone to pains to present to his young and enthusiastic supporters as his ideal Pakistan.
So, falling back on non-political technocrats to put teeth into his idea of a changed or changing Pakistan was an invention of necessity. That he gave preference to Pakistani experts and men of knowledge from amongst the overseas Pakistanis was a smart and intelligent move. Pakistani expats, especially those who have made the West their second home, have done extremely well in their careers and made a name, not only for themselves but also for their old country, Pakistan.
Benefiting from the experience and expertise of these overseas Pakistanis was completely in sync with IK’s own agenda of a progressive Pakistan. That there was matching enthusiasm and alacrity on the part of these Pakistani expats to deploy their expertise for the good of Pakistan made it look like a match made in heavens.
But that’s where IK ran into the thick wall of opposition politicians hailing, overwhelmingly, from traditional political families and cabal who have coveted politics as their life-long careers not to serve Pakistan but to use political power as the launching pad of their self-cente
red agenda. This agenda is a single syllable: political power for pelf.
Pakistan’s traditional political elite is narcissistic and corrupt beyond redemption. This so-called ‘Ashrafiya’ is the progeny of those who were of lowly birth, mostly, were obscure and faceless but found patronage with the colonial rulers because of their willingness to sell their people in return for money and feudal estates. The British colonizers of India ruled the land that today marks the heartland of Pakistan with the help of these sell-outs. They were pampered, with local power and pelf, for services rendered to their ‘Gora’ Sahibs ungrudgingly.
This column would run out of space if the dubious services of these sell-outs (the Urdu word of millat frosh so aptly and succinctly conveys the sense of their obsequious pandering to their colonial overlords) were to be recorded here. But there are books aplenty full of narratives of how low the ancestors of today’s traditional politicians could stoop to stab their own countrymen in order to please their colonial masters.
Cutting a long story short, the stake-holders of Pakistan’s traditional political culture have never had any liking for uplifting the oppressed masses groaning for decades under their mismanagement of the economy or outright bungling of its social sphere. They are in politics to safeguard their turfs. So, they took fright at IK’s agenda of wholesale change. He was challenging their privileges and poaching on their turf. He’d to be stopped.
Experts brought in by IK to help him put flesh on the bare bones of his agenda of radical change in the socio-economic boundaries of Pakistan were seen by the denizens of the ancient regime as enemies threatening their empires of corruption. They had to be stopped or scared of the idea of serving under IK.
Hence the slogan of dual-national Pakistanis ‘threatening’ Pakistan’s security was raised by one and all political parties and hackneyed politicos arrayed against IK’s Naya Pakistan. The recent decision by two Special Assistants to the Prime Minister (SAPMs), Tania Aidrus, holding Canadian nationality in addition to her Pakistani one, and Dr Zafar Mirza, who has British citizenship, in addition to his original Pakistani, is a source of concern. It’s indicative of the opposition’s campaign to hound these hand-picked advisers and assistants of IK succeeding in its nefarious objective.
But what’s more worrying is IK’s apparent helplessness to stem the rising tide of opposition’s anti-Pakistan and anti-progressive thrust against him. It doesn’t matter whether Ms Tania Aidrus—who had been brought in to preside over the launching of ‘Digital Pakistan’ geared to 21 st century—or Dr Zafar Mirza—who made a name for himself as an expert in WHO and was instrumental in Pakistan successfully fighting off the Covid-19 Pandemic—resigned on their own or were forced to.
What’s significant is that IK didn’t stand up for these two specialist advisers of his team. That doesn’t speak well for IK’s agenda of change nor does it behoove him to be seen so helpless in the face of the opposition’s campaign to unnerve him and force him off the course he was believed to have charted for himself and his New Pakistan.
IK of cricket fame and glory had the reputation of a stout defender of his mission, on and off the field. But as the chosen leader of Pakistan he has often been seen relenting and giving-in without much of a fight against his political opponent. What has happened to his reputation of being a fighter? Or should one presume that he’s losing his grip on power as so often rumored these days?
Holding dual nationality is neither a crime nor sin. What’s redeeming in the case of Pakistani expats, who have chosen to take up the nationality of their adopted country, is that there’s no legal hindrance to their services being utilized for the good of their mother country. That’s the case with almost every country of the West. There’s model to inspire confidence in the way Chinese diaspora abroad has rendered huge services in the cause of transforming China into a dynamic and progressive country. There’s no obvious reason why IK should shy away from borrowing a leaf from China, our all-weather friend. Or is it that the Kaptan is losing his nerve every time that his pesky opposition raises a howl to frighten him off his path?
It goes without saying that overseas Pakistanis feel terribly disappointed by Kaptan’s meek response to the gauntlet thrown to him by his political rivals. He’s fast losing his support among the Pakistani diaspora. That should be a cause of concern to him. But is he listening? Does he have his ears plugged to the ground? No bets on it. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
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