What the hell is happening in Pakistan?

I suppose it is a curse that some families and countries face--just when everything seems settled, they create new problems on their own and it is crisis all over again.

After decades of turbulence, for all the right and wrong reasons, for the first time ever a democratically elected government completed a full term in office and handed over power to another democratically elected government.  Marking that historic transition, I blogged (which later morphed into an op-ed):

Let us hope that this third attempt will help strengthen democracy in Pakistan, and usher in peace and prosperity to the hundreds of millions of Pakistanis who have been patiently waiting for better days.

But, apparently the politicians decided otherwise.

Despite his deep-rooted Hindu nationalist politics, the newly elected Narendra Modi invited to his inauguration Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.  It provided hope that the siblings could perhaps finally work out a truce.

That was in May.  

"What a difference a day makes" sang Dinah Washington.  Pakistan set out to prove that a lot more can happen in a hundred days!

Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, writes that Pakistan risks anarchy with its obsession over India:

Sharif’s participation in Modi’s inauguration was billed as the first time a Pakistani prime minister had attended such celebrations in India – an opportunity for laying foundations of a new relationship between India and Pakistan. The prospect of a new beginning, however, was soon undermined by incidents of firing along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

Haqqani reminds us that the original idea was very different:

Soon after independence, Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah had said that he expected India and Pakistan to live alongside each other like Canada and the United States. But as long as Pakistan’s establishment continues to paint India as an existential threat and a permanent enemy in the minds of its people, no Pakistani leader –civilian or military –can embrace the Canada-US model. For now, the two sides will maintain their well-worn pattern of diplomatic engagement interspersed with periods of intense hostility.

The firings across the LoC rubbed Modi the wrong way, and he called off the talks after Pakistan's ambassador to India held talks with leaders of separatists in Kashmir.  It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that such a meeting will not win brownie points with India's government and, yet, Pakistan went ahead with it?

If that is the case across the border, well, it is worse within the borders!  The former opening blower superstar, Imran Khan, is leading the offense against the government:

Khan, a famed cricketer-turned-politician, and fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri have led massive protests from the eastern city of Lahore to the gates of parliament in Islamabad to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

Caption at the source:
Supporters of Pakistani opposition politician Imran Khan attend an anti-government protest
in front of the Parliament building in Islamabad.

Across the border, India canceled the high level talks.  Within the borders, it is no different:

"I have suspended the talks with the government," Khan said. He warned that his supporters would storm the prime minister's office if authorities launched any crackdown. It was not immediately clear if Qadri was also pulling out of the talks.

Because the US government issued a statement reminding everybody that Sharif heads a democratically elected government, Imran, as he is known, is pissed off at the US:

"You like only those governments in Muslim countries that are your slaves," Mr. Khan said in remarks directed at the U.S. "Is there another democracy for you, and another for us?"

This commentary in the Financial Times ends noting that:

In his third term, Mr Sharif has failed to restore the economy to health or end the electricity shortages Pakistanis so detest in the heat of summer. But the government has been in power for only 15 months, and even if Mr Sharif is removed from office, it may not be Mr Khan who replaces him. He may have made his move a year too soon. 

"He may have made his move a year too soon."  That's all there is to such irresponsible political leaders.  In other words, it is a big "fuck you" to the 200 million Pakistanis.  What a curse!