When we were young, we always thought Pakistan would turn into a superpower. We thought we could defeat any country in the world in a war, and we really believed that Pakistani Muslims are stronger than five Indian Hindus or Sikhs. Now that the country has been in existence for seven decades, we have realized that Pakistan is simply another banana republic, without any influence in the world.
The other day, sleuths of the civilian-controlled FIA picked up two journalists without warrants and took them away. It was only after a huge outcry in social media, and the intervention of senior journalists that the two men were released. Earlier it has been done many times, but until now no one has been arrested and tried. In fact, when Hamid Mir was shot many years ago and named the country's elite intelligence agency of perpetrating the attack, he was branded a traitor and his employer Geo TV was banned for many months. Recently, he again criticized the same agency for doing the same thing to another journalist, and he has been taken off air by Geo. In years to come, it will be people like such brave journalists and human rights activists who will be remembered by the people, but unfortunately today's Pakistanis think they're guilty of treason.
We are now no different from many other dictatorial regimes like North Korea, where no one dares say anything against the corrupt rulers. It would be unthinkable for a journalist in any Arab country to write about financial scams in which princes are involved. In fact, all taxi drivers in such countries immediately report any conversation among their passengers where the royal family is mentioned. Pakistan is not yet so bad, but it soon will be, if Imran Khan's efforts to rig the next elections succeed.
As I said, Pakistan under Imran Khan is an insignificant country, and this was again proved when the UN security council didn't invite Pakistan to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. Of course, Imran Khan's supporters promptly blamed the current SC president (who happens to be an Indian), but the fact of the matter is that the country is now another banana republic where human rights don't matter and its so-called democracy is just a sham.
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