The United States accused the Russian government of meddling in the US presidential elections in 2016. The Democrats provided proof of intrusion perpetrated and approved by the highest levels of the Russian government. The US Attorney General also indicted many Russian nationals in the US courts. The US government expelled some 35 Russian nationals and imposed sanctions on Russia.
The Russian hackers targeted email addresses of Hillary Clinton campaign and made them public. There was a clear indication of the Russian Military Intelligences’ involvement in the election conspiracy.
Then US President Barack Obama reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G7 summit to stop the interference forthwith. This was registered as protest from the highest level of the US government.
Russia’s preferred candidate was Donald Trump, who ultimately won the race – and downplayed all accusations, even though the US intelligence agencies presented significant proof of Russian intervention in the US elections of 2016.
A declassified report containing input from the CIA, NSA and FBI established that Putin personally ordered the cyber/social media campaign to disrupt the US elections. The report quotes Putin as saying, “Aspired to help President-elect Trump’s Election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him”. (reference: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/).
Donald Trump completed his term. Democrats waited till the next US presidential elections to get their turn in office.
Khan’s fundamental flaw while in the PM office was to keep the opposition in limelight by constantly referring to them in his statements, speeches and addresses. He kept the opposition leaders alive and well in public memory which proved counterproductive for him and his party.
This is how established political systems work, regardless of how strong the public resentment is, and how deep the differences are between parties in the government and opposition.
Fast forward to Pakistan’s political situation — the turbulent past 20 odd days, the transition of government and the narrative of ‘foreign interference’ presented without any reasonable evidence. Raucous events were witnessed on the assembly floors, in airport lounges, high-end hotel lobbies, streets and other public places, wherever there was a glimpse of a political leader, the rival attacked him with verbal abuse that turned into pushes and shoves.
The question is who is responsible for this chaos? Imran Khan? Even though Khan is responsible for fanning flames of revulsion with his bizarre discourse, he cannot exclusively be held responsible for the mess. The fact is Pakistan is sinking deeper into a culture of hatred.
The opposition parties made a mistake of not waiting till the end of Khan’s term in 17 months. The ideal approach would have been to keep up the momentum but let Khan complete his term. The way governance was managed by the PTI government could have been the only catalyst needed to their ouster in the next general elections.
Khan’s fundamental flaw while in the office was to keep the opposition in limelight by constantly referring to them in his statements, speeches and addresses. He kept the opposition leaders alive and well in public memory which proved counterproductive for him and his party.
The current political landscape is not conducive for anyone right now, and to get out of this rigid polarisation, the first action should be to get the ‘foreign interference’ sorted out. The cable/letter/demarche should be investigated at the highest level, and facts established beyond doubt that the document was behind this regime, and not just a red herring.
