Brigadier Dr Vijay Sagar Dheman
Pakistan has a chequered history of non democratic polity gravely influenced by military. Immediately after independence, even when the Queen of England was still the premier of the country, Pakistan decided to take on the path of dictatorship/martial law. Over a period of time, the military kept influencing/ousting the civilian elected govt on the pretext of inefficiency, personal ambitions or Islamisation. During this sojourn, Pakistan with the connivance of China was able to clandestinely acquire/build nuclear arsenal. Nuclear weapons, being the harbingers of wiping out the humanity from the surface of earth, have to be protected from all inimical forces specially the ever flourishing Jihadi institutions in Pakistan.
Today, it appears that that Pakistan is on the verge of a civil war with Nawaz Sharief leading the PDM alliance against Imran Govt supported by Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed of Pakistan Army. The multi-centric turmoil in Pakistan raises serious questions about safety, security and operational control of Pakistani nuclear weapons. The shades of paramountcy in this maze of likely civil war varies from the combined opposition led by Nawaz Sharief against collusion of ‘Imran and Army’ on one side, to power struggle within the Army between ‘Bajwa supporters and Lt Gen Sarfraz Sattar and his supporters aided by the then CJI Asif Saeed Khosa’ to the individual insurgent groups in Blauchistan, Sindh, Gilgit Baltitan and Khyber Pakhtunwa. In case of conflagration of present turbulence, it is the obscurity that threatens the humanity as regards the eventual control of Pak nuclear weapons which could be captured by irresponsible stakeholders or the rogue Jihadi institutions.
Present disarming of Sindh Police, abduction of IGP Karachi, mass leave by Sindh Police personnel, with Pakistan Rangers (Army) taking over of administration shows the brutal crushing of Sindis in Pakistan. This happened after Nawaz led opposition opened the outright front against Imran-Bajwa coalition. Nawaz Shrief, being in exile in London, has launched an unscathed attack against Army by openly naming the specific generals including Bajwa and his supporters. Nawaz Shrief , in doing so, has been very careful not to commit political suicide. He has fully exploited the internal turmoil created in Pakistan by very high rates of inflation, the subversion and suffering of population by Chinese, perfidious use of Pakistani resources by China (CPEC) and Imran’s return of favour to Bajwa by granting him extension as Army chief. The movement has gained alarming proportions and imminent civil war like situation is being crushed by military.
The passions amongst the masses are being fuelled with anti-China sentiment on account of promises of employment, extremely high cost of electricity, wide range of corruption with heavy losses to state and usage of Pakistan territory by China for its own economic, strategic and defence purposes.
Besides the surrender of Pakistani territory to China by Imran Khan from Khyber Pass to Gwader port, Imran has decided to cede two islands outside Karachi port to China for military purposes. This would translate in loss of livelihood for more than 1,00,000 native fishermen.
The financial position of Pakistan needs less to be said. It had to borrow One Bn $ from their coloniser China to pay part debt to Saudi Arabia. The FATF has not upgraded Pakistan’s standing from the Grey list. This means Pakistan will continue to reel under abject poverty and will not get bail out package to rescue its citizens from impoverishment. Meanwhile, the default on Chinese loans has halted the funds to stall CPEC projects. All this combined shows a way for Pakistan to surrender its souverenity in Balauchistan the way it happened in Humbantota port in Sri Lanka.
The utter chaotic conditions prevalent in Pakistan point towards tumultuous pandemonium which has created lawlessness. It will raise a serious question on capture and subsequent control of Nuclear weapons. Pakistan, as it is rife with irresponsible statements on use of nuclear weapons whether they are politicians (Imran/Rashid), Jehadi terrorists or even section of Press in Pakistan. Prior to this turmoil, what was said about the Pakistani Nuclear weapons was “We manufactured Nuclear Bombs because we could not have peaceful sleep due to security reasons and now we cannot sleep because of scare of losing control of nuclear weapons.” Now with present pandemonium and unclear understanding as to ‘who will wield power and in what measure’, the Pakistani Nuclear weapons can well be tamed by Jihadi forces, that can spell potential doom for the entire world. Only 100 nuclear bombs are enough to engulf the whole world in thick smog which will deplete the entire Ozone layer surrounding the Earth. Ozone layer protects the Earth against UV radiations from the Sun which will literally burn every possible animate and non-animate thing on the surface of earth.
(The author is leading Defence and Strategic Expert, prolific writer, National TV News Commentator and Internationally Accredited Life Coach)
