What is the Reality?

In political affairs of many countries, foreign interference, particularly from the U.S., has its proven track record. However, it has not been highlighted by an acting prime minister of a country the way it has recently been done by Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan. In the last days of his premiership, Imran Khan resorted to the notion of hostile foreign interference as his primary political argument for dismissing the no-confidence motion against him and dissolving the National Assembly.

In this context, the question arises: is foreign intervention in the domestic political affairs and governance of Pakistan, a sovereign state, a reality? However, this is not the question that merits our immediate attention or needs a deep reflection at this point in time.

As things currently stand in the world, being an independent state is an irony for many ostensibly independent nations and a developing country like Pakistan cannot be an exemption. For these countries, the spectre of foreign interference is not merely a harsh reality but an ingrained phenomenon and they all are destined to toe the line of the world’s leading powers by enduring their ubiquitous interventions in domestic matters, political or economic.

Pakistan became an independent nation in the late 1940s (1947), just two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945. Muhammad Ali Jinnah headed the country for just about a year until his death in 1948. He was Governor General of Pakistan from August 14, 1947 to September 11, 1948.

It is true that Pakistan was not governed with a clear blueprint right from day one and the only guideposts were Mr. Jinnah’s speeches that he delivered at various events that he presided over while he was alive. It was almost as if he had been taken by surprise when Pakistan was given independence by the British and did not have even a basic route map to give to his people.

Pakistan was the world’s largest Muslim nation and a freak one at that because it had two wings separated by at least a thousand miles of Indian territory. It was also at that point a weak nation because it was the weaker part of the entity that had been divided by the outgoing British rulers into the dominions of India and Pakistan. The Indians had taken most of the armed forces, arms and ammunition, industry, trade and finances.

The two major big global powers, namely the USA and the USSR, had their eyes on Pakistan. Each wanted to build Pakistan’s infrastructure and suck it into their respective areas of influence. They tried the same with India but Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a tough nut to crack. He succeeded in giving India a neutral outlook with a clear bent towards the USSR.