Ontario’s Geopolitical Commentator Sayyed Haider Mehdi: We Need to Change the Inherited Colonial Mindset & That’s Why I Support Imran Khan (Part 2)
Zeinab Merai, Sada al-Mashrek
Earlier, Sayyed Haider Mehdi outlined to Sada al-Mashrek how British colonial legacy was instilled in the Pakistan Army and judicial structures and how the country became a client state to the US. The commentator on national and international affairs as well talked about having exchanged political notes with former PM and current Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, Imran Khan (صدى المشرق (sadaalmashrek.ca)).
In part 2, Mehdi discusses with Sada al-Mashrek why Imran Khan is completely different from the officials aforementioned and why the US continues to tighten the grip on Pakistan.
In addition to his military and geopolitical expertise, Mehdi dedicated time to academics and entrepreneurship. Getting a competitive scholarship, he lived in the USA for two years and received an MBA from Boston University. Earlier, he had gained his Master’s in economics while in the Pakistan Army.
As an entrepreneur, he played a major role in two major business-commercial launches in Pakistan and did business consulting… Spending 17 years in the UAE, he helped set a lot of major platforms for the governments of UAE and Abu Dhabi and was involved in academia.
And though on the hit list of Pakistan’s US-backed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistani Ontarian says he takes pride in his works. “They’re of great impact, especially amongst the powers that be both in the civil and the military; that’s why the military establishment have let loose their goons on me. They’re trying to defame me,” explains Mehdi.
He, nevertheless, expels trouble humorously, “I have very strong views on the history of Pakistan, why things happened, and on what’s good and not for Pakistan. I say them as they are. I think if I go back to Pakistan, they’ll probably pick me up from the aircraft and throw me in a dungeon where no one will ever be able to see me or me.” The veteran commentator says he now has “the skin of an elephant” and that he’s just going on.
Mehdi as well says he is at peace with himself and is happily married and cherishes time with his children and grandchildren.
Imran’s a completely different cup of tea
“Imran’s a completely different cup of tea. He’s not listening to the Americans, and he wants Pakistan to have an independent foreign policy. He says, ‘We will be your partners in peace, but not in war. We won’t fight your wars; we have suffered – 80,000 killed, over 120 billion dollars in economic losses since we’ve been fighting your war when Zia-ul-Haq started in 1977 right till this day,’” states Mehdi.
“They wanted us to give them bases after they pulled out of Afghanistan, and they wanted all military overflights over Pakistan to bomb targets in Afghanistan, but Imran refused,” asserts Mehdi.
“Imran has changed that mindset; he may have many faults and may be inexperienced and impetuous, but he has changed that thinking in the people of Pakistan, and that’s why people like me are hell-bent on trying to make sure that they don’t stop or eliminate him... That start has to be the military because that’s the root of our problem.”
Mehdi reminds followers that the military ruler, Bajwa, has “transcended the constitution, imposed martial law and masterminded conspiracy in collaboration with the USA and the looters and plunderers who’ve been doing this since 1985…”
While making his statements, the former academic reminisces about his father’s contributions to Pakistan, in contrast with the colonial mindset that the army had inherited, “Very few people really supported the fight for Pakistan. My father, a young lieutenant (before partition), was one of them… He was a great hero, taking risk to do what he deemed better for Pakistan and Muslims even though a court-martial offence could have come his way.”
The former army captain now slams the history of US domination of the world, especially after World War II, “They want administrations that are totally aligned to their hegemonic, geo-economic and geopolitical interests in the world… America is the dominant player, ‘You do what we tell you to do.’ They go about threatening others, and they use very high-sounding value systems, like democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and open media, so people get swayed by them.”
What forefront reasons have pushed the US to overthrow Khan?
Asked about that, Mehdi says, “Our very strong association with China through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor was a huge danger. It’s America’s war with China that’s really at the heart of the matter. Pakistan is an extension of the Chinese economic juggernaut through its Belt and Road Initiative, and of it the China Pakistan Economic Corridor was the flagship... Maybe we would have suffered economically.. But hey, listen, you choose to go with America, or with China. Going with America has never caused us any good; it has always abandoned us and has destroyed our country.”
“The US thought Imran would be malleable. But Bajwa’s always in cahoots with the Americans, who felt comfortable with him and thought he’d be able to set things ‘right’, and he did in a way. In collaboration with them, he ousted Imran because there were a few people that needed to cross the floor; otherwise, Imran wouldn’t have lost his majority and would never have gone. He was emerging as a very dominant leader. People really respected him even if they didn’t agree with him. The guy is larger than life,” asserts the geopolitical observer.
Mehdi says that if Khan had stayed, the US sphere of influence would have been faced with an emerging independent bloc: China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Malaysia and the entire Central Asian Republics. “If this had become a strong economic bloc – forget about the political – with India absolutely isolated because India’s sided with the Americans – can you imagine the devastation that would have happened in the world economic order? So it’s really an economic battle; Imran was seen as a hurdle towards this economic hegemony,” maintains Mehdi.
“And although I don’t think we will ever use nuclear weapons, the fact that we have them when we haven’t recognised Israel gives Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby in the US sleepless nights, so denuclearisation is very much part of the agenda. How do we denuclearise Pakistan? You make it completely economically devastated,” explains Mehdi, “They’ll be dying. Then you say, ‘Okay, guys, we’re going to give you this oxygen, but you have to give me that little sword that you have on the side, which is nuclear weapons.’ And if there are pliable governments in place like Nawaz Sharif’s, Shehbaz Sharif’s and Zardari, and a pliable army chief like Bajwa, the deed will be done. Lady Macbeth will have committed the murder of Duncan…”
Mehdi says that in this case, Pakistan gets forced to recognise Israel, forget Kashmir and Palestine and improve ties with US-backed India. “We’ll be gone; they will Balkanise Pakistan by taking Baluchistan away and starting separatist movements in the northwest frontier… It’s a nightmarish scenario. No sane Pakistani is willing to accept this, and that’s why people are with Imran but the US is against him and against an independent, self-respecting Muslim country.”
Thanks for following the discussion. Please keep an eye out for one last part, in which Mehdi recalls an encounter with a high-security Canadian operative as concerns a NATO mission in Afghanistan
and Mehdi’s cautioning against intervention. Mehdi also visualises what’s in the offing for Pakistan.
Image credit: This is a painting by Johann Zoffany of Colonel Antoine Polier, Claude Martin, John Wombwell with himself in the background being waited on by Indian servants probably in Lucknow India. The painting is now in the Victoria Museum Calcutta. This image is from their web site. http://www.victoriamemorial-cal.org/jzoffany.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2408762