Zeinab Merai, Sada al-Mashrek
“1947 liberated us geographically, but mentally we are still slaves to the British colonial legacy that grew up in all institutions: Parliament, military, judiciary, governance, bureaucracy, law and order..,” says Ontario’s Sayyed Haider Mehdi, an outspoken geopolitical commentator and blogger, who calls for change, starting with the military.
A former captain of the Pakistani military and the former Vice-President of the Tehreek-e-Istiqlal Party’s youth wing, Mehdi, was advised by his father to leave Pakistan with his younger brother when the sectarian violence in Pakistan started against the Shias in 1998.
But leaving his homeland never absented concern for national welfare from his mind. In 2014, he came to Canada and started writing very actively, and many of his articles were published in Pakistan’s leading English newspaper, the Daily Times (Haider Mehdi Archives - Daily Times). In 2018, he and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan exchanged political notes, and today, he runs his own vlogs (in Urdu) via his You Tube Channel (Haider Mehdi - YouTube).
A renowned media personality among the Pakistani nation and communities across the world, Mehdi anchored a television programme 5 days a week at prime time. “It was a great experience, but then they started to tell me what to say and how to say, and I said, ‘You know, we’ll take a hike,” he recall, adding that he had also left the army because he was against martial law and didn’t wish to be bossed about.
He has tackled both Pakistani and international affairs, and has made time to speak to Sada al-Mashrek concerning the impact of the colonial legacy and foreign interference with Pakistan, especially concerning the continuous attempts of the US to eliminate former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his resilient supporters, like Mehdi himself.
Mehdi has as well recounted being approached by a high-level Canadian intelligence agency, what was asked of him and how he remained firm against foreign interference in Asia.
A colonial army
Mehdi says, “We inherited a colonial army and judicial structure – exactly the way the British had developed and left it – a bureaucratic structure: Keep the people in control and extract as much wealth as you can from this country and send it back to Britain.”
Mentioning that the British would recruit Pakistanis to fight in wars whenever possible, Mehdi cautions that “they had no love for united India. Unsurprisingly, the structures they have in their own country – political, judicial, law and order, police – are very different from what they had for Pakistan and India… Those structures we have not been able to change…”
The former military officer criticises Pakistan’s army for “this colonial mindset; it wants to follow one guy – the commander-in-chief. That’s what has been instilled in their minds from day one.”
Mehdi as well criticises “the spineless judiciary that legitimises the rule of military dictators who have broken the constitution… That’s why there has been no innovation in our colonial mindset and structures: judiciary, police, bureaucracy, even the army.” Providing a stark example, Mehdi says that until today, you’re not allowed to speak Urdu in the Pakistan Military Academy; you have to speak in English, there’s this mindset of being superior and inferior…”
Mehdi maintains that though it’s good to abide by the commander-in-chief’s instructions in certain circumstances, the mentality has to change if the chief is abusive, “It has to become a national army, police force, judiciary, which it isn’t now.”
Mehdi & Khan exchanging political notes
The dual citizen of Canada and Pakistan calls former PM and current Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, Imran Khan, a political friend.
“In 2018, when Imran was coming back into power, we exchanged political notes. Politically, my values are alike to his, so he asked me to come, and I went back. There was some discussion about giving me a senior role in the government… I was very reluctant, I had a huge difference of opinion with him on some of the people he was appointing in his government in the early days,” explains Mehdi.
A client state to the US
The trilingual commentator maintains that “Pakistan, for many years, has been a client state to the US, starting from Ayub Khan, who left in 1968. Yahya Khan followed, and during his time martial law was enforced, and the country was split up into two.
Then came in Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972, and he ascertained an independent foreign policy and looked East – to China. But he was swayed by the love of power and later executed. It was Zia-ul-Haq, the army chief that he had appointed, who collaborated with the US to get rid of him. The US got rid of him because they realised that if this guy stayed on, the control that they had over Pakistan until 1971 or 1972 from partition was going to go.”
“Then we had Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq for 12 years, and he told the American line completely because there was the war in Afghanistan- the mujahideen against the Soviet Union, and we were a conduit for training these fighters; the money came from Saudi Arabia and the weapons from the US, and we gave them training ground. So again we became a client state. It left Pakistan devastated, drug-ridden, drug-infested, terror-driven and sectarian: Shia/ Sunni. That’s one of the reasons I left Pakistan,” recalls outspoken Mehdi.
“We became people who’d abuse each other overtly; highly violent prone, militant organisations stood against the Shias, and lots of assassinations took place. My own late brother-in-law was suffered and assassinated as he was a very senior business leader in Pakistan. In 1988, this aircraft blew up, and he died alongside many others,” delineates the veteran blogger.
“And Benazir Bhutto came in. After her came Nawaz Sharif – both completely towing the line of the Americans, then Benazir again, the Nawaz Sharif again. These guys came in and out, every time dismissed for massive corruption. Then came Pervez Musharraf in 1999… As soon as he said yes to the war on terror, he became the darling of the US; George Bush became his best friend, and Musharraf was in Camp David… After that came Asif Ali Zardari… For five years, this guy, an incredibly corrupt mafia don and murderer, was president of Pakistan. His own government gave the US the freedom to make as many drone strikes as it wanted; the largest ever drone strikes in Pakistan happened within these 5 years,” maintains the 66-year-old observer.
“Five years of Nawaz Sharif again, and the loot and plunder continued; these guys were completely under the grip of America. It was only the Panama leaks that made us get rid of Nawaz Sharif; otherwise, this guy would never have gone. He had appointed Qamar Javed Bajwa as his army chief, under allegedly a deal that the latter wouldn’t remove Nawaz Sharif. Indeed, Sharif was not removed by Bajwa, but by a very honest judge of the Supreme Court,” recalls Mehdi.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please keep an eye out for part 2, in which Sayyed Haider Mehdi discusses why Imran Khan is completely different from the officials aforementioned and why the US continues to tighten the grip on Pakistan.