Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TriNetra 858 days ago
IN Pakistan army decides and is the real ruler. Elections are only a face to appear as a democratic sate. In fact Pakistan elite (including army higher ranks) just is there to milk the country and build estates outside (West/UAE/etc).
2 comments

Isnt it also true that no democratically elected or coup-installed Prime Minister in Pakistan's history has ever successfully completed a single full term in office, ever since their independence[1]?

And if that is true, isn't Pakistan a glorified tin-pot republic, thats democracy only on paper & manages to stay alive at the mercy of the propping-up prowess of U.S. and U.K., to act as a lily pad[2] of sorts in the region?

[1]

Every time the gov’t topples (no Pakistani Prime Minister has completed 5 years in office), corruption/looting reaches even higher levels… …to replenish and grow the bounty that was paid to buy out votes in elections and in the parliament. Sad, but v familiar to Pakistanis. 12:08 PM · Apr 9, 2022

https://twitter.com/bznotes/status/1512870199338287106

[2] Cooperative security location

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_security_location

Funny way to express the $65 billion of FDI that China's put into Pakistan, along with joint development of the JF-17 and 47% of China's arms exports as a whole, isn't it?

Or has the near-total cut in US military aid to Pakistan over 2018-2022 been a delayed coup de grace, and should we expect the country to implode at any minute?

Nobody can afford Pakistan to implode I think. The fact they have nuclear weapons is like a giant blackmail file on the entire world.
This dynamics is the underlying principle of every democracy. Only the sophistication of the civilian facade differs.

If you want to see how fast things show their true colors stop paying "your" soldiers. When it happens due to breakdown of government-nation relationship coup or military pacification of civilians is imminent.

> ... every democracy ... If you want to see how fast things show their true colors stop paying "your" soldiers.

Laying off soldiers and officers have been quite common in democracies. It is not really a problem. I guess it is mainly a problem if there is social unrest to begin with and the layoffs are a spark and maybe not done in an orderly manor.

Laying off some soldiers is ok when done by soldiers.

The problem with social unrest is that government loses capability of collecting taxes and stops paying all soldiers and the military can't have that.