Those who don’t believe in God the Almighty Creator should not read this article. They will find that their time has been wasted.

An American scholar/analyst of sorts recently wrote that he fears a ‘Black Swan’ event in Pakistan. Americans love giving fancy names to things, especially to nefarious things in which they often play a part. A Black Swan is an huge unexpected event that has great impact. A false flag operation, which was used by Hitler and is now used by America and many other countries, is usually a Black Swan event.

More unpredictable and impactful is what one calls the ‘Butterfly Effect’, something ostensibly so insignificant that few notice it or realize how far its waves would soundlessly reach. A butterfly flaps its wings in Panama and its shock waves reach thousands of miles away. That is just what we saw happen in Pakistan and other countries when Nawaz Sharif became a disqualified-for-life and defunct Prime Minister at the hands of the Supreme Court over lying. Nothing most Pakistanis didn’t already know or suspect, but to be found out by the Supreme Court is another matter. The Panama butterfly’s wings had an effect on many other shores as well.

This is not the end of it: every Pandora’s box begets more Pandora’s boxes. Now Nawaz Sharif and cohorts are going to be tried in cases of corruption and alleged murder as well. Anyone with even half a brain would behold the glory and wrath of God and learn lessons. But not so, it seems, our sacked defunct prime minister. God have mercy on him.

Not having learned a thing, Nawaz Sharif placed a stooge called Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in his stead. He too doesn’t smell of roses and has a sword of Damocles hanging over his head. Like his boss, he too is in danger of also being disqualified before his time. And the guy Shahbaz, Nawaz’s brother, who is slated to take over from Abbasi once he gets elected to the National Assembly also brings many swords of Damocles hanging over his head, including alleged mass murder in Model Town, Lahore. Joke, after joke, after macabre joke.

Abbasi made a sad speech on taking over, reinforcing the notion that he is Nawaz Sharif’s stooge, making tall promises that no one believes. He is the warmer of the odious seat for Shahbaz, unless God has other plans. God help us, we have been punished enough for our sins, heavily indebted to our lenders who will soon call the shots openly and make us crawl. At this rate the whole house cards glued together by myths, legends and wishful thinking is in danger of crashing down.

I wish our so-called liberals and moderates — ‘Liberal fascists’ I call them — would sometimes have an original thought. Such people are born contrary. They use the most progressive rhetoric to support the most retrogressive ends — the classic definition of a fascist. They have trained their guns on the very Supreme Court they screamed and kicked so hard to restore to independence. Serves them right that the chief justice they helped back into his seat tore the independence of the judiciary apart, not just with his demented actions as judge but like Nawaz Sharif, by hiding behind his son to hide his corruption.

Now that the Supreme Court has finally become independent and held against a powerful prime minister, the liberal fascists openly suggest that it is a ‘judicial coup’ that was encouraged by, you guessed it, the army. They say Nawaz’s ouster is on ‘flimsy grounds’ i.e. for not revealing his work permit for the UAE while holding the office of prime minister. One crime proved out of a plethora of crimes is enough to punish a man: you cannot hang him a hundred times for committing a hundred murders. Al Capone springs to mind.

Poor defunct junior information minister Maryam Aurangzeb. All the eggs that were waved over her head to ward of the evil eye have come to naught and made into an unpalatable omelet. Serves her right for believing in voodoo. I thought she was educated. I say this not to mock her but in the hope that she learns some lessons. She is young and there’s time for her still.

The wheels of God do grind slowly but in Pakistan they seem to grind ever so slow. God’s wheels are said to grind exceedingly fine, but so far not so fine in Pakistan. There is a long way to go before He grinds the destroyers and demons of Pakistan into the finest of flours. There’s a long way to go yet with the constant danger looming that we will fall off the Correct Path and return to our bad old ways. But happily the process has begun, and with a vengeance.

One of our two biggest Mafia godfathers has been sent packing in ignominy for being an untrustworthy liar and facing a plethora of criminal charges against himself, his family and cohorts. It will take time but please God it should happen.

Next to be tried should be former President Asif Zardari whose tales of corruption and money laundering are legion and that poser former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Not to forget Fazlur Rahman and so many other scumbags. And to be sure Imran Khan. He said this before me that he will throw them out if they are found guilty.

Wait. There’s more to go. To be tried are also all those named in the Panama Papers and ‘pardoned’ by the NRO. Plus businessmen, feudal lords, civil and military bureaucrats, media moguls with their cohorts. Actually, the list is even longer. Seventy years is a long time to destroy a country; seven years might be enough to clean out the filth and muck.

All this will come to naught if, most importantly, we don’t realize that just changing prime ministers will not do for another as bad as Nawaz will turn up. He has. The most important task is thus to change the system for the better that does not throw up such corrupt and odious politicians. What the new system could possibly be belongs to another article.

Consider Surah-e-Fateha, Man’s prayer to God to show him the Correct Path known as Sirat al Mustahqeem. Fateha forms the first surah or chapter of the Quran.

“You do we worship, and Your aid we seek.
Show us the straight way.
The way of those on whom you have bestowed your Grace; not of those whose portion is wrath and who go astray.”


The rest of the Quran is God’s answer to that prayer in which the first sentence of the second chapter, Baqarah or Heifer is: “This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear God.” (Translation Allama Yusuf Ali). Or, “Surely this is the Book of Guidance about which there can be no doubt.” (Interpretation mine).

Pride and arrogance displease God and He wipes them out suddenly. Pride has a fall — it has to as we have seen with Nawaz Sharif. I hope all corrupt rulers the world over can hear the clamour of the Day of Judgment because for them it is nigh.

(Humayun Gauhar is a Pakistan based writer and commentator)