Tariq Ali, despite being solidly left wing all of his life, and despite the fact that former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s politics is not his cup of tea, the preeminent British-Pakistani writer and activist remains committed to intellectual honesty even when it reflects a political phenomenon with which he disagrees:
On Pakistan: 8:45 – 12:05
Such a sober assessment of politics in Pakistan is more relevant than ever, considering the courageous resurgence this past week of this movement against the current tyrannical military-civilian regime.
This is in stark contrast to the entire Pakistani liberal-left elite intelligentsia which, because of their envy and contempt for a movement that has attracted the same constituency/demographic (including over 50% being women) of the Left, has utterly and disgracefully downplayed, distorted, and flagrantly lied about the critical – not blind – support for Khan.
According to the latest Gallup Pakistan survey, the ‘Movement for Justice’ led by Khan – languishing in a wretched jail cell over a year – now commands the support of 75% of a population of 240 million. According to our friends of the liberal-left, these mobilizations of the resistance movement denote a cult, thorough brainwashing to inculcate ‘false consciousness, and the supporters of change that want to rid the country of the duopoly of the kleptocratic and dynastic political party parties – simply makes them as ‘useful idiots’.
Kudos to Democracy Now for finally providing its viewers a sharp and accurate analysis of politics and mobilizations in the country, and presumably no longer is willing to invite the ‘lifestyle Left’ whose spurious analyses that conveniently serve their ideology, and not the truth and actual reality on the ground in Pakistan.
Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad teaches Law, Religion, and Global Politics and is the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID). He is a member of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST – https://just-international.org/), Movement for Liberation from Nakba (MLN – https://nakbaliberation.com/), and Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE – https://www.theshapeproject.com/).
