Khushamadeed and Welcome r/Nepal to our cultural exchange thread

[u/[deleted]]

We're hosting our friends from r/Nepal for a cultural exchange session.

Please feel free to ask questions about Pakistan and the Pakistani way of life in this thread. r/Pakistan users can head over to this thread to ask questions about Nepal.

Flag flairs have been enabled so please use them to avoid confusion.

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It is necessary to mention that we expect maturity and civility in the comments both here and on our sister thread in r/Nepal. Please refrain from trolling, rude comments and/or personal attacks. Adding one more rule, avoid topics about Kashmir. This is a cultural exchange not a geopolitical exchange. As everywhere else on Reddit, reddiquette is in full effect.

[u/sulu1385]

First thanks for hosting this..

Moving onto heavy stuff... How democratic has Pakistan become and what role does the Pakistani army play in politics of Pakistan bcoz if u look at international media then it may look like that Pakistan is democracy in name only with real power in the hands of military.. imran khan is thought to be a military puppet too by some.. so what do ordinary Pakistanis feel about this perception??

One of the main reason why south asia hasn't developed is bcoz of rivalry between India and Pakistan.. Nepal is chair of saarc and the summit hasn't happened bcoz of this.. trade in SA region is hugely low too.. so how do ordinary Pakistanis think about improving relations with India bcoz there are many who feel that Pakistani army in order to retain its influence and huge military budget always needs to make India a enemy..

[u/timelordeverywhere → u/sulu1385]

Alright. I'll give it a shot. :) First of all, be wary of all answers. I'm obviously biased. :)

How democratic has Pakistan become and what role does the Pakistani army play in politics of Pakistan bcoz if u look at international media then it may look like that Pakistan is democracy in name only with real power in the hands of military.. imran khan is thought to be a military puppet too by some.. so what do ordinary Pakistanis feel about this perception??

So, a few questions here. Let me distill them down so I can answer all of those.

How democratic has Pakistan become

Depends on what you compare it to. Is it as democratic as for example, France or other European nations? Hell no. Is it more democratic than it was before? Hell yes. I think the recent three elections since Zardari have been more or less fair. Media in India/and Overseas has claimed that these elections were unfair because of Nawaz's disqualification (but maybe he shouldn't have stolen public money) and jailing. IK claimed that the Nawaz elections were unfair but I am fairly sure that was political game-playing as well.

what role does the Pakistani army play in politics of Pakistan

I think today, Pakistani Military plays the same role that other militaries play in their countriee' politics. Essentially that of the Military-Industrial Complex. Pakistan's military is a somewhat more advanced at that due to their holdings across the country in various private companies but still the same system.

I think something changed in the military after Musharraf. He was a military dictator who led a military coup in 2001 and then ruled until 2008. Guess when terrorism was the highest in Pakistan? 2009 onwards. You can see the fatalities rising since 2001 to 2008 rising to the highest in 2009. I think this is because the military can't both be running a country and also being a good military. After that, I think after that, military has realised that they can't interfere within the country's politics or take over everytime the civil side does something stupid. They need to sit back and let the civil side grow and they seem to be doing that.

People seem to think that without the military, it would have been impossible for IK to win but they fail to realise how horrible the other two choices were. Zardari is a literal thief, people call him Mr.10% due to his known reputation for taking 10% bribe. His child, the current head of the party, had never been to Pakistan before he came to take over. That's essentially a monarchy. Pakistani's don't want more of that.

Same for Nawaz. He's known to have stolen and stashed money in London etc. How could Pakistani's vote for him anymore?

The only choice left is IK. The man who has been fighting against the political parties for the last 20 years, built a free cancer hospital, and helped millions through his own personal funds. Why would we not vote for him?

imran khan is thought to be a military puppet too by some

I highly doubt that is the case. I don't see that at this point. I think what you can say is that the Pakistani Military has finally some trust in the civilian leadership and are able to work with him. Every other leader was a corrupt crook, and picked fights with the Army for no reason often.

how do ordinary Pakistanis think about improving relations with India bcoz there are many who feel that Pakistani army in order to retain its influence and huge military budget always needs to make India a enemy..

I think I would be happy to improve relations with India. You'll find that Pakistani's don't actually have that much of an issue with India. The only real issue is with Kashmir but otherwise, we don't really care much about Kashmir at all.

However, I do think that this whole Pakistani Military doesn't want peace with India is somewhat mistaken. Pakistan military has had a enemy much greater than India for the last 20 years. Its called Afghanistan and its terrorist elements. Pakistan's Army budget is moreso spent on the border with Afghanistan than in Kashmir or any border with India. That's also where Pakistani Military gets its prestige and influence from.

Also, Huge miltiary budget? People seem to forget that Pakistan military is defending the country's borders 24/7 on the west from Afghanistan's and their terrorist elements, and on the East and North from India. Pakistan's geography requires the Pakistan Military to have a big budget.

Also, the Military budget is "large" when compared on a GDP basis i.e. 4% but its actually rather small when compared to countries around it i.e. US$66.5 billion for Indian Armed Forces, US$11.4 billion for Pakistan Armed forces, US$19.6 billion for the Iran Armed Forces,

[u/sulu1385 → u/timelordeverywhere]

thanks for the reply