Democracy Disconnected: The Power Struggle in Pakistan

by Irshad Salim: This morning as I shared my views in a WhatsApp Forum: “The internet is in manual mode; I agree it’s an irritant. We missed democratic revolution; I agree it’s a step-back.”

There was pin drop silence.

My comment above was a follow up on my earlier response to the comment by a gentleman from UK: “We missed the Electric revolution, the computer revolution and now tragically it looks as though we will miss the fourth industrial revolution too.”

The first part of my response to his comments was: “We are focusing on green revolution. Green is our strength. West of the Indus and all the way to the Nile, no one apparently is potentially a huge fruit basket as Pakistan is. The “Anxious syndrome” has cost us an arm and a leg (metaphorically speaking). Politics aside, I’m personally in favor of green revolution”.

Another share this morning in the Forum related to Pakistan, Syria, –by Aljazeera. My random thought was:
–The Bering Strait communication echosystem dubs the Syrian angry community as “rebels. And the Tropic of Cancer media echoes it.
–The Tropic of Cancer region communication echosystem dubs the angry communities as “militants”, terrorists, kharijis”, etc. And the Bering Strait media echoes it.

Pakistan has once again been shaken by protests, with Imran Khan, the country’s jailed ex-prime minister, at their epicentre. This time, the state has responded with a technologically sophisticated crackdown, with digital blackouts and restrictions on social media.