There can be no justification for the current subversion of democracy in Egypt which resulted in a coup against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi. However, it is even more difficult to feel any sympathy for the brutal Morsi regime that just got chucked out.

There are many interesting parallels between Morsi and Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif which also need to be highlighted.

Morsi came into power on the backs of a civil society movement that seemed manufactured even as it unfolded in Tahrir Square. A movement that was supposed to usher in an age of liberal democracy was simply a cover for the military establishment for window dressing. The secular dictator Mubarak was replaced by the Islamist dictator Morsi.

This was similiar to the so-called Lawyer’s movement in Pakistan where Islamist right wing and dictator-facilitating generals and bureaucrats marched with NGO Leftists to restore a corrupt judge of dubious credentials. A movement that was dominated by right-wing Islamists and Jihadis was given a soft touch with the participation of some elite chattering class aka (fake) civil society.  Some of these chattering class elites served as the “useful idiots” for a biased, Pro-Taliban agenda.  Others were the typical cunning establishment operators positioning themselves on the right side of emerging power structures.

The only leader who balanced her principled support with the requisite criticism was the late Benazir Bhutto, herself a victim of Islamist judge Iftikhar Chaudhary’s one-sided judicial vendetta. She was denied a chance to fully expose this dubious movement as it quickly generated in to Taliban cheer-leading charade after the 2008 elections.

The Lawyer’s Movement was Pakistan’s Tahrir Square but with lesser crowds and more jaded reputations. The same elites who cheered on the Pro-Lal Masjid Lawyers movement also gushed about the Tahrir Square movement. TFT blogger Raza Rumi, Al Jazeera’s Mosharraf Zaidi and Jang Group’s Beena Sarwar were prominent in Pakistan’s social media in their support for Pakistan Lawyers Movement and Egypt’s Tahrir Square protests. The Lawyers’ Movement served as a comeback vehicle for Saudi-backed Sharif brothers just as the Tahrir Square Movement served to launch the Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi as the next leader.

The Morsi regime’s electoral victory could be attributed to both an organized Muslim Brotherhood cadre as well as alleged rigging in his favour. Nawaz Sharif’s election in Pakistan too was alleged to be heavily rigged in his favour particularly in the Punjab province. Morsi’s regime immediately spelled doom for Egypt’s ancient Christian communities, the Copts.  A peace loving and educated community, the Copts immediately faced the ire of Morsi’s Ikhwani-Salafist regime and saw growing mass attacks by Salafist mobs on their churches.

In the Punjab province of Pakistan that has mostly been ruled by the Sharif brothers ever since General Zia elevated them, Pakistan’s educated and peaceful Christains have hardly fared any better.  The burning of Shantinagar, Godhra and Joseph Colony all took place under the watchful eye of the Sharif Brothers.

Just weeks ago, Morsi was center stage in a stadium of Ikhwanis and Salafis chanting hate slogans against Egypt’s oppressed Shia Muslims. After this encouragement of fascism from the head of State Morsi, Salafists lynched and violently killed Shia Muslims including Sheikh Sehata.  Nawaz Sharif, the new darling of Pakistan’s Fake Liberals, has been an ally of Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASWJ) etc for most of his political career.

In the late 1980s, Nawaz Sharif surrounded himself with Sipah Sahaba activists vowing to fulfil Zia’s Mission.  This incident took place as Nawaz Sharif was commemorating the death anniversary of his mentor and benefactor, General Zia ul Haq.  His brother Shahbaz Sharif publicly aligned himself with the Sipah Sahaba Taliban during  the 2010 Ahmadi, Shia, Sufi and Sunni Muslim massacres in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.  During his last stint as Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif publicly praised the Taliban and wanted to emulate their governance by becoming a Caliph in Pakistan.

Both Morsi and Nawaz Sharif view themselves as beyond their mandate.  In the case of Sharif, he made his dictatorial ambitions clear with the move to declare himself as Amir ul Momineen.  Morsi showed similar dictatorial tendencies.

While Morsi has been dumped on the rubbish heap of history, it will be interesting to see how long the cowardly Sharifs continue to have the support of the Islamist judges and media – which they currently posses thanks to their unchecked financial empire and Saudi backing.

Some of Pakistan’s fake liberal elites have been diligently sucking up to Nawaz Sharif and ensuring that any criticism is soft and harmless.  They are also the same mourning the Judicial coup in Egypt and showing their sympathy for Morsi.

Judicial coups have always lead to more harm than good and the current one in Egypt might actually provide a comeback point to the Brotherhood-Salafists.  However, that does not mean that Morsi was the answer to Egypt’s problems either. The Arab Spring was simply a game of musical chairs – a re-arrangement of the power structure with no fundamental changes.  Ikhwan, Al Qaeda and other Islamist dictators have replaced secular dictators.  In Egypt, that change has been further rearranged.  The real progressive and liberal forces in Egypt must take note of these ground realities and never allow themselves to be used by the military establishment there – unlike their counterparts in Pakistan.  They must organize themselves, pressure the military for swift elections and defeat the Ikhwani-Salafists via the ballot box.

After delivering Pakistan even further into the jaws of the Taliban in 2014, Nawaz Sharif may see a similar exit.

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