The shadow of the deep state in South Asia

A supporter of Imran Khan rallying in Islamabad with thousands others on May 26 in an attempt to bring down the government and force early elections. – AFP

IT’S a creepy fact of our lives that we are governed by the deep state, both the domestic and the foreign variety; that are in cahoots with each other when they are not working at cross purposes.

The horrors being inflicted on Ukrainian people or the political tremors felt in Pakistan and Sri Lanka; the wars in Africa, or the grief in Palestine – the hand that guides the cataclysmic events is impervious to the pain it scatters en route, in some ways not unlike Omar Khayyam’s moving finger with its pronounced lack of empathy for the quarry’s tears.