The Shows goes on.
“ As flies to wanton boys are to the gods
They kill us for sport .” Shakespeare’s “ King Lear “
Mahfooz ur Rahman
Writing on Pakistan’s politics is beginning to be a tedious affair . It is a play that has no plot , no beginning and no end . No excitement from the drab and dreary humdrum of everyday life . Winning or losing , the same old , tired and worn out faces are to be seen adorning the newspapers or the TV Channels . Even the daily newspapers are pictures of the gloomy atmosphere .
Each political party is a fiefdom of its own where the fiat of big or petty ‘monarch’ is abided by or else the defiant ones are crushed . There is no notion of shadow governments or shadow cabinets . That is a play that is going on since Mr. Jinnah departed from the scene in 1948 . Talking about reforms is an illusion .
Imagine a scene in which you are trying to sleep during the day and a bird flits and begins to sing . Whatever you do to make it fly away turns out to be futile . You are really mad at the innocent creature . The world is seeing the discomfiture of the present Government . It is standing static unable to drive the ghosts of Imran Khan and Taher ul Qadri . It has been reduce to a passive mode , a reaction mode . Meanwhile the two are making further inroads into the interior of the country , into the cities and into various communities or eg . farmers , workers none the less equipped legally to which the Government has no answer except to hurl abuses at them .
“ Never trust the wisdom of a slave “ is an oft quoted advice perhaps by Hazrat Ali ( May Allah be pleased with him) . Here I reproduce an incident about which I wrote in my article “ Buttering “ . In a meeting held in Islamabad , a participant referred to the department’s newly announced policy and also to the Battle of Badr ,which was fought on 17th Ramazan and in which the Muslims were victorious by the Grace of Allah . He said , addressing the boss ,that the Battle of Badr was fought on 17thRamazan and he( the boss) announced the country’s policy on 17th Ramazan . All the participants were dumbfounded at his audacity .
Thus Pakistan has been caught at a vortex . Democracy in its present shape has failed in Pakistan . It has never delivered however its supporters otherwise claim . It suits the robber barons , the landed aristocracy, the major and small capitalists who plunder the exchequer and exploit the under privileged ones . There was a time when twenty two families used to hold sway in the country . The twenty two have swelled to much more .
During my four months stay in an European city forty years back, a man who had features like a Pakistani or an Indian , used to cross my path both mornings and evenings . One day , I stopped him to question about his nationality . His reply “ does it matter “ put me off . He repeated his observation and went on to say that when the purpose of making Pakistan could not be fulfilled , it did not matter whether I was a Pakistani or an Indian .
A solid advantage has been achieved by the fifty two day sit in by the duo of Imran Khan and Taher ul Qadri . Apart from being unique in the 67 years history of Pakistan and , perhaps the world over , the rest of the major political parties were clean bowled , the batsmen could only gape in awe . Never in the history of this unfortunate land , they met their equals who badly exposed them , disrobed them and shown the rest of the people what they actually were by using the facilities of telecasting their views provided by an army general , Pervez Musharraf . They robbed the common people of their Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution . You may not like Imran Khan and Dr. Qadri . But it is difficult to disagree whatever they had to say because both Imran and Dr. Qadri were speaking of the basic rights and the Constitution . And it was last year when the latter held a five day sit in in Islamabad to emphasize the futility of participating in the elections unless all candidates were screened through Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution .
The ‘independent’ Election Commission of Pakistan has lost its trust from the rigged elections between Field Marshal Ayub Khan , the President ,and Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah , the sister of the Founder of Pakistan and onwards . Henceforth , it was viewed as another arm of the Government . The 18th Amendment to the Constitution did not remove the impression . On the contrary , the reconstituted Commission was viewed as a part of the Charter of Democracy signed by Mrs . Benazir Bhutto , the leader of the Peoples Party , and Mian Nawaz Sharif , the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League in London during the “ oppressive days of the dictator , General Musharraf“ .
Where do we go now ?
Both the Government and the people are confused and lacking in direction . We are rotten to the core horizontally and vertically ie from the top to the bottom . Army intervention is not a permanent solution as we have seen in the past . It breeds many evils for eg. flight of capital . Even then some well meaning people are suggesting a government of the Technocrats under the army’s umbrella to replace the current government and cleanse the entire society . This experiment has been tried by every military regime . Ayub Khan screened out 72 bureaucrats , General Yahya Khan 303 and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 1300 . Some of the screened out officers were not corrupt . To cleanse the society of ills , the Hadood Ordinance was introduced but never used after General Zia , the President , died .
There is talk of mid term polls in the country . The present government is unwilling to resign and call for fresh elections . However , if it does , which Election Commission would be willing to undertake the task when the present one failed to hold free and fair elections the task of that Statutory organization . In its “ Post Election Review Report on General Elections 2013 “ , the Commission admitted its failure .
Under the 18th Amendment , the leader of the House i.e. the Prime Minister , and the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly are supposed to choose of the Chairman of the Election Commission . But the experiment failed in the previous elections and with both the leader of the House and the leader of the opposition under clouds . Both Imran Khan and Dr. Qadri and their supporters will no longer trust them .
Pakistan is ripe for constitutional ( Fundamental Rights and Articles 62 and 63 ) and social reforms without which any elections will be meaningless .
In the end I will reproduce the views of Mr . Mumtaz Piracha of the Good Governance Forum
“ Contrary to general perception, I believe the long march and the dharna by PTI, in particular, highlighted bad governance in Pakistan. Look at the foreign media and you will find that there is only passing reference to rigging allegations and the allegation on military to have backed Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri but there is tremendous focus on the way Nawaz Sharif governs, the Sharifs’ dynastic politics and the PMLN’s performance since last elections. The domestic media have been more focused on rigging allegations but bad governance also remained in focus “.
Mahfooz ur Rahman
Islamabad
October 5, 2014
