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Down … but this time out
The fault of the worst PM in the history of Pakistan was that he was terminally hampered by his sense of loyalty.
It’s finally happened. The worst prime minister in the history of Pakistan has been turfed out. A vaulting ambition and compromised morality has finally been nipped in the bud. Yousaf Raza Gilani will finally stumble off like the Flying Dutchman. There are a lot of long faces and unfathomable gloom in the PPP camp. But then, as the great Roman orator Cicero would have put it … Volucres pinnam confluent. Birds of the same feather flock together. In saner quarters, there is a certain amount of … not jubilation, but relief. This might not be a crenellated epic. That’s probably why press coverage in the papers has not been stoked by self-righteous pleasure or indulgent joyous malevolence. The situation has been treated as a demonstration of the truism that people who don’t play by the rules will eventually be punished by the rules.
The thinking man has watched with considerable disbelief as the edifice of defiance was slowly built up, brick by brick, like the great Temple of the Moon at Teotihuacan, with finishing touches provided by the speaker of the national assembly. Each time the prime minister cocked a snook at the apex Court, he returned in triumph like General Emiliano Zapata Salazar of Morelos, beaming and garlanded. His great attribute was that he always contrived to suggest a life of unruffled serenity. His fault was that he was terminally hampered by his profound sense of loyalty. It wasn’t a case of Perfidious Albion. My country right or wrong. It was a case of my Leader right or wrong. The big question that the thinking man is now asking is, how long is the leader going to survive?
The champions of peoples’ rule are probably disappointed that an elected government was not allowed to complete its term and are spewing out the usual clichés about democracy being in danger. But if the party has succeeded in anything, it is in conveying the impression that the leaders are selfish and think only of themselves and not the country. The ‘great achievements’ that the PPP has trumpeted at regular intervals, with excoriating provincial primness were, in actual fact, designed to achieve popularity in certain sections of the country and not to help the people at large. Besides, the PPP has done precious little in trying to change the country’s unfortunate image abroad.
Their Lordships have instructed the president to continue the parliamentary system and to find a replacement for the disqualified prime minister. Imran Khan has stated with characteristic aplomb that the judgment has marked the supremacy of law. Mushahid Hussain, who was once Nawaz Sharif’s right hand man and deserted him to join the opportunists in the turncoat party established by Pervez Musharraf, is purported to have made this astonishing statement: “Gilani’s era was historic for the various achievements made during his tenure”! The only realistic comment appears to have been made by the Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Syed Munawar Hasan, who said that the president should order fresh elections and put an interim government in its place. It must have occurred to him that there was no point in continuing with another yahoo destined for a half life in the outreaches of a government that has been besmirched by dishonour. Nobody in his right mind is expecting any tsunamis of change even if they are accompanied by the whip. But let’s hope that the election provides us with somebody who can clean the Aegean Stables and who has an O level in economics.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2012.
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Reader Comments (15)
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Hubris falls
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And a conscience, tha’ts a must too.
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Read this twice to appreciate it properly. Liked it all the more because I agree with it.
Linking Gilani with the legendary ghost ship the Flying Dutchman was doing the legend a serious disservice.
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Greatest disservice you can do to democracy is to put loyalty to your party above that to your country.
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Gilani is certainly a thorough gentleman belonging to a respectable family.
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A sensible and truthful piece, as usual, Mr Mooraj.
Must we continue enduring this desi adaptation of the western political system, which has dismally failed the Pakistani population ? Could we consider a government by collective leadership like the old Soviet Politburo backed up by a meritocratic technocracy, which delivered so much to their people (giant leaps in agriculture, industrialisation, public health, infrastructure etc) in so short a time ?
Time and again we are told that the Western political model is the engine of their economic success. But look at their economies now, and consider the real basis of their wealth (the looting and starvation of entire people in Asia and Africa).
The USSR did all that they did WITHOUT colonising and stealing the wealth of other nations.
Pakistan has reached a watershed moment in its history. It is the right time to look back at our history and our experiences, to look at the other instances of ‘hubris falls’ in the world (US economic decline, Spain, Greece etc) and to decide our future ourselves, without preconceptions and without foreign dictation.
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Great read Sir! The court gave Gillani more than two years to comply, but he was never interested in following the rule of law. He believed there is a different law for a PM and a Peon, he said that much in a political speech.
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Wonderful, now that Gillani is gone we shall achieve glories immediately. Load shedding to go and an investment-grade credit rating from S&P on its way. Just like the quick glories we achieved under Musharraf, Zia, Yahya, Ayub in only 40 days. Sorry, I am mistaken, I meant 40 years.
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@OS: You said it like it is, thanks for that. Zia came in after recitation of Quran Sharif for only 90 days. If he would not have fallen from the sky he would still be there. Yet we cannot tolerate any civilian elected govt even for one term. It says a lot about our national character. Now again there are some leaders who are talking about taking care of all the problems in 90 days. Gen Mush got $25 billion in his term from the US, not a single KW of electricity was added. With so many channels, PC and other toys the consumption of electricity has increased yet we are happy to increase the number of bombs and missiles and want the other necessities of life. A third world country cannot have both, we have made our choices of haven WMD, huge army and safe havens for terrorists, yet we expect the West to vaccinate our kids and provide us cash for military and civic needs.
Regards,
Mirza
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Dear Mr. Anwer Mooraj, the correct term is Augean Stables and not Aegean Stables. Aegean is the name of a sea.
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@Alami Musafir: “Could we consider a government by collective leadership like the old Soviet Politburo backed up by a meritocratic technocracy, which delivered so much to their people (giant leaps in agriculture, industrialisation, public health, infrastructure etc) in so short a time ?”
You are aware that USSR ceased to exist due to its economic contradictions -right?
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@OS:
Eevn if we don’t achieve glory atleast we got rid of most corrupt PM of pakistan.
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A prime minister is out of his office for not writing the letter to Swiss authorities but not for his corrupt portfolio.But the man for whose corrupt money a letter is to be written to Swiss authorities is still sitting and smiling on his seat.The next prime minister would face the same music if he fails to write the letter to Swiss authority and may be so on till the coming of next election.Mr. Zardari has to fly to foreign land or accept the jail his second home.This is the way the apex court is leading us.
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@gp65
In February 2004, Putin said: “It is my deep conviction that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a national tragedy on a massive scale. I think the ordinary citizens of the former Soviet Union and the citizens in the post-Soviet space, the CIS countries, have gained nothing from it. On the contrary, people have been faced with a host of problems.”
The USSR did not cease to exist because of its “economic contradictions”, but because the cost of defending itself against the West, and in particular waging the Soviet Afghan war, bankrupted it. The Vietnam war also bankrupted the USA (Nixon closing the Gold Window), but it managed to arm-twist the world into accepting a Fiat US Dollar. The economic malaise afflicting the West currently is principally due to fiat currencies. The moment a major creditor of the US, say China, asks it to pay up in kind as opposed to in coloured paper, this charade will end, and so will the mighty USA. It doesn’t require genius to produce wealth if all your raw material suppliers are happy to accept your debased,currency, which you are printing by the truckload for next to nothing, in exchange for their resources.
Already major economic players are creating bilateral trade agreements to avoid the dollar, and the day when the dollar falls from its perch (taking its issuer with it), is not far off.
There were a number of world class Soviet economists, Leontief and Aganbegyan for example. Their economic planning (Gosplan) delivered the goods (forgive the pun).
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@Alami Musafir:
Human greed is above Marxism and capitalism. Soviet union was better, no doubt about it.cheerioRecommend
@rafiq:
“Gilani is certainly a thorough gentleman belonging to a respectable family.”
.
Yeah, right. So is the son in the family.
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