The more things change ...

There is much babble — in and out of the media — about ‘change’. ‘It is time for a change of guard’, one commentator has it, others say that without ‘change’ this country is doomed. But no one has spelt out exactly what should be this much desired ‘change’ and who will bring it about. Some have even predicted that change is coming, that it is around the blind corner — the newly appointed chief election commissioner has told us that we should get ready for change. Then, there are the many who agree that Pakistan cannot afford another five-year term of Asif Ali Zardari, so change there must be.

Well, at this point in time, it is somewhat difficult to envisage ‘change’. Imran Khan, if memory serves, was the main instigator of a required change, but so far, his suggested agenda has been unrealistic and certain points have even been potentially damaging. He has been analysed dry by our expert pundits and has bared himself in his book, so presumably we know ‘all’. The factors that go in his favour are that he is clean, materially totally free of any taint of corruption (morally is another matter) and he is untried. With the manpower he has at hand right now, is it realistically even remotely likely that he can be the man to usher in change?

We are now in July and there are no signs of elections. Asif Zardari, co-chairman of the ruling party, announced in Karachi on July 10 that elections will be held ‘on time’. (As head of state, he is out of line when making such a statement.) So, does that mean next year? Presumably, it would suit Zardari to drag out this unbelievably inept — even ridiculous — government to the end point. But what can he do to ensure that he is re-elected by whatever government for a further term so that he can bask in another safe period of immunity?

Elections are bound to happen. We have no Ayubs, Zias or Musharrafs, but only one gentleman by the name of Kayani who is the most unlikely of spoilers. Politicised since his stint as the DG-ISI when he used his negotiating skills to the full in the immoral matter of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, those who have strange hopes stand no chance, as on that front, nothing can happen. And there is not even a Kakar, clean as a whistle as he was, who in 1993, without raising his swagger stick, sent home a president and a prime minister in one fell swoop.

So what sort of change can we hope for? The old guard, the perennial politicos — many so familiar to us since the 1980s — and their families, are lining up with the ballot boxes in view. At least for this coming round, any change in the top echelons of all the dreadful parties seems impossible. It would be the height of optimism to expect that Tsunami Imran can make any dent in the queue of the many times tried, miserably failed bunch of brigands, corrupt to the core, with ineptitude seeping out of their every pore.

Who will change what? Are the Taliban to be tamed into refraining from beheading members of the security forces, from blowing up soldiers in their camps, from terrorising those in whose midst they exist and operate? Will they be persuaded to cease the almost daily bombings of schools up on the wild-west frontier? Will the Baloch militants be dissuaded from executing busloads of innocents traversing their territory?

Will so many things that need change be changed so that Pakistan can become a responsible member of the comity of democratic nations, rather than a fly-weight flexing its muscles in vain? The list goes on — and on — for far more space than is allowed to this column.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2012.