The speech delivered by the President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, to the joint session of parliament on August 20 did not seem like an address of a bipartisan head of the state. It sounded more like a fiery speech of a party representative trying to defend his party. It was boycotted by the opposition.
I remember when the late president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, gave a speech during a joint parliament session. The situation got so heated that one of the female lawmakers of the PML-N, the opposition party at that time, threw her dupatta (headwear) at the speaker. This shows that even today things are not so different. It seems that our politics is so tainted with hate and selfishness that nobody seems to care where the country is heading towards. While President Alvi in his address did not show even a shred of grace of being the head of the country, it was evident that by boycotting the address the opposition only cares about its own personal interests. It seems the people of Pakistan rank too low on the priority list of our elected politicians.
While people remain buried under skyrocketing inflation brought about by an ailing economy, our politicians are busy in a farce to prove their party heads the superiority hierarchy. Perhaps we as a nation are destined to bear the woes of selfish leaders who keep putting their personal interests, whether money or fame, ahead of the people. The fruit of democracy has become our biggest nightmare.
Raja Shafaatullah
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2020.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
