KARACHI:
The first cabinet meeting of the coalition prime minister Shehbaz Sharif was shown live on our TV channels as a continuation of a good tradition laid down by the current chief justice of Pakistan. The PM boldly avowed that he will not be cutting corners in commencing a journey which is full of blood, sweat and tears. I am not sure in which order these travails were described though. I find it very interesting to hear out Shehbaz Sharif as his speech is invariably a run of the mill stuff using some hackneyed expressions including a couple of poetic lines which are usually out of balance and not from good pedigree poets.
Let me admit whole heartedly that the challenges identified by the PM to his cabinet members were spot on, and he also displayed enough resolve and determination to tackle these perennial and corruption driven ills of our sinking economy with full force and writ of his newly formed government.
But I am terribly dismayed with the compromised position of the PM who withdrew the notification of his own appointee, Zafar Mahmood as Chairman Indus River System Authority (IRSA), probably in less than 24 hours, just because Naveed Qamar and Murad Ali Shah objected to his selection. The reason given by them was not only ridiculous but reflected the myopic mental level of our seasoned politicians from Sindh. Mahmood was in the dock for writing a book in support of Kalabagh Dam. I am sure both of his unwitty critics have not read the book but relied on popular political sentiments historically harboured by Sindh. Otherwise they know for sure that even martial law administrators in the past could not dare to undertake this highly contentious project. So what could a sidelined bureaucrat do now to rekindle the buried hope? Removal of Mahmood has badly exposed the will and writ of the PM. How will the weakling PM fight the deeply entrenched vested interests referred to as mafia and parasites in the system by him. Yet he declared an open war against them without mincing any words.
It is ‘now or never, ‘do or die’, ‘perform or perish’ situation for the country, and the poor cannot be further burdened to provide subsidy to the handful elite class. Needless to point out that his first and foremost priority in controlling the prices of daily use food items in Ramadan does not seem to be heading in the right direction. Let me end on a lighter note by dedicating my own qitah to our exuberant PM, admittedly made up from his favourite expressions:
Bhala ho qaum ka jo aeriyan ragartay hain,
Shabana roz ki mehnat bhi us pay kartay hain,
Ye jaantay hain kay bay sood hai amal inka,
Inhay khabar hai kay chasmay kahan nikaltay hain.
Haroon Rashid Siddiqi
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2024.
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