One can only hope that we are not returning to politics seen in 1990s where every govt engaged in revenge, vendetta.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: June 3: PTI KPK MPA Farid Khan killed by Taliban. June 15: Fourteen female students on a university bus are killed, later the hospital treating the injured from this attack is attacked by militants, the attack is then claimed by the Taliban. The same day the historic Ziarat Residency of the Quaid is destroyed in a bomb attack. June 18: A suicide bomber attacks a funeral killing 28 people including another PTI legislator. June 21: A suicide bomber blows himself at a mosque killing at least 15. June 21: An MQM MPA and his son are shot dead outside a mosque in Karachi. June 23: Ten foreign mountaineers are killed while asleep at the base camp of Nanga Parbat in Gilgit-Baltistan. June 26: Bombs explode in cities in Sindh and K-P killing and injuring a number of people including a judge of the Sindh High Court.
Other than the menace of terrorism, and the generally prevailing lawlessness, shortage of energy is hitting people’s daily lives hard and has had significant impact on the rate of economic growth. Power cuts continue unabated and load-shedding continues in many parts of the country for as much as 12 hours a day.
Foreign reserves have sunk to a level where Pakistan is seeking a bailout package of up to $5 billion from the IMF to pay its earlier overdue loans.
In this backdrop comes the role of a leader, to lead, inspire and steer the nation out of crisis. What the country is facing is terrorism, lawlessness, emergence of states within the state challenging the government’s writ, a faltering economy, a crippling power shortage, rampant corruption and a non-existent social safety net. So why would the government, in such a situation, fraught with so many challenges, initiate a treason case against Pervez Musharraf? How can an at-present powerless Musharraf harm the government? Furthermore, the treason case seems to be restricted to the events of November 2007 and not 1999 when the second Nawaz Sharif government was in fact overthrown. This doesn’t make all that much sense and also paints the prosecuting parties in poor light.
One can only hope that we are not returning to a politics that was seen in the 1990s where every new government engaged in revenge and vendetta against the previous one.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2013.
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