No perceptive change

“Pakistan is growing mature, civil, stable, and most importantly, it’s changing.” Thus wrote a reader of this newspaper, responding to a column dedicated to a mere handful of issues which blight this country. Well, we must be happy, one supposes that there are, amidst the teeming millions, citizens who feel the country is on the right path to somewhere, and we must hope the optimism is not misplaced.

Maturity, as far as governance is concerned, is a moot point. Admittedly, those who now occupy the power seats are mature in age and in the amount of time they have been politically active. The leaders of our political parties are ‘old hat’ — they date back to the mid-1980s and early 1990s and, judging by their past and present performances, it must be queried as to what avail is this maturity. Has it worked towards the betterment of the masses — 42 per cent of the population, who, statistics today reveal, lives below the poverty line? Have any of their acts, about which they ceaselessly blow their out-of-tune trumpets, alleviated any of the ills that beset the nation at large? How do the National Finance Commission (NFC) awards, or the constitutional amendments, benefit anyone but the politicians or the mighty pillars of state? (Could someone impress upon our wooden prime minister to stop telling us that the 1973 Constitution has been restored — it has not. It remains littered with horrible elements of the eighth amendment.)

As for civil, well, what came to be known as civil society thanks to the marching, demonstrating lawyers, is right now having a tough time in the face of the aftermath of the murder of a provincial governor in the name of religion as practiced peculiarly and, as many might admit, falsely. An element of fear has crept into speaking out and caution is the order of the day. And, is there not a total lack of civil responsibility when it comes to the many laws we are supposed to obey? One can hardly rave about the law and order situation or about the state of our cities, towns and villages — and, most of all, about the plight of the poverty-stricken teeming awam, teeming on at a frightening rate because no government can do anything about population control as the mullah fraternity rules the roost on that score.

Moving on to stability, well that is seriously not a word that can, at the present time, apply to Pakistan, especially with events in Afghanistan, influencing happenings and attitudes in this country as they do. Or with the shenanigans of our political parties which are clueless as to whether they are coming or going and, thus, unable to provide a semblance of governance. And hardly stable is the economy which, we are told by our experts, is as wobbly as melting jelly. Are local investors impressed by the stability of anything? Are foreign investors flocking to our shores?

Lumping together stability and change, let us just look at the perception the outer world has of Pakistan — and it is not a gloating matter. It is as sad as sad can be. Companies all over the world frequently issue security alerts for employees travelling on business or personal visits to other countries. For instance, in 2008, those travelling to Pakistan were issued with an International SOS which told them that Pakistan is a country of “high risk”. The warning persists to this day — a brief excerpt: “Countries or areas rated as high risk have regular periods of political instability and associated problems of poor governance, including high levels of corruption and failed or failing institutions. Communal, sectarian or racial violence is common. Infrastructure and internal security and emergency services are poor and there may be regular abuses of due legal process ....” It fits.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2011.