Anglers all!

The perspicacious reader may well ask: why allude to angling of all things, given the prevailing uncertainty in the political scenario of this blessed land? Delving into such contemporary matters as freedom marches, dharnas and the like is au fait; but why touch on the unlikely subject of angling?

At this stage, a short bit about reactions to angling as a sport may be in order! The great Samuel Johnson once defined the fishing rod quite aptly as “a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other”. Izzak Walton, on the other extreme, averred, “God never did make a more calm, quiet and innocent recreation than angling”. Somewhere down the middle would figure George Parker’s definition of angling as “an innocent cruelty”.

Angling as a hobby is one thing, but when it becomes a way of life, alarm bells start ringing. What kindles special interest is the apprehension that we in the Land of the Pure are on our way to becoming a “nation of anglers”. A horrifying thought that, but not far-fetched. A look around will tell us our people take to angling like fish to water (pun intended). For people looking for answers, this may well have something to do with the “genius of our people” (remember our history?).

The discerning reader hardly needs to be reminded of “breaking news” items proliferating in the national media relating to the return home from yet another “successful” tour abroad of a (prodigal?) dignitary. Our high-ups have made it such a habit of undertaking a string of “official visits” abroad that it makes one wonder how they manage to squeeze in a few days to do what they are supposed to while holding positions of authority in the government. Angling for invitations to undertake foreign tours has thereby emerged as the national pastime devoutly to be indulged in.

Rather than the means to an end as would appear rational, the “foreign tour” appears to have become an end in itself. It matters little if the work — such as it is — suffers or even that the tour in question defeats the purpose it is supposed to accomplish. The “foreign tour” per se remains a consummation devoutly desired by our public (and bureaucratic) figures.

If the aforesaid has conveyed the impression that angling for foreign trips is the sole priority of our elites; banish the thought! “Love of angling” permeates all fields. Angling for pelf, postings, permits and plots make up the mainstay of all in public fields of endeavour. Gone are the days when service to God, country and the nation constituted the declared ambition of at least a sprinkling of our “public servants”. Now, each angles for what he or she can get out of it. The concern is not so much for what one can do for the country but what one can do to the country and get away with.

Our “public servants” spend a good part of their time and effort angling for greener pastures where the pickings are good. Those miserable few, who continue to hold on to the tattered shreds of principles they hold dear, are hounded from pillar to post until they or their principles give up the ghost, whichever comes first.

Our elders and betters, when not busy in dividing up the loaves and fishes, keep themselves occupied “fishing in troubled waters”. It may be argued this is what troubled waters are for, but then who makes the waters “troubled” in the first place? Angling — Pakistan-style — continues to spawn in a milieu in which established institutions are conspicuous by their absence. Ad hoc-ism, that has permeated the system of the body politic, is gnawing away at the very vitals of the State. It may be worthwhile for the powers-that-be to spare a thought for this malaise before it is too late. Or is that like asking for the moon?

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2019.

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