All opportunists sans saviour
The writer is a public policy analyst based in Lahore. She tweets @durdananajam
Pakistan is busting at its seams. One of the largest floods has washed away half of its agricultural land. The number of deaths can be in the thousands. Millions of people face food shortages, including a high percentage of children. The entire world has converged on lending Pakistan help. The UN has even appealed to the IMF to go slow on the country vying for the latter’s cash to finance its parched government. In this scenario, the only place showing partial sympathy towards the present crisis is perhaps Pakistan. Instead of conducting a detailed study on the crisis so that the chances of its reoccurrence in future are mitigated, the policymakers are busy laying blackmailing landmines to harass politicians. Our leaders want to rule this country, but none wants to own its problems. Instead, every government lays the blame for the financial and moral chaos on its previous counterpart. Moreover, where this alibi cannot work, the burden is laid on the foreign hands — usually the US or India.
The waste of political wreckage is telling this time. It was no new attempt to dress down a sitting prime minister and have him removed. Even the players staging this drama over the last 75 years have stopped feeling ashamed of being seen naked. The new joker in the deck is a hacker. Though lately, we heard he/she/it has been lifted from some unknown place and shifted to an equally unknown place. That has not, however, stopped the leakage of audio recordings of private conversations of the PTI or PML-N leaders. In fact, the hacker forewarns about the new leaks lest the victims are taken aback.
The other part of the country, if saved from the ravages of climate, is trapped in a new wave of terrorism. Swat has once again entered the radar of terrorists. Already they have ambushed a school van killing a few children. The people of Swat have thronged the streets of the valley in protest. The message is clear: “We shall not become a fodder for anybody.”
The military is already stretched. The western border is a constant headache. Though calm since August 2021, the eastern border cannot be left unattended. Balochistan is reeking of the blood of both the soldiers and the militants. If we kill two militants, they kill one soldier. Moreover, on the worst days, the equation is reversed.
Pakistan is pretty much on the brink of collapse. The saviours are many, but they are also opportunists. If the IMF pulls out or if the US or, for that matter, even Saudi Arabia or China decides to pull the rugs (read debt) off our feet, we will have to scramble for years before finding our feet to stand barely. Are we prepared to face any such situation? The answer is NO.
In the midst of all this, there are gods of little things. For 75 years, they have not gotten over the squabble with the elephant in the room. The elephant has grown much bigger over time, usurping the citizens’ rights to enjoy a stable political and economic life. If the elephant is insurmountable, the little gods are also dispassionate about the country’s future. Instead of becoming a league to multiply their force to push the elephant out, they are applying individual efforts. That is what makes the elephant happy the most. The multiplication of force is not the kind of situation they like. It is in their favour to have a system managed by unhinged, disunited and corrupt politicians.
All these characters may have been why Pakistan is in a mass, but the ignorance and indifference that Pakistan’s civil society has shown is neither forgivable nor forgettable. It is one thing to side with a politician and another to stand with the country for the enforcement of the right ideology, pragmatic policies and to struggle for the right to rule at the grassroots level. Civil society is supposed to play the role of guardians, a watchdog, and a check on the representatives they send to parliament. When we say civil society, it means the educated, relatively stable financially and a contributing hand in the growth and development of its country. When they disintegrate and support their interest rather than the larger interest of the country, it gives a highway to the robbers, where the mightiest wins the race.
It’s a classic case of a static country. According to the legal and political philosopher, HLA Hart, “the only mode of change in the rules (of obligations) will be the slow process of growth, whereby courses of conduct once thought optional become first habitual or usual, and then obligatory, and the converse process of decay, when deviations, once severely dealt with, are first tolerated and then pass unnoticed.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2022.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.