Time to divest the hybrid

We have been in it for a long time now. It all began on April 10, 2022, when an order was put in place to keep functioning normally. It will soon be five years to that day – the normal tenure of any government. Beyond claims of avoiding an impending default, we can count little else as progress in the domains the governing concoction oversees. Perhaps, legally and constitutionally, we may barely be in the green, but that would not have been possible without large-scale legislative manipulation and court-packing. That in its wake is a certain stink goes without saying. At the hands of some legal luminaries, this surely must count as the lowest point in our national journey of the last five years.

Through it all, we coined, and then popularised, and then normalised the term hybrid, which was as repugnant as the derogatory and symbolic pointing of the fingers at the shoulders when referring to the Establishment whenever a politician was put on the spot. In the meantime, the military forces distinguished themselves in 2025, and then added value to it by employing their global standing for significant diplomatic gains. The function, though, primarily lay in the government's corner. The government has used the opportunity to reinforce the notion of hybridity that this government relishes. It touts PTI as the common threat, but the impunity it employs in this commonness is all too apparent. The government thus continues to enjoy a free ride. And it has flown plenty to all corners of the world without alleviating an iota of difficulty for the common man in whose name they don the ruler's robes.

The war in the Middle East has been a huge impediment, undoubtedly, as most global economies point South, but without it too there was no sign of easing of the frills and the extravagance that has accompanied the style of governance when a default has always loomed. Conscience slowly goes to sleep. In this class, conscience anyway is rare. Some do cry to at least wear a pretence, but when malignance can be easily redirected, why even bother? The rip-off is thus blatant and rampant. Keeping the hybrid as a moniker is injurious to the health of the institution, which is the only one serving the nation with lives and blood. This blood and these lives don't come cheap. Perhaps it is time to ring this by those who do not care much.

Economy, terrorism, poverty, inability to sustain life, taxes, and then more taxes in levies and the like in every activity that needs government involvement, along with now the normalised function of corruption, have the common man on the floor with the government all over it. Nothing has eased for the common man. Suicides at the hands of helplessness, and empty slogans of this and another project and plan continue to consume what is left of this land. Nothing ever gets done. Pilot projects may start, but then cease to go beyond. The frustration is boiling over. Forget the PTI; it is now the common man who is crushed under. PTI is a political beast; it may still live, but not the common souls for whom mere survival is a challenge. The political class has practically washed its hands off the people. They rule in the name of hybridity and are making every moment count in their personal aggrandisement and pleasure.

It is time to call farce by its name, and do what is right for the moment and what will set the nation back on track. Two hundred and fifty million are just too many to be left to the whims of those who only serve their cause. The last five years of ever-increasing debt and financial hamstringing, beginning with the dreaded default, suggest that whatever this nation has produced has only filled the coffers of the few. Debt accumulates because this government borrows between fifteen and twenty billion daily to keep itself functional. What is produced, whether in commodities or in products and energy, remains patently limited to the mercantilists. This has given rise to cartels. The order has conveniently turned rapacious even when it claims to be populist in blatant obfuscation of the truth.

There are two ways to take the word 'hybrid' off the nomenclature. If this were a developed and a genuine democracy, the default recourse would be fresh elections, but then we have strangled ourselves to the point of paralysis, bound in fear of the unknown and the not-so-unexpected. If genuine democracy is not what we can afford, considering multiple apprehensions which limit our choices, it is better to declare a clean break from the façade of anything hybrid and establish a parallel order of an appointed government of specialists and experts for a period of five years to cleanse the system of the malfeasance that has corrupted it. The system is not merely corroded over time; it has been deliberately corrupted to the point of submission. This can only be cleaned from within by expunging what is odious and distorted.

The 1973 Constitution should still be the core framework of the desired system minus its manipulative and exploitative disfigurations. As societies and economies evolve, statutes need updating; where needed, those updates should be incorporated. The appointed government must institute economic and governance reforms with built-in constitutional cover. Local bodies must be fully protected in continuity and tenure. And so much more, including the NFC and its method of allocation. The 18th Amendment needs a wholesome review and a clear separation made of provincial and federal responsibilities. A reversion to full democratic order must accompany a wholesome retention of these commitments as basic structures which should remain unaltered.

We need to bring governance back from non-issues such as 'Long Marches' to matters of utmost importance to people, like governance and resource allocation. The politicos have a way of creating distractions and diversions to obfuscate the essential with the meaninglessly sensational. A more empathetic government with a given role and task will be able to focus on the essentials rather than carve out favours for itself and its cronies in the name of the people. A task-oriented government can deliver better in challenging times. If indeed blame is to be shared without direct involvement in governance, as is the case in the present hybrid arrangement, a more capable set of people should be put in place for a given period across the entire spectrum under Establishment's sole supervision. Just as was done for the PDM. Hybrid is neither here nor there. It is time to make the change.