Hope in the midst of the morass

Why is Imran Khan so fixated on the divulgence by our parliamentarians of their assets? He is not completely naive and is surely aware, as are most of us, that lying and mendacity are hard-core national pastimes and traits.

Reportedly, of the total number of those who are supposed to sit in the various assemblies but seldom do en masse, 222 have failed to submit in due time to our equally roguish Election Commission details of their assets. Nine of them are federal ministers, one of them being the finance minister of whom one did expect better. But then he has always been a bit of a ditherer since the day he entered politics in the early days of the Pervez Musharraf regime.

As for the others, such as Amin Fahim, Ahmed Mukhtar, Dr (a real one) Asim Hussain, Naveed Qamar and, above all, the honorary doctor Rehman Malik who has succeeded in rubbing into Karachi University an indelible stain of shame, well we all vaguely know their material (and moral) wealth. None of them or their mates in parliament are about to declare exactly what they have and where — no way.

Since it became the law that these members of the political classes tell the nation what they are worth in material terms, whatever lists we have seen have been not only a joke, but a slap in the face of the nation accompanied by a two-fingered sign. Their contempt, or stupidity, is legion. They know we know that far too many of them have amassed their millions and billions mainly through devious, unlawful means at the expense of the national exchequer. But why should they care? The prime minister certainly does not. His declaration cannot even be classified as a bad joke. It disgusts. And besides, who can verify what?

(Whilst dwelling on the civilian political classes it would be of immense interest to know what assets are owned by the military political lot, present and past. But this is pipe dreaming.)

What would be more practical as far as Imran Khan and most of us are concerned, would be to know from the various institutions put in place to ferret out corruption exactly how these people have managed to amass what they hold, hidden or revealed.

The International Herald Tribune has it that a “Populist star emerges in Pakistan,” and puts the number of citizens who attended that exciting rally last Sunday at 100,000 (no one can agree on numbers). Whatever, it was a happy occasion as compared to what we now have — political rallies devolved into slanging matches. And, as most commentators agree, it held out promises of hope. Imran has, on the showing, at least for the moment, transformed himself into some sort of alternative. Great help has been given to him by what he has on the ground lined up against him. A Zardari government, utterly discredited for its gross mixture of corruption and incompetence, an opposition that does not know whether it is coming or going, its leadership devoid of projecting any hope at all as it has outplayed itself in the 1990s and, thereafter, by playing footsie with an untrustworthy PPP — charters of democracy, Murree agreements and the like, and forever being worsted and humiliated.

Then he has the real, the true top power player, General Ashfaq Kayani and his mighty army (how many generals are in its ranks?) which at the moment is at an unusual popularity low because Kayani has showed himself to be in the same league as the politicians by taking up his three-year extension. So there is not even that factor to look to.

However, one swallow does not a spring make — and so it is with one flash rally. Imran will have to come up with something more tangible, policies that are realistic and in tune with the times.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th,  2011.