What a government should always do

Politics is dirty. Important game players indulge in corruption, nepotism, fraud and do anything to stay in power.

In the United Kingdom, the mother of all democracies, a most interesting development took place on New Year’s Eve. Prime Minister David Cameron was accused of rewarding his pals by adding them to the New Year Honours list 2012, but these weren’t just regular cronies. One, Gerald Ronson, is an ex-convict who served jail time; a millionaire who was convicted of theft, conspiracy and accounting fraud. Another person who made it on the list and is subsequently to be knighted, is Paul Rodduck; a man who not only profited from the collapse of Northern Rock, but also donated thousands of pounds to the Conservative party that the prime minister is a leader of today. They stood side by side with the knights, dames, commanders and members of the British Empire. Disgusted? The British press certainly was. The Daily Mail termed it the perfect honours list for a shameless age and Prime Minister David Cameron was lambasted by journalists and political analysts as expected. This made me wonder: how much of this really matters?

If we take the example of Pakistan, we have similar accusations being flung at the incumbent Peoples Party government; our president, said by some to be a yaaron ka yaar, is criticised for appointing his loyal comrades to important positions. Our media cannot get enough of it, with entire prime time talk shows dedicated to the closeness of a minister to our president or prime minister. Do these friendly appointments matter?

The answer is that in some way they do. Having your fat cat friends on an honours list or appointing them to a position by virtue of your relationship with them is not the decent thing to do. In a civilised society, we should not overlook such a practice, because it may give out the wrong message that social relations trump merit.

But can one say that Pakistan behaves like a civilised society? Do our poor citizens have the same rights as our rich ones? Are their basic rights to safety, shelter, food and education secure? Are all Pakistanis treated equally under the law? The answer is no, they are not.

I am not defending the current government by any means. I am merely pointing out what affects the lives of an ordinary citizen. Memogate, sovereignty, nepotism — these are all terms that seem to mean so much when we are looking at them through the microscope of the media. But what really matters is that Pakistan is heading towards a social and economic disaster and our government is failing to handle the crisis. We do not have gas, electricity, employment, basic infrastructure, security and justice. And none of this can be blamed on nepotism, or the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, or because a secret memo was sent to the Americans to reign in Pakistan’s overreaching army. We spend a lot of time crying over matters of national security at the expense of tears for issues of personal security.

Politics is dirty; much to the disillusionment and apathy of a country’s people — important game players indulge in corruption, nepotism, fraud and then do anything to stay in power or save face. Every government does it. Armies do it. What matters is that they deliver and that they put food in the bellies of their citizens, provide them with education and basic rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2012.