The future looks good?

If those we now have in place & have elected since 1970 same as the electorate, then not even God can help us.

It should not have been amusing — not under the circumstances which beset this nation — but it was, in gallows-humor manner. The front page of one of our press publications on January 14 carried the following headlines: “Governor’s rule imposed in Balochistan”, “Qadri’s march heads towards Islamabad”, “Bomb kills 14 soldiers in North Waziristan”, “Besieged capital braces itself for onslaught”.

Immediately underneath all this was a quarter page advertisement announcing, “We believe the future looks good.”

Why had governor’s rule been imposed in Balochistan? Because the bodies of 86 of the 102 Hazara Shias, Muslims of Pakistan killed by suicide bombings carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had lain for three days, in the cold month of January, on Alamdar Road in Quetta, guarded by hundreds of their relatives and fellow Shias. It had taken the government from January 10 to 13 to reach out in any way, despite protests all over the country by citizens horrified by the ongoing slaying of the Hazara Shias, disgusted and grieved by the utter insensitive inertia of the so-called ‘pillars of state’.

As Feisal Naqvi wrote on these pages on January 15: “I don’t know if the martyrs of Alamdaar Road will change the course of this country. But along with other Pakistanis, I stand with my head bowed in grief at their sacrifice. Dear God, let it not be in vain.” What better epitaph could there be to yet another unacceptable incident in the life of this republic?

The killing of 14 more soldiers by an explosive device planted by the holy warriors is but a continuation of the war being waged, as admitted by the army chief, against Pakistan’s internal homegrown and nurtured enemies.

Incidentally, on the same day as the murder of the Quetta Shias, bombers of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had killed 22 gathered at a Tableeghi Jamaat preaching session in Mingora, Swat. This was overshadowed by the Shias of Quetta and the Tahirul Qadri excitement. Again, our ‘pillars of state’ did not visibly react to the murders in a valley supposedly cleared of TTP militants by our mighty military way back in 2009. So, yet another 22 staunch Muslims of Pakistan were slain by staunch Muslims of Pakistan of a different and damnable conviction.

On these pages, writing also on January 15, Yaqoob Khan Bangash picked up on a point that belies the PPP government’s boast that its Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment has ‘restored’ the 1973 constitution to the original. Well, it hasn’t, and one must wonder why it insists on befooling the people by telling a rather blatant untruth.

One of Tahirul Qadri’s main pet peeves has been about the corrupt mendacious members of the government and assemblies. He has concentrated on violations of Article 62 of the Constitution, sections ‘d’ and ‘g’. Now, as Bangash rightly records, these sections were inserted in 1985 by General Ziaul Haq, not exactly hailed for his devotion to democracy. How can the constitution have been ‘restored’ to its original state when it is still littered with remnants of the Eighth Amendment?

Bangash maintains that “democracy remains the best form of representative government,” ensuring “that people are ruled over by their peers . . . by people who are the same as the electorate.” Well, fine and dandy. But if in the process of instilling democracy, the people of Pakistan have been ruled over by their peers, it is a sad reflection on the electorate. If those we now have in place and have had with all elected governments since 1970 are the same as the electorate, then not even God can help this country.

If Pakistani democracy denotes that the electorate is the same as Asif Ali Zardari and his gung-ho gang, Mian Nawaz and his merry men, and the rest of the politicos who sit either in the coalition or opposition and so forth, then really all will have been in vain.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2013.