A time to fire with both barrels

If the new government can control wasteful expenditure and deficit financing, it would be an achievement.

Last week, there was a gripping unknowingness about which party would finally get a chance to take a bite at the national cherry — that is, after holding out a carrot to coalition partners. Well, the anguish is finally over. The election has taken place, much to the surprise of the postpone-the-election lobby and the acute discomfort of the militants and their foreign benefactors who, hell-bent on disrupting the process, have become quite blase about cruelty. My heart goes out to the ANP and the MQM, which bore the brunt of the torrent of grim violence in Karachi that the caretakers did absolutely nothing to stop.

The team referee will now be busy mopping up the count, listening to objections and accusations of rigging, before he announces the final list of people who crossed the finishing line. I bet some of you stayed up all night with your eyes glued to the TV screen, applauding each time a favoured candidate topped the list, and cursing under your breath as news of fresh disasters poured in. Nevertheless, we now know into whose hands the destiny of the nation has been entrusted. One can only hope the mistakes of the past are not repeated and a sincere attempt is made to re-establish the rule of law.

As a writer, I have always refused to join a political party in spite of receiving a few invitations, because it would have compromised my right to scalp the craniums of heads of state, corrupt politicians and civilians who have systematically, either through careful design or gross incompetence, defrauded the exchequer. How else could stories about Pakistanis having stashed away billions of dollars in Swiss banks keep resurfacing from time to time. I never really had much of a stake in this grand popularity contest. In fact, my pledge to the democratic cause was limited to the fact that as a loyal citizen of this beleaguered republic, I dutifully cast my vote according to my conscience. And that was it.

Irrespective of which party was going to triumph; I honestly did not believe it would be interested or capable of treating the criminal cancer that is eating into the vitals of our society, inhibiting foreign investment and traumatising the whole nation. Sure, some of the leaders made all kinds of promises about fixing the water and electricity problems and used a few of these commitments as election slogans. But so far, not one of the leaders demonstrated a spine of real concern and stated categorically, with a bit of fist-thumping for theatrical effect, that his first and foremost priority is to hit the militants with all the civilian, military and paramilitary resources at the nation’s command. And after that, he will take on the other criminal gangs.

There is a whole raft of complaints, and newspapers — for as long as I can remember — have been littered with grievances and protests. But before any serious attempt can be made to alter the mindset of an essentially medieval society, and get people to do the work they are being paid to do, without asking for compensation, the militant problem has to be tackled by a hawk with a one-track mind, and this endeavour has to have the full backing of the federal and provincial governments. Frankly, I can’t see somebody like that being thrown up, either this year or the next. Or anybody being able to lick the electricity problem. If a little more tolerance can be introduced and the new government can control wasteful expenditure and deficit financing, it would be an achievement.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.