We take you through a slightly different version of 2013. Loaded with imagination, humour, hope and a big fat what if… DESIGN BY SAMRA AAMIR AND MUNIRA ABBAS
Yet, the country remained racked by terrorism. Inflation and rolling blackouts continued to punctuate conversations. Too often, a child took a bullet not meant for him. Living became a privilege as most made peace with surviving. But what if the year had taken a different course? What would the country look like? How would we feel? We take you through a slightly different version of 2013. Loaded with imagination, humour, hope and a big fat what if…
Disclaimer: All characters and events in this report, even those based on real people and events are fictional. Any opinion expressed here is not meant to hurt any feelings and should be taken in good spirit.
Fresh elections were held after the results of May, 2013 elections were overturned as ‘irrefutable’ and evidence of widespread rigging surfaced, thanks largely to the untiring efforts of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Imran Khan’s PTI tsunami had swept the new polls across the country. And the first act of the new government headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan was to hold an emergency meeting of all the stakeholders to discuss the serious law and order situation and diplomatic crises emerging from the blockade of the Karachi port and Torkham and Chamman check-posts by PTI activists.
The PTI chief ministers of the four provinces claimed that like the Prime Minister they were also against the blockade but at the same time, they were in full agreement with the party chief’s contention that their governments had no right to stop the PTI workers from exercising their democratic right to protest the US drone attacks by blocking the NATO supplies to and from Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister said that he did not agree with the PTI workers’ decision to challenge the government by taking the law into their own hands and had also communicated this to the visiting US Secretary of State Chuck Hagel during their one-on-one meeting. However, on the advice of the core committee of the ruling party, he has refrained from ordering the law enforcement agencies to forcibly end the blockade. According to the party leadership, that would amount to resorting to undemocratic methods to solve a political problem.
“When he asked me to let him talk to the PTI leadership directly, I told him to go and meet the party chief at his Banigala residence,” said the PM, terminating the stakeholders’ meeting abruptly. He said he had to rush to Banigala as a meeting was scheduled, in the next 45 minutes or so, between the US official and the party chief.
Before he left, his Interior-cum-Foreign minister, a beaming Shireen Mazari informed him that the TTP had accepted the government’s offer to open an office at the Convention Centre in Islamabad so that peace talks could begin immediately. As he was rushing out he did not hear the second part of Mazari’s information, that the TTP leadership had accepted the offer on the condition that it would fly the flag of the Islamic Emirate the of Taliban at the venue when talks commence. The meeting between the PTI chairman and Chuck Hagel did not go well as the former said the end to the blockade would be conditioned on a written undertaking from the US to stop drone attacks immediately.
When told that in that case it would be impossible for the US administration to persuade the US Congress not to cut off aid flows to Pakistan, the PTI chief reportedly retorted that such threats did not bother him. “I can manage Pakistan’s economy without hocking our sovereignty to the US or any other bilateral or multilateral donor. Fund-raising is my forte. Those who have seen me do it for Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and Namal (Bradford University) college know what I am talking about,” asserted a self-assured Khan, looking straight into the eyes of a squirming Hagel, who left the Banigala mansion in what appeared to be ungracious haste.
The writer is Executive Editor of The Express Tribune
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, December 29th, 2013.
COMMENTS (9)
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What Mr Ziauddin has imagined in this article has become true after few weeks when Imran Khan got disappointed over KP Gov lack of response on Aitzaz bravery. See, how he has alienated himself from the issue as if he is not the head of ruling party in KP. Here is the statement: http://tribune.com.pk/story/658127/aitizaz-hasan-imran-laments-k-p-govts-lack-of-response/
A few days ago he invited people of Umerkot to visit K-P and witness the change that has taken place in the past six months (I'm not agree though).Here ---he acted like he is the head of ruling party at KP. What a contrast just in few months.
We are still passing through a dark days of slavery from creation to December 2013 notewithstanding the fact that we are rich in case of natural sources.The land provides us enough.The nation is also Icon of hard core Despite of all financiqally prisoners of the west.
Who is accountable for the existing circumstances,people of Pakistan?political leaders of the country or any other quarter's concerned?who?
Crucial majority of the peopl passing thiere life below the poverty line.Power crisis Gas crisis nation being faced crisis after crisis.Unemployment has increased street crime.There is no safety of common man.
Who will come.When he come.Deprivation is esclating everywhere having seen the result of newly elected government's efficiency.
Some time i see on the brain sky,red clouds appearing assembling for changing the climate perhaps in form of Imran Khan.He is last ray of hope.
:-) Good one sir!
@Dr MM Khan: Very well said. Long comment; but conveys the jist of the situation accurately and emphatically. Thanks.
Thanks God this didn't happen. What a nightmare! We should all be grateful to the people of Pakistan who overwhelmingly supported PML-N especially the people of Sargodha who from just one polling station, where there were 3000 voters, gave Nawaz Sharif 8000 vote. No one in the history of the world has had such a massive win. This should be included in the Guiness book of world record. Can't wait till the next election when PML-N wins 800 parlimentry seats out of the 272. Imran Khan is a looser. How can he improve Pakistan's economy when his personal wealth has decreased from 30.1 million to 29.6 million rupees in the last year. On the other hand Mian Nawaz Sharif has increased his wealth from 474 million to 1430 million rupees in just one year (these are official figures from Election commission of Pakistan). This is a testement to Nawaz Sharif's successful economic policies. Why don't the people of Pakistan work hard like Nawaz Sharif instead of complaining about the rising prices? Imran Khan is crazy to ask for taxing the rich. Nawaz Sharif has done the right thing by taxing the poor so they should either work hard or go abroad to send us dollars. Similar policies by the previous government has raised our foriegn remittamce from 9 billion to 14 billion dollars. I am also sick of Imran Khan and his lavish Banigala residence. He should learn some modesty from Nawaz who never mentions his skyscrapers in London (I have seen them, they are worth talking about) or the Zardari-Bhutto mansions in UK, France (hakim ali zardari house normandy) or Dubai (worth millions of darhams). You never hear orders coming from those palaces. What humility the sharif-zardaris have. I want to congradulate M Ziauddin for his fine sense of humour, something our nation desperately needs on our path to self destruction. Let us all make fun of Imran Khan and have a good laugh while he is still among us.We have a beautiful tradition of calling leaders kafir-e-azam while they are alive and quaid-e-azam when they are dead. Let us all enjoy the stupid antics of buzdil khan aka taliban khan who thinks he can use honour, dignity and self reliance to make us a better nation. Doesn't he know that even Allah does not change the fate of a nation who does not change its ways? What an idiot. Once again let us all thank Allah for not changing our fate and never forget to thank the writer for his excellant literary masterpiece which we were in deperate need of.
p.s: My personal gratitude to the writer who has helped me get rid of my addiction to news and blogs.
Ground situation is that we as a nation have no consensus on a single national issue it is obvious sign of failure.
Oh,no not acceptable the example,country is country hospital is hospital/ there is no combination in between.Ground reality is that we are passing through a long dark tunnel and there is no light at the end of it.
Well, that's a story which should have happened; for the good of the country and for the good of the people. Life is immeasurably tough and difficult for the common people in Pakistan. Looking at income and expenses of common folks, I am at a loss to understand how they are making ends meet. Imran Khan is not a magician who would have waved a wand and make everything hunky dory; but he gives an aura of someone who at least cares. Why the elections did not end in PTI gaining more votes than they did is a mystery which has been shoved under the rug in the name of decency. We need leaders, makers, and shakers, that will struggle for the common people in Pakistan. For the last few years the country seemed to have been ruled by robber barons who siphon off much needed resources to their haunts in overseas jaunts.
A side note to the people in Karachi: being educated and better informed; you were looked with more hopes and aspirations compared with other locales. To immerse yourself in ethno-centric issues alone at the cost of neglecting issues more pertinent to the progress of the country is a disservice. Think about an oft-repeated saying: "Rising tides lift all boats." If Pakistan prospers, Karachi does even better.
As if the elections are held only on Facebook and Twitter !