Evolution on Steroids?

It was meant to herald in the dawn of a new era. But as the containerised revolution chugged along into D Chowk, billowing fumes and burning human diesel, it transformed into something a bit more uncertain. A few agonising days later, there’s much mirth and merrymaking on display, but not much crumbling of the old order.

Something, somewhere went awry.

It’s a toss up. In the game of thrones, you win or you die. Well hopefully not literally. But as thousands of protestors camp inside the Red Zone, and as laundry is hung to dry on the Supreme Court boundary wall, fears abound that high stakes players could also be hung to dry. Hopefully not literally.

On the famed Constitution Avenue, much dirty laundry is being washed in public. Yes, literally and figuratively.

Behind the rhetorical thunderstorm of speeches atop containers, feverish deal-making is underway to hammer out a win-win situation. But win-win is an aspirational concept, not always a practical one. When you play snakes and ladders, snakes do end up climbing ladders, and biting people. There will be a loss of face for someone at some point. That is inevitable. This trench warfare will take casualties which far outweigh the gains. But then what?

Yes then what indeed? For this answer, we shall have to zoom out from the D Chowk, and hover at a height like the drone cameras now in vogue. The bigger picture is what matters now. What will the sum of all fears amount to? What will be the contours of the Pakistani political landscape once the D Chowk is cleared of mere mortals and returned to the ownership of demi-gods? The answer may yet surprise us.

At the heart of it all is the matter of electoral reforms and rigging. That some hanky panky happened in the 2013 elections we all know. This is after all Pakistan. And in Pakistan, elections are a messy affair. The question is, how messy? Ballots were stuffed, as they always are, and malpractices took place, as they always do. But to what extent? And were they orchestrated by the PMLN in cahoots with other key players in an organised manner? When the PTI and the PAT announced their plans to launch a movement, the best possible outcome that one could have wished for — and did — was that enough pressure would be made to bear on responsible people to reform the system. Here was a chance, an opportunity, to evolve the Pakistani political system in the right direction by forcing stakeholders to set things right, lay down new rules, establish news procedures, and lock down guidelines that would lead to greater transparency and accountability. Here was a moment — under duress — to cleanse the electoral filth through a process of mutual consent manifesting itself in legislative reformation. Here was a display of Pakistani politicians maturing under the glare of cameras and agreeing to improve themselves and the system they run in the larger national interest.

And here finally was proof that practitioners of politics could do the right thing without staring into the barrel of a gun.

This may yet happen. We may yet see shedding of the old skin. But for this to happen, egos will have to be warehoused for a while. The maximalist demands are out on the table. Fine. Let them be. They are, after all, the starting point for any negotiation. What may follow, ideally, is a process of filtration. Take all the emotionally drenched rhetoric, mix it with maximalist demands, brew it in a soup of realism, let the anger evaporate for a bit, pour it into a sieve, and distill the product into a digestible — and perhaps even delectable — dish. There you have it then, something to savour for all.

And how shall this taste? The details are impossible to predict but the broad contours may slowly take shape: prime minister stays for now; the Supreme Court Commission fast-tracks electoral inquiry with stated caveats if indeed irregularities are uncovered; serious punitive action is taken against the Model Town massacre, the Election Commission is reconstituted, electoral reform takes a definitive and deadlined shape and midterm election finds a mention in the final deal document with requisite ifs and buts.

Too many cooks usually spoil the broth, but not always. With Asif Zardari and Sirajul Haq in the kitchen now, the dish will probably be ready soon. The art of the deal shall be practised with finesse. Evolution  yes, revolution no.

Were all this to actually materialise, it would indeed be a speeding up of the evolutionary process — a welcome development in every sense of the word. Yes this would have come at a price, but the pros would far outweigh the cons. In the normal course of events, such an outcome would have needed a lot of time and a tremendous amount of resistance from the beneficiaries of the status quo. The nation should then be thankful to the long marchers for having injected a dose of steroids into this evolution and pushed the country into the right direction.

But clearly this is not a done deal. Here worst-case scenarios constantly lurk in the shadows grinning with anticipation. The system is vulnerable and hurting. One wrong move and things could topple over. And then it will not just be the baby that gets thrown out with the bathwater.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2014.

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