Politicians in Pakistan are back to their erstwhile business of foul-mouthing. The marriage of connivance is, thus, unravelling. The so-called political reconciliation, which was thrust upon the nation on the crutches of a reprehensible ordinance, is on the rocks.
And surprisingly enough, the boat has been rocked by no less than the President, who for incomprehensive reasons thought it appropriate to lambaste the toothless opposition with venomous personal attacks. The subsequent biding of adieu to the corridors of power by the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement, on a flimsy pretext of seat arrangement in the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly, could be the ultimate for a change in the making.
For the first time in the country’s political history, nobody wants to dislodge this government. The armed forces that were traditionally looked up to for a change are pretty happy queuing behind the mess that is at work in Islamabad. So is the case with the opposition under Nawaz Sharif. The minions: the MQM, the Q League, the ANP and the irresistible independent parliamentarians all have their interests.
The obvious reasons are: governance chaos at home and a disjointed stance on the foreign front. Spiralling inflation, neck-high unemployment, paralysed economic assets, zero-investment culture, a crumbling infrastructure and disillusionment of faith in national institutions points out the deed-line of this juggernaut.
With the judiciary walled to the corner, and whatever resilience is left in the civil-military bureaucracy, in the name of nationalism, contemptuously coerced by vested interests, the future of the nation is squarely compromised. The salvation lies in bringing to book the con artists of Pakistan’s political dispensation and making them pay for their misdeeds.
ZEESHAN ALI
Lahore
