Neither the startling revelations made by rebellious Mirza nor the shocking contents of recently leaked diplomatic cables about the Pakistan’s political and military top brass have moved the nation. And no civil society or political party representative has yet dared to come or bring the people on streets demanding sacking of the top government functionaries.
By leveling serious charges of treason against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) former Sindh interior minister and President Zardari’s friend Dr Zulfiqar Mirza has only won the media blitz. All this has only drawn some routine comments from various political analysts but the surprisingly the masses have not raised any concerns against anyone (either Mirza or Altaf) and to them it so far the just a sources of amusement.
No public rally in any part of the country has been be organised by any civil society representative calling for a thorough inquiry into Mirza’s allegations against MQM supermo Altaf Hussain particularly Mirza’s claim that the self-exiled MQM leader was part of a US plot to disintegrate Pakistan.
Similarly, the startling revelations by the WikiLeaks also did not move anyone in the country. The US diplomatic cables’ disclosures about the real faces of Pakistani politicians and their tacit understandings with the US caused no unrest among masses and they celebrated their Eid as usual. These leaks had also failed to create convulsions in Pakistan last year when the whistleblower website released secret US diplomatic memos in last November.
Informal chats with a number of citizens indicate that either they are too much perturbed about their own perplexed issues arising from poverty, inflation or unemployment or have lost hope in Pakistani political elite and think that by voicing their concerns they could not bring any change in the country.
“There is nothing new revealed by WikiLeaks … we are very well aware of our rulers’ mindset of slavery and politics of hypocrisy … we know every politicians ascends to power corridors with US patronage to serve their foreign masters,” said Shahid Malik, an employee of a telecommunication company.
Though the WikiLeaks disclosures have triggered political uproar around the globe and the masses have come out against their political leaders after knowing about the diplomatic meetings behind closed doors, the same fell flat on Pakistani people who look indifferent to all these revelations.
This apathy, indifference and stagnancy on part of the masses, civil society and the political activists is a huge question mark as Pakistanis are a very emotional nation who otherwise only a few years back had launched a very meaningful movement for the rule of law in the country when the chief justice was deposed by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf.
Civil society activist, Farzana Bari, thinks that the alienation and disconnect between the masses and those in power was the major reason for the indifference of the masses as the people think themselves powerless, meek and week.
“These revelations have badly harmed the image of all the state institutions before the people at large. These also reflect that all the state institutions are alike in corruption and incompetence and the masses have no hope from any institution which could come for their rescue. This is the reason that the people are indifferent and not willing to come out and protest against their leaders,” Bari added.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Justice (retd) Wajihuddin said that the people were unmoved due to disappointment. “The masses are so much disappointed with the rulers that they have come to the conclusion that nothing could be changed,” he said. He said the people had also experienced that their movement against Musharraf brought but more corrupt rulers. “People are indifferent and the country lacks any leader of credibility therefore the streets are calm,” he added.
WikiLeaks or ZulfiLeaks, nothing moves the nation!
