Criticising others gives us this weird satisfaction. I did not stop at the traffic signal this morning, was not honest in my tax return this year, I did not give way to the honking ambulance, I did not protest and readily bribed that government servant so that I wouldn’t have to wait in line, but wait I did criticise the politicians, judges etc. and behold: I have a clear conscience now. And when it comes to criticism; politicians are the easiest and most common target.
First off, we have not imported our politicians from another country. They too are Pakistanis and just like all Pakistanis there are corrupt politicians and then there are good and clean politicians and, to many of the readers’ surprise, there are more patriotic and honest politicians than there are corrupt ones.
Where are they? Well there are one thousand, one hundred and seventy parliamentarians in Pakistan (Senators, MNAs and MPAs) but how many do we see and know? Party Leaders (prominent politicians) Cabinet members, spokespersons and those who frequently appear on talk shows and this number falls between two to three hundred maximum, which leaves more than seven hundred ‘unknown’ parliamentarians.
Among them are highly educated, honest and capable ones who we haven’t heard of because they are NOT involved in any scandals, are not ministers and choose not to appear on talk shows for reasons.
When it comes to the fake degree drama, the number of parliamentarians accused of having fake degrees were less than 200; those whose degrees were proven fake were even fewer. Similarly, it was recently reported that only about 200 Parliamentarians did not declare their assets, as required by law. Which means there are more than 800 parliamentarians who did declare their assets and do it every year in accordance with law.
The problem is not that “all” or even a majority of parliamentarians are corrupt; the problem is that the system only allows a corrupt minority to be in control. Hypothetically, if a PM or CM is corrupt, he cannot work with an honest cabinet member. If a Party Leader is corrupt, he will not be happy with a clean member of his party and owing to extreme dictatorial trends within almost all our political parties, the voice of reason is suppressed if it is not in line. We need not be disappointed by our politicians, we need to only identify the dirty ones and get rid of them.
ZAFAR ZULQURNAIN SAHI
Lahore
VERY WELL SAID ZAFAR. A good message for the readers and public.
The author has vainly tried to defend impotence and lack of moral courage of his colleagues. I have following comments:-
a.The parliamentarian should not be compared to ordinary Pakistanis because they are elected and then selected for important posts. These are responsible people in whom the nation has reposed trust, confidence and faith; as such level of their honesty, integrity, commitment, dedication and patriotism must be much higher than ordinary Pakistanis.
b.Author has tried to minimize the impact of corruption and incompetence by saying that approximately only 20 percent politicians are corrupt whereas 80 percent are clean, honest, educated and patriotic. It is strange democracy, it is bizarre logic wherein we are being told to believe that instead of 80 percent honest and patriotic politicians reining in 20 percent corrupt (including party leaders); it is 20 percent corrupt who are dominant over 80 percent clean.
c.It is extremely painful situation. These 80 percent supposedly clean politicians are basically timid, spineless, coward, selfish herd of sheep who are driven by their corrupt, dishonest shepherds and their cronies. These so called clean politicians abet, acquiesce in the crimes of 20 percent by their silence.
d.I do not know how long we have to wait for these 80 percent to stand up and be counted?
A. Parliamentarians are NOT bieng compared to ordinary Pakistanis, only the fact that they also belong to the same Pakistan, being re-iterated. Further, as you yourself put it, they ARE elected by the ordinary Pakistanis too…they are meant to represent "ordinary" Pakistanis.
B. The Author has made no such attempt to minimize the 'impact' of corruption and incompetence, but only tried to assert that the large scale criticism and blame game aimed at "All" Politcians is unjust and not all true. And it is a Fact that a minority does rule a majority both within Parties and in our Country, and in most so called democracies around the world.
C. Timid, spineless, coward, selfish are all qualities attributed to not just 80 percent of these clean politicians but are national traits and exist in the same ratio in 'ordinary pakistanis' as well. And that needs to change on a national level.
D. We have to wait for these 80 % parliamentarians as long as it takes a 100 % of 'ordinary Pakistanis to wake up and realise their own responisibilities instead of diverting the voice or their own conscience in the form of criticism towards others.
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