From one scam to the next, operating without shame
What is frightening is not as much the political elite’s proverbial indulgence in corruption or its lack of competence in managing institutions or running the country as is its mendacity towards the need for speaking the truth. It ranges from being painful to the bizarre and grotesque.
Take the case of Karachi for example where scores of innocent people are falling prey to target killers’ bullets on a daily basis, but there is no one in the government echelons willing to acknowledge the increasing seriousness of the situation. There is only this trite monotone reiteration emanating from all political perverts of the coalition that things are normal and under control. In addition to this being untrue, it also reflects the utter insensitivity of the ruling elite to the loss of human life at the hands of these target killers who are either members of their own militant groups or they are being actively patronised by them.
The case of Balochistan presents another stark example of the complicity of the political elite with criminal elements which are out to dismantle the national edifice to perpetuate their hold on a skeleton of a country. The chief minister and his cohorts in the cabinet find it difficult to stay within the precincts of the province for fear of their lives. They chill it out in the safe sojourns of Islamabad far away from the troubles of the province where people are being killed in cold blood on a daily basis. Talk to the chief minister and he would come out with some wise-crack on the lines that a degree is a degree. It does not matter whether it is genuine or fake.
The spokespersons of the federal government including its ministers and party stalwarts do not tire of narrating tales of its total and unquestioned subservience to the rule of law. In actual effect, it is the opposite of that. The refusal to acknowledge the liquidation of the national institutions is just one example of its innate apathy towards addressing the harrowing manifestations of a government that is repeatedly found involved in criminal acts prejudicial of the interests of the people. Its officers and functionaries at all levels are found routinely involved in mega financial scams while its accountability mechanisms are geared to protecting the criminals and helping the accused escape the clutches of law. Supreme Court’s repeated exhortations to bring about changes that would help strengthen the prosecution methods only bring in perversions like the proposed accountability law. Souls have been sold for a place in the fleeting sunshine.
At the centre, it is the PPP government and its allies who stand out because of their unashamed indulgence in acts to weaken the state and its institutions. In Sindh, a two-system province is taking shape: one for safeguarding the citadels of the PPP and one for further strengthening the no-go fiefdoms of the MQM. In the Punjab, laptops are being doled out in the name of spreading education while the Danish super-structure has been raised on the graves of a vast network of educational institutions in the province that have either completely disappeared from the map or are suffering through various degrees of dereliction and disrepair. The scams of sasti roti and yellow cabs have resulted in the loss of billions while further billions from the official coffers are being illegally and immorally invested in advertising campaigns promoting Nawaz Sharif who has no official position or role in the provincial government. But there is no shame as the chief minister continues to sing odes to the fast-depleting faculties hidden beneath artificial scalps.
There is more to this indescribable madness. Runaways have been accepted in the party in spite of repeated vows in the past never to allow them back and political alliances are being struck with elements that were anathema to the Mian brothers only a short while ago. As the much-trumpeted moral edifice of their political empire crumbles, a Machiavellian structure is being built on its debris in an unprincipled bid to wean away a chunk of the power at the next election.
But it is the protection of alleged criminals within its ranks that is most alarming. There are personnel in the provincial government who have, in the past, tried to subvert the process of justice by advising the annulment of proceedings initiated to punish elements responsible for looting millions from the provincial coffers. The trail of these elements goes directly to the chief minister’s house because they continue to enjoy lucrative positions in the provincial hierarchy. In the process, the chief executive of the province cannot wash his hands clean of the wrongs done by his team members whom he continues to sponsor.
It is like moving from one criminal government to the next, from one humiliating adventure in the centre to another equally demeaning one in the provinces. There is hardly a way to make out one set of transgressors from the other: each has its own novel methods to operate by in skinning the state of its wealth and resources. The increasing sufferings of the people have no bearing on their indulgences. The depletion of the state or the weakening of its institutions has no meaning for these bands of marauders whose preferred, in fact singular occupation is their personal aggrandisement and advancement. Nothing else really matters. They live by fake degrees and dual nationalities, but do not tire of pontificating to the common folks regarding learning the virtues of patience and contentment.
The spectacle of these bandits appearing routinely on the media proclaiming their innocence and that of their leaders’ borders on the bizarre! Equally gross is the unlimited space that the channels allow these mandarins to sing odes to their self-proclaimed invincibility resting on the castles of sand that have been built through their corrupt years in power. Sadly, they remain oblivious to the destruction that the crumbling of these artificial structures would cause forcing them to again request for living quarters from their foreign masters! Quite effectively, politics in Pakistan have become synonymous with the demise of reason.
The writer is a political analyst. E-Mail: raoofhasan@hotmail.com