So do we. But how to gloss over what breaks us every day?
I remember how we were protesting outside Geo’s office in Islamabad back in late 2007 following the Main kissi se nahi darta General’s blackout of private television channels after the Emergency.
In what should rank as some irony, one of the politicians who were part of the public solidarity demo that day was Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the future water and power minister — unbeknownst to us as the harbinger of pitch dark.
Ashraf has come a long way since then — and so have we. Only the directions have not been exactly in consonance. We have ‘load-shed’ like never before during his stint as power minister and ever since even as he has risen to heights like there was no tomorrow.
Should one envy his phenomenal rise to glory, overlooking the Supreme Court’s indictment of his alleged role in the questionable procurement of rental power plants and the subsequent scrapping of the exorbitantly expensive deal besides the loss of ministerial office?
Perhaps not, for, that is pretty much the fable of quirky rise in Pakistani politics. You can cut it — even when it seems you can’t by any stretch of imagination. In Ashraf’s case, he didn’t need to get into a mission impossible like Tom Cruise. The PM’s office just fell into his lap like Newton’s apple — although the force of gravity was decidedly Brand Z!
But our man from Gujar Khan is relishing every bit of his party in the palatial house. To begin with, he displayed Misbahul Haq-like stoicism in the face of Gilani-like predictions of doom. Once President Asif Zardari decided to change his mind and let the latter go, Ashraf has studiously consolidated the god-sent gain.
Now, he can be seen crisscrossing the land without the fear of being booked for an early flight. The change in fortunes has landed him, apart from other gifts, the self-assumed halo of a statesman as well.
The other day, speaking at the launch of a book — somewhat aptly entitled Reconciliations, Reform and Revival — published by the Directorate of Electronic Media and Publications in the republic’s capital, he said, “the media should avoid projecting things that lead to feelings of dejection and despair about the future of Pakistan”.
The prime minister specifically asked the media, in general, and new TV channels, in particular, to “carry out self censorship” and shelve parts where speakers vent their views against Pakistan.
A newspaper report quoted him as saying that “Pakistan being a nuclear and a determined nation would foil the desperate attempts of a few people to malign Islam as well as the country.”
Like a true psychologist, the PM also had the pulse of the moment. He also asked the nation “to shun despondency as desperation and hopelessness were a sin in Islam”.
The most interesting part of this news report pertains to the report presented to the PM. Ashraf is said to have appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in compiling the achievements of the government over the last four years but “urged it to do their work honestly”.
Freudian slip or not, the advice towards the end pretty much sums up the performance. But I decided not to take any chances if solely looking up at the day’s developments to see if the media could take the PM’s advice and eschew stuff that sends our national despondency soaring.
In the interest of taking the advice seriously, I decided not to go de rigueur — effectively ruling out any discussion on unemployment, price hike, the snaky lines at the gas stations, blasts of all hues and last but not least, the Achilles heel of the prime minister — energy crisis (read load shedding).
And I also decided to look at just one national (English) newspaper of record (never mind that this had the inherent drawback of lesser ‘bad’ news).
A sample showed there was this stomach-churning episode of mob justice as one man was lynched and burnt alive on suspicion of blasphemy inside a police station in Dadu; in an ambush in Gwadar, gunmen shot dead 11 would-be economic migrants before the assailants fled unchallenged; in Kachi district, two persons were killed in a landmine explosion and another two were injured when unidentified persons lobbed a grenade at a shop in the Jail Road vicinity of Quetta; a fight between two groups led to a scary intrusion in Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital with 17 bullets fired from a submachine inside the casualty ward; parents rushed their children for polio drops to hospitals after the national vaccination campaign came to a grinding halt thanks to the killing of nine vaccinators, including young girl volunteers, that made international headlines and forced the UN agencies to pull out; and last but not least, a call from Malala Yousafzai to a local administrator in Swat backing the decision to reverse schools named after her over fears of reprisal from militants.
So Mr Prime Minister, what do we do? Turn a blind eye to these pesky ‘little’ happenings or just grin and bear, and pretend the coming morrow — which you feverishly predict will return your party to power — will somehow turn ours into a land of milk and honey?
This, or perhaps, take your predecessor’s straightforward advice to get out of the daily grind. Remember the “Why don’t they just leave then, who’s stopping them?” retort when told one-fifth of Pakistanis saw that as a way out in a Gallup poll?
The writer is Editor, Pique Magazine. He may be reached at [email protected]
