Of a much deeper malaise
With the National Assembly due to complete its five years tenure on March 16 without the usual rude interruptions we in this country are accustomed to, is by itself no mean achievement. No previous civilian setup can boast of this feat of survival in the face of myriad outside actors, factors and influences straining at the leash to wield absolute and unconstitutional power. But while there are some tangible accomplishments on the report card of the PPP-led coalition, at the same time the achievement graph also leaves much to be desired.
Perhaps, with the national elections due in three months time, the information minister, mindful of this bare fact, was really offering a rough and ready excuse to the party faithful and the floating voters for the regime’s failures in many fields when he remarked that five years was too short a time to rectify all national ills. The minister will have to come with up with substantially more credible and overwhelming reasons to satisfy the voter on the count of its slovenly and lazy governance if it harbours any hope of a comeback. In concrete and meaningful terms for the majority of the people, it has been a dismal track record indeed: inflation, unemployment, social inequality, lack of proper health services, descent into deeper poverty of the already marginalized, a horrendous law and order situation, and the ubiquitous energy crisis with its tormenting power and gas load-shedding will all cast their shadow on the voters’ final choice, irrespective of their ideological leanings.
Of course the inroads of the scourge of terrorism and its ramifications have also played an evil part in the overall decline of our political, social and cultural mores as also on the country’s now almost bankrupt economy, but here too the government seems to have faltered as the extremists continue to strike at will. A related Frankenstein monster is the sectarian killings, barbaric and inhuman, which are growing both in frequency and intensity, without the perpetrator being caught and punished. And there also hang charges of rampant corruption and rejection of merit and political patronage which have turned our country into a Kafkaesqe hell of complex tangles, incompetence and bureaucratic inefficiency. The collapse of the national grid plunged the entire country into darkness the other night though 4,000 MW installed capacity remains unutilized for one reason or the other (mainly circular debt and lack of fuel) and despite it still being the fag end of winter. And the fact that 19 of the national carriers’ planes remain grounded, the largest number in its history, and emergency landings have become the norm, are but two of the examples of a much deeper malaise that the regime has unfortunately been unwilling or unable to resolve.