To a nation expecting something more definite
The King’s Speech it certainly was not. In the Oscar winning movie King George VI guided by an elocution expert overcomes an embarrassing stammer to address the wavering British people in the firm and commanding tone needed in the life and death struggle against the Nazis. The prime minister, Winston Churchill also put up a brave face and made inspiring speeches that bolstered shattered morale and kept the spirit of liberty alive among the populace in the blackest time in the island’s history. ‘He marshalled the English language and sent it into battle’. In fact, the hallmark of the great politicians is their ability to spread a ‘brilliant hopefulness’ in their contemporaries even in the face of overwhelming odds and apparently insurmountable challenges. Nawaz Sharif’s maiden speech in his third stint as the ‘first among equals’ clearly reflected the tenor of his times. He seemed overawed by the magnitude and complexity of the problems confronting the country and the inner confusion was apparent in the generalities, ambiguities and platitudes that epitomized his nearly one hour address. In fact, during most of his discourse, he was only stating the obvious, repeating the national narrative known to one and all. But it offered little in the way of concrete solutions, of spitting on the hands and coming to grips with the nitty-gritty and the nuts-and-bolts of the conundrum. It was all in the nature of a delicate high trapeze balancing act, of taking the safe middle path and indeed of using language to conceal rather than to communicate thought. His delivery too was wooden and cliché-ridden.
The country’s foremost threat, militancy, was duly identified (as if one didn’t know) and an olive branch extended, but the general public was not enlightened as to the identity of the intended recipients. Talk to whom, indeed, but in the same breath, if such lures failed, there was also the stated resolve to use full force against the terrorists. Even the latter must be scratching their heads on this one. The collaboration with China on the Gwadar-Kashgar highway and undertaking of sizable energy projects must be lauded. But the metro for Karachi and other such massive public works now on the anvil do not directly address the urgent structural changes required to put the badly ailing economy on the path to recovery and growth. More vagueness was apparent in the utterances on Karachi, Balochistan, drone attacks, India, the post-war Afghanistan and the overall security situation. Kashmir, ‘the jugular vein’, says it all. We have been hearing it for ages. And about the promise to end load-shedding, besides launching several mega projects, it has not surprisingly been adjusted with the end of PM’s five-year tenure. Also, blaming it all on the previous regime simply will not do. The PML-N was ruling the roost in the Punjab when sectarian and banned outfits were operating with impunity in the province and elsewhere. Then his party was on-board through the NA and Senate committees.
To be fair the prime minister is indeed in an unenviable situation, as the problems and issues facing us have been badly neglected, the state institutions are in utter disarray and apart from competence issues, the bureaucracy has been deeply politicized, rendering sound governance almost impossible. No wonder he usually looks a worried man, and often speaks his mind on the enormity of the challenges confronting him. They would test the best and brightest in his vocation. His crown is indeed one of thorns, but as the prime minister in these perilous times, he has to somehow turn it into a laurel wreath.