A paradigm change

The pall of gloom must lift, let there be freedom for all sans discrimination

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have”.

–Margaret Mead

Pakistan is irretrievably sliding into dysfunctionality. The signs have been visible for a long time now, but these have accentuated alarmingly as the path being chartered for the country appears completely incongruous with any pragmatic rationale or the existent and the fast-evolving ground realities.

The slide has also accelerated with the induction into office of the current coterie of rulers who have tried to transform their personal agenda, constructed around their inherent soft-corner for extremism, into a policy paradigm. Unfortunately, there appears no dearth of partners who are willing to traverse an equally disastrous course and who lack the vision and the courage to lead Pakistan on a path to successfully combat the existential challenges that it faces.

This was patently visible during the facile All-Parties Conference (APC) that elevated proponents of terror and violence to the status of ‘stakeholders’ and mandated the government to initiate the process of dialogue with them. The tragedy is that no one seems to know who these people are with whom the government is to initiate a dialogue and what are the parameters of the proposed discourse?

Since the militant groups have repeatedly rejected Pakistan’s constitution and all laws emanating from it including the judicial system and the manner in which the state is being managed, is the government prepared to bargain on what changes are to be brought about in the document to accommodate their regressive and degenerate agenda? If that be the case, is the government also reconciled with helping the country slide into becoming a theocratic state managed by laws that are brutal and draconian and that work to the exclusion of the female segment of the country which constitutes over 51 per cent of the total population? These and many more are the questions that are lurking in people’s consciousness and there is a pervasive concern about the direction (or lack of it) that the leadership has chosen for the country.

Pakistan’s crisis is one of its own making emanating from a palpable lack of vision and leadership qualities of those who have ruled it in the past and who occupy the seats of power today. But the critical issue is that the culture of not owning up to one’s failings runs deep in the ruling elite’s psyche.

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‘The slide has also accelerated with the induction into office of the current coterie of rulers who have tried to transform their personal agenda, constructed around their inherent soft-corner for extremism, into a policy paradigm. Unfortunately, there appears no dearth of partners who are willing to traverse an equally disastrous course and who lack the vision and the courage to lead Pakistan on a path to successfully combat the existential challenges that it faces.’

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That’s why those who are sequentially inducted into power are quick to pin the blame of their failures on their predecessors and their wrong policies. The last PPP government blamed Gen Musharraf endlessly for their abhorrent lack of delivery and the leadership and functionaries of the current concoction are trying the same recipe with regard to their own failures.

The brand new kids on the block are accusing just about everything and everyone for their lack of endeavour and delivery and their rabid espousal and promotion of a political culture that they had initially set out to change. It is humiliating to see the proven stalwarts of the status-quo now occupying all seats of power within the party and guiding it along regressive lines of compromise with the lessons that they have imbibed through their years in power with dictators and demagogues. Today, they go around as the messengers of change.

The causes of this dysfunctionality run deep in the system which we have adopted and which we continue to tailor to suit our need to be elected. The system is not based on any enduring democratic principles or values. It is rooted in the evil desire of our political leaders to always be sitting in the corridors of power guiding the destiny of an increasingly impoverished people. In the process, they use all conceivable vile tactics vested in their person a la the political positions that they have occupied in a non-transparent manner to serve the ultimate objective of getting elected. The constitution, the Election Commission, the judiciary, the rule of law – all be damned. Their crass interest must be served.

Imagine the manner in which the government is dictatorially resisting the demand for using the finger-impression-verification process to determine the legitimacy or otherwise of the May 11 elections. When the sitting chairman of NADRA resisted their pressure and threats not to comply with the demands, they proceeded in the thick of the night to send him packing. This is a miniscule reflection of the Machiavellian manner in which all the incumbent governments have resolutely resisted the prospect of the ascendency of the rule of law in the country which is the cardinal ingredient for sustainability of any democratic dispensation and for ensuring its transparency and delivery. The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case, the NICL scam, the Hajj fiasco, and so much else – the concerned governments have remained steadfast in their refusal to extend cooperation to the judiciary’s endeavour to fix blame and punish the criminals.

Even more gruesome is the manner in which the leaders of the banned outfits, murderers and militant commanders have been spared the rigours of prosecution and a large number of them today roam around as free citizens, invoking the jihadi fervour among the impressionable youth of the country. This is a reflection of the persistent governmental patronage of these criminal outfits and their leaders for accruing political dividends. The PML-N which has remained the dominant political force in Punjab and which has practically ruled the province for over twenty-five years is the principal beneficiary of this criminal arrangement which has included, among other things, a commitment to protect these militant outfits spread throughout the province. Even election bargains have been struck with these bandits.

Where are we headed? How far have we regressed from the enshrining principles enunciated by the Quaid in his August 11 address to the Constituent Assembly? Is there a prospect of getting back on track to achieve the genuine ideals of our creation reflected in a state that wears no discriminatory garb and that does not look for favourites on the basis of religion, caste, colour and creed identifications? These and many more questions perpetually haunt the mind as one tries to comprehend the lack of direction that is so palpably evident in everything that the government initiates. The colour of religion dominates all narratives while rational discourse and pragmatic reasoning take a forlorn back seat. Those who dare talk of promoting a culture of tolerance and peaceful co-existence as distinct from blackmailing along religious demarcations are often ridiculed and scoffed at, and always excluded from playing any participatory role in identifying the ills that the country is plagued with and suggesting remedial measures that may trigger a process of recovery.

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‘It is not any lack of hope that I am propagating. In fact, it is the contrary. Hope is there. What is missing is the paucity of effort and courage on the part of the people that precipitates their agony and their disenfranchisement. For ever they have been pushed to the fringes of survival as their leaders and masters expect them to gorge themselves on the crumbs that they mercifully leave behind for them. They have forsaken their inalienable rights. They have compromised their dignity and their self-respect. They have done that for an eternity. It needs to change. It must change. Time calls. Do I hear someone saying ‘here I come’? Do I see a trail (of change) following? Do I hear the pounding of feet?’

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A pall of gloom engulfs the people as their survival becomes increasingly difficult while the fear syndrome is the dominant determinant of results that suit the ruling elite. Karachi has incessantly witnessed the carnage of the innocent to incrementally perpetuate this fear factor and force people to do the bidding of the political demons who control the city’s streets through their thugs and goons. The state has remained a hapless spectator to the unleashing of daylight massacres resulting in countless deaths on a daily basis. It is not because the criminals or their intentions are unknown. It is the need of the ruling elite to carry their partners along that necessitates these illegal and self-serving compromises. Such is the mettle our political leaders are made of, and such are the discriminatory covers that the state is forced to hide beneath.

Is there no solution to the growing cancer that spreads mortally with every passing day? Is there no relief that the hapless people can hope for in the ensuing future to bring in a ray of sunshine to their dark and dingy lives? Must they writhe in pain to provide comfort to their political masters? Must they embrace poverty and penury so that the political bandits could decamp with billions from the state exchequer? Must they sit back as silent spectators as the state’s assets are scavenged mercilessly by the thugs of the ruling elite and their attendant jokers? Is this the destiny that had been promised to them on that fateful day sixty-six years back when they sacrificed lives of their dear ones for a land that would be their own? Death stalked them then. Death stalks them now.

It is not any lack of hope that I am propagating. In fact, it is the contrary. Hope is there. What is missing is the paucity of effort and courage on the part of the people that precipitates their agony and their disenfranchisement. For ever they have been pushed to the fringes of survival as their leaders and masters expect them to gorge themselves on the crumbs that they mercifully leave behind for them. They have forsaken their inalienable rights. They have compromised their dignity and their self-respect. They have done that for an eternity. It needs to change. It must change. Time calls. Do I hear someone saying ‘here I come’? Do I see a trail (of change) following? Do I hear the pounding of feet?

The writer is a political analyst and the Executive Director of the Regional Peace Institute. He can be reached at: [email protected].