Fiddle, fiddle, while the country burns

Is it perfection of the art of not learning, or a woeful lack of substance?

For six days and seven nights, the citizens of ancient Rome watched helplessly as their city burned. The great fire that consumed Rome in AD 64 spread quickly and savagely.

After it was over, almost 70 per cent of the city had been destroyed. According to Roman historian Tacitus, “of Rome’s 14 districts, only four remained intact. Three were levelled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins”.

Again, according to Tacitus, at the time of the fire, “Nero was at Antium. He returned to the city only when the fire was approaching the mansion he had built to link the Gardens of Maecenas to the Palatine. The flames could not be prevented from overwhelming the whole of the Palatine including his palace”. In spite of some steps taken by him for the relief of the devastated, the emperor is reported to have “played the fiddle while Rome burnt” – a reference to his complete lack of interest in his country even when it was on the verge of being obliterated.

Fast forward to 2014! Pakistan is in the midst of fighting an existential war that may determine the options of its continued survival. Yet, the emperor opts to be away, as do most of the other minions who are quick to laying claim on the right to ruling the country. To bring His Highness back, a special plane is flown to Jeddah. Reportedly, over forty passengers with confirmed seats are offloaded from the plane which was declared a VVIP flight and ordinary mortals, people like you and I and the teeming millions around are not supposed to mingle around with the emperors. On the same flight, again reportedly, thirty-six dishes are specially served to satiate the palate of the emperor, his family and cronies.

How crude and lewd can one be? Can anyone beat the moribund display of opulence by the emperor, the uncrowned imperial viceroy of a poor country that has been burning for as long as one’s mind can stretch back to? Can one imagine the gruesome burden that the emperor’s misplaced indulgence places on the poor state of Pakistan? Can one imagine the inhuman detachment of His Royal Highness from the incessant sufferings of the people of what he calls his country and rules with disdain? When the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) opts to spend the Eid day with the officers and jawans fighting Pakistan’s war in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) and the displaced persons in Bannu, the emperor and a former president of the country are out begging foreign powers to help avert the prospect of a military take-over in Pakistan. Understandably, and making the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) even more loathsome than one thought it actually was, Zardari has also reminded the US leadership of their ‘unwritten’ assurance that there would be no martial-law for three consecutive democratic elections in Pakistan. This assurance is reportedly underwritten by some other countries also who were the architects of the infamous NRO which has since been declared void ab initio by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. If at all, such an ‘unwritten’ clause were there, and, if at all, the Americans would agree to ensure that it were fully implemented, who would hold forth such a guarantee in the future once the three general elections are held without any army intervention? Will the Sharifs and the Zardaris be out again looking for new guarantors, new masters to intervene and dictate Pakistan’s destiny?

Fast forward to 2014! Pakistan is in the midst of fighting an existential war that may determine the options of its continued survival. Yet, the emperor opts to be away, as do most of the other minions who are quick to laying claim on the right to ruling the country. To bring His Highness back, a special plane is flown to Jeddah. Reportedly, over forty passengers with confirmed seats are offloaded from the plane which was declared a VVIP flight and ordinary mortals, people like you and I and the teeming millions around are not supposed to mingle around with the emperors. On the same flight, again reportedly, thirty-six dishes are specially served to satiate the palate of the emperor, his family and cronies.

There is much talk about Imran Khan avoiding the confrontational path, but few seem to be debating the reasons behind the current impasse and the need for taking on a government that has effectively squandered its legal and moral base to continue ruling – this is if it ever had any after winning a decisively fraudulent election. There is much noise around the same old fears: democracy will be derailed, army will take over, there would be further unrest in the midst of the country fighting a battle of its survival, and so much more of the kind that one is sick of hearing ad nauseam. From the government ministers, the persistent four-year harangue has gained in intensity: the economy will take four years to mend, the railways need four years to be back on tracks, the avowed national carrier needs four years to be sold to the emperor’s minions (the one spearheading it being one of his chief cronies – of the court-martial and conflict-of-interest fame background who had to resign from an earlier appointment under pressure from the apex judiciary, but shamelessly re-inducted without a blink by the emperor!) and the energy crisis requires four years to be rectified. Another principal minion of the emperor, the finance minister who also happens to be the father-in-law of his daughter, has joined the chorus stating that it would require four years to retrieve the $200 billion illicitly stashed away in Swiss banks. Everything requires four years to mend. The message is simple. Don’t touch the emperor for a period of four years and let him indulge his depravities to the full!

The days leading up to August 14 are going to be eventful, both in the making of partnerships in the opposition and the tactics that the government may adopt to thwart a march that it is absolutely paranoid about. By invoking article 245 and deceitfully pitting the army against political protest, it has commenced a series of blunders of which there would be more to follow. There are reports that lists of the PTI leaders are being prepared in the Punjab to put them under arrest before the commencement of the march. The emperor and his minions must understand that no protest that has public approbation can be stopped by resorting to these despotic tactics. On the contrary, this course may provide further fodder to the fire.

The country is at this impasse because all legal and constitutional methods to remedy a major electoral fraud were systematically blocked by the emperor and his hand-picked foot-soldiers. Worse still, because he is aware of the nature and extent of fraud committed, he is unwilling to open the Pandora’s Box as it would only prove what is already well known. That deprives the emperor of his options to remedy the worsening situation. The younger lord used the state apparatus to its most brutal by firing directly into the crowd and slaughtering fourteen people, but this did not help to stem the tide of protest which has only gained in momentum since then. By putting the army in command of the capital, it expects of it to use the same tactics to control the situation. The question is: will the army deliver? And if it refuses to obey the emperor, what are the options that it’ll be left with to handle a potentially explosive stand-off?

The country is at this impasse because all legal and constitutional methods to remedy a major electoral fraud were systematically blocked by the emperor and his hand-picked foot-soldiers. Worse still, because he is aware of the nature and extent of fraud committed, he is unwilling to open the Pandora’s Box as it would only prove what is already well known. That deprives the emperor of his options to remedy the worsening situation. The younger lord used the state apparatus to its most brutal by firing directly into the crowd and slaughtering fourteen people, but this did not help to stem the tide of protest which has only gained in momentum since then. By putting the army in command of the capital, it expects of it to use the same tactics to control the situation. The question is: will the army deliver? And if it refuses to obey the emperor, what are the options that it’ll be left with to handle a potentially explosive stand-off?

Having survived this far — imagine this to be August 14 — there would be no option for the PTI-led opposition to settle for anything less than the emperor’s resignation and that of his younger sibling lording over Punjab and dissolution of the national and the provincial assemblies which are the product of a rigged election process, thus paving the way for the induction of an interim government to carry out a minimal corrective agenda. Before demanding any of this, and in order to carry the moral high ground into the battle, PTI should first quit the national and the provincial assemblies.

The rest of the agenda which needs to be fully projected well before the commencement of the march should, in addition to the above, comprise:

a) Constitution of a broad-based and broadly-representative committee comprising individuals of known and established integrity, outside of the domain of the parliament, to initiate work towards formulating recommendations for genuine electoral reforms that would facilitate only the deserving to be elected to the parliament;

b) Constitution of a Special Tribunal fully empowered to look into the heinous and criminal use of the state machinery resulting in the death of innocent people in Lahore;

c) Formulation of an ongoing accountability mechanism that would be free of all political and administrative interference;

d) Formulation of an independent Election Commission with inbuilt capacity and expertise to hold free, fair and independent elections. Such an Election Commission should be free of any political, judicial and administrative interference;

e) Misuse of the judicial caveats allowed to the criminals to delay proceedings inordinately should be denied to the accused; and

f) Formulation of steps needed to be undertaken including changes in the constitution to recover the illicitly-accumulated funds amounting to billions of dollars stashed away in Swiss banks and invested elsewhere in the world.

The protest that, in the beginning, appeared to be a pressure tactic employed by one aggrieved political party has struck resonance with other groups and people at large who are now eager to join. Whether the charge will take the shape of a joint opposition onslaught on the tottering citadels of a corrupt and decrepit emperor and his battalion of crooked cronies and stone-footed lieutenants is yet to be seen, but the chances are that many more than just one party would be out there on August 14 battling a corrupt regime that has outlived its relevance. Each extra day that it would spend in the annals of power would be a major dent in the armoury of the state to take a hold of things.

This cannot be an open-ended preposition. It has to be time-limited, but the minimal needful cannot be achieved in only three months. So, a way has to be found somehow to carry forth the democratic dispensation without an uncanny long interval, but not before holding the guilty accountable and making them pay for their uninhibited loot and plunder. Democracy cannot become sustainable without first ensuring an indiscriminate application of the rule of law.

The country seems to be entering a new phase in its chequered history, but this phase seems to be laced with optimism and hope. On the one hand, the army is fearlessly engaged in fighting the militants and terrorists in the NWA and, on the other hand, a genuine political protest appears to be on the anvil that would pave the way towards incorporating far-reaching and meaningful changes in the working of the state by denying the coveted positions to the cash-rich mafias who have hoisted their family fiefdoms by treating the vast majority of the people as purchasable and dispensable serfs.

Yes, dialogue is always the better option for inducting change. But this is possible when the feuding parties are agreeable to sit around a table and those in the seats of power abnegate the use of the state apparatus to snuff out the opposition. That has not happened in Pakistan. Instead of responding positively to the opposition’s demand for thumb-impression verification in only four national assembly constituencies, the emperor and his charlatans opted for stonewalling and blocking all constitutional avenues for redressing their grievances. The consequent frustration continued to multiply as a multi-pronged effort was unleashed to render all state institutions including the parliament and election tribunals irrelevant and inconsequential. The protest that, in the beginning, appeared to be a pressure tactic employed by one aggrieved political party has struck resonance with other groups and people at large who are now eager to join. Whether the charge will take the shape of a joint opposition onslaught on the tottering citadels of a corrupt and decrepit emperor and his battalion of crooked cronies and stone-footed lieutenants is yet to be seen, but the chances are that many more than just one party would be out there on August 14 battling a corrupt regime that has outlived its relevance. Each extra day that it would spend in the annals of power would be a major dent in the armoury of the state to take a hold of things.

For the Sharifs, life appears to have come a full circle, yet again! This is called the art of not learning. But, then, some may attribute it to a woeful lack of substance!