No, I am not shocked any more

Are you?

Being a Pakistani, and having followed events for some years, I am no more shocked by anything that happens in the social and the political spheres. Of course, I am often amused; frequently bemused; occasionally saddened; but shocked? – Never!

I am not shocked, for example, to hear the sitting chief minister of the biggest, and by far the most powerful, province challenging the forces of the status-quo with Jalib’s Aese dastoor ko mai naheen jaanta, mai naheen manta. Again, I am not shocked when Faiz, of all poets, is recited in praise of the just deposed prime-minister who, along with his brother (the aforementioned chief minister) has been in power, one way or another, during half of the nation’s existence, and who has recently been disqualified for being untruthful, and is additionally facing numerous cases of graft, tax-evasion and money laundering. I am not shocked even when he complains that people don’t pay their taxes, and laments the lack of action against corrupt practices.

The gender card isn’t particularly shocking either. I am not shocked when a PM hopeful and the heir-apparent of a major party, the head of its media team, and the coiner of the rather manly slogan, Wo mard naheen jo dar gaya, first makes her team to complain that it is somehow beneath the dignity of a lady to appear before an all-male team investigating her family’s financial wrong-doings. I am not shocked when the same appearance is later presented by her followers as a huge service to democracy. I am not shocked even when the lady police officer supposedly on the scene to make the experience less traumatising for her salutes her and then makes a further fool of herself by proceeding to pick up her ball-point from the ground. Neither am I shocked when another possible future PM, and by many accounts the de facto chief minister, tells primary-school kids that corruption ‘happens’, and there’s very little that can be done about it.

The race/ethnic card too has somehow lost most of its shock-value. For example, it isn’t shocking anymore when somebody points to her impeccable morality by citing her ‘Pakhtoon’ values (whatever those are). Also, I am no more shocked when a dismissive ‘Western culture’ reference is made to highlight everything that is so great about the ‘East’. The ‘Western culture’ remark fails to shock me even if in the very same week a poor woman has been forced to drink acid by her ‘Eastern’ in-laws, and an ‘Eastern’ jirga has had the distinction of ordering punitive rape of the sister of a man accused of sexual assault.

Neither am I shocked to see the confused and surprisingly malleable stances of the Liberals, earning many of them the epithet of ‘Rent-a-liberal’. It is no-more shocking, for example, for a Liberal to point to a politician’s love life to discredit him. I am not shocked when a leading Liberal lawyer asks incredulously, ‘What’s the big deal if the PM has lied, when so does everybody else?’ I am not shocked even when seemingly educated folks nod in agreement. There were few who failed to take the recent cartoon in a leading Liberal weekly in their stride, which depicts a gang of men pulling away on the dupatta of a lady labelled ‘democracy’. I wasn’t one of them, although I am sure one or two cardinal Liberal values were compromised right there.

I am not shocked when the captain of the national Cricket team appears for an interview on the TV show of the PCB chief, who also happens to be a journalist. I am not shocked when educated folks make it clear that they have no idea about conflict of interest situations. Heck, I am not shocked to see scores upon scores of people seeing nothing wrong when a sitting prime minister is also on the pay-roll of a foreign corporation.

I am not shocked when a disgraced party chief decides to counter criticism of running the country (as well as his political party) as a family-business by nominating as his successor, first his daughter and then his wife, and finally, and rather reluctantly, his brother. Furthermore, I am not shocked to hear a spokesman of the same party announce that the party will keep nominating leaders with the same surname no matter how many iterations it takes. I am not shocked even when in the same breath the spokesman goes on to reassure the nation that the party members don’t believe in hereditary right to lead.

Being a Pakistani, and having followed events for some years, I am no more shocked by anything that happens in the social and the political spheres. Of course, I am often amused; frequently bemused; occasionally saddened; but shocked? – Never!

Are you?