- Breeding anarchy, rendering a difficult country ungovernable
Candid Corner
“On the mountains of truth, you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
If we think of that one thing which has been ousted from the state of Pakistan, it would be nothing other than the truth. It looks like we have been reduced to a society that takes pride in building tall edifices on the foundations of fabrication and falsehood– and then taking pride in what we have accomplished.
Consequently, people don’t hesitate to keep changing their oft-avowed positions with time, justifying them unashamedly as if these were heavenly interjections.
The multi-party conglomerate that assembled in Islamabad on October 31, and announced it would stay there for a few more days, has only one thing in common: lust for power. It is more so now because a process of accountability has been initiated and there appears little prospect that this would be stopped. It is more likely that it may gain further strength with time.
It is time for the government to take a firm position and ask the institutions of the state to play their respective roles within the ambit of the Constitution. The statement from the military is a good omen. This lethal virus must be culled with full force and writ of the state
Leading up to the march, there was much confusion. It was not clear whether other political parties, particularly the PML(N) and the PPP, would be participating in the rally and, if yes, how strongly and how potently? In the end, it turned out to be a token presence with some leaders turning up to deliver their caustic comments and moving away.
I got input from six different people who all spent time personally at the rally. According to them, bulk of the crowd encompassed the uniform-clad, baton-bearing members of the JUI(F) Militant Wing– Ansar-ul-Islam. Some others conceded that they had been paid to attend the rally. More importantly, there were no women to be seen. Even female journalists were not allowed to enter the arena to fulfil their professional duties, this in a country where women constitute more than 50 percent of the total population.
Most painful was to see Bilawal Zardari standing behind that vile merchant of religion, Fazlur Rehman. He often talks about the liberal credentials of his party. If that be so, it is a shame that he would agree to be part of this circus which did not acknowledge the presence of women in the society. It is quite obvious that principles did not constitute the basis of this myopic agenda-driven gathering.
So, why did they come there? They may have their own reason orreasons for attending the rally, but one common objective was to form a pressure platform to secure reprieve from the corruption allegations that they or their leaders may be currently facing. For this bigot, Fazlur Rehman, it is his bloated ego that does not let him rest. He is not in the Assembly and there is little that he can do to woo Prime Minister Khan to let him sneak into the power echelons as he was able to do during the previous regimes. But, he cannot do without it either. So, he had to stretch the level of confrontation to the brink.
His speech was nothing but a pack of blatant lies. He accused the government of compromising the interests of the state in the foreign policy and economic domains as also in managing other matters impacting the lives of the people. He also vowed to use religion as an instrument of his politics saying he had the license to do so vide multiple provisions in the Constitution.
He warned the institutions (read military) not to give an impression of extending support to the government as, otherwise, he would be constrained to form an adverse opinion about them. He threatened that the people who were present at the rally were capable of entering the Prime Minister’s House to arrest him. He gave the Prime Minister two days to resign. If he did not, he would give a call for the next line of action.
This is an unmistakable attempt at creating anarchy and an environment to escape the dragnet of justice. Everyone who is not elected to the Assembly questions the fairness of the electoral process because politics, for these people, is not a reflection of the will of the people, but an unchallengeable right to assume the mantle of power. They cannot even think of being out of the assemblies where they always have their hands on the levers of cash.
The one reason why such characterless individuals are returned to the assemblies is that our political parties are not representative in character. Instead, we have family fiefdoms, and the worst few are able to cheat their way to the top through a fraudulent pretence of elections. From Bhutto to Benazir to Zardari to Bilawal, from Mufti Mahmud to Fazlur Rehman to Asad Mahmood, from Nawaz Sharif to Maryam Nawaz, from Shahbaz Sharif to Hamza Shahbaz, from Bacha Khan to Khan Abdul Wali Khan to Asfandyar Wali Khan– all these political parties are family circuses which work exclusively to satiate the whims of their masters.
I have often written on the subject previously that, in its existing form, the prevalent system has run a complete course. It cannot go any further as there are far too many contradictions, far too many ingrained weaknesses. If we think we need democracy in the country, as we should, the system needs a comprehensive remodelling beginning with making the political parties representative and accountable by ensuring that their leaderships are democratically elected. There is absolutely no concept of democracy in a country without first introducing it in the annals of the political parties so that their leaderships at all tiers could be elected through transparent intra-party elections with every member of the party having an equal right to be elevated to any office that he or she may deem appropriate.
There is also a dire need to hold the political leaders to account as part of a comprehensive moral code. They just can’t take off on a spree of spreading lies and rabid distortions to mislead the public to advance their degenerate personalised agendas.
We also need to address the weaknesses in the electoral system. Constituency politics is a wreck where social and economic power and inducements are used to win votes. It reduces the entire electoral process to a sham. First-past-the-post system should be replaced with one based on proportionate representation for introducing genuine and representative democracy in the country.
Just when Pakistan appeared to be stabilising internally and gaining momentum internationally, a hideous merchant of religion has laid his venomous fangs bare to dismantle a democratically-elected government. In this heinous act, he is aided and abetted by a select and regressive representation from some political parties. If this kind of politics becomes a norm, no government would be able to complete its stipulated tenure. This is an act of subversion from within which would breed anarchy, rendering a difficult country virtually ungovernable.
It is time for the government to take a firm position and ask the institutions of the state to play their respective roles within the ambit of the Constitution. The statement from the military is a good omen. This lethal virus must be culled with full force and writ of the state.
