Hazrat Umar (RA) the second of the Khulifa e Rashideen, is reported to have said that if a dog died of hunger and thirst at the bank of the Euphrates (river in Baghdad), the caliph would be accountable in front of Allah for its death.

This is one of the most frequently quoted quotes when we speak of how the Islamic state was governed during the Khilafat era after the passing away of the Prophet. As citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, we continuously preach Islam and on oath in the name of Allah we vow to run it like the Khilafat.

However in the past one year (I will not discuss other times) I have wondered who has lost their minds. I, who keeps listening to these politicians and believing in their fake promises; or these select few who are more concerned about their wealth and power than good governance.

Last year, it was the Thar (I am not going to recount the events, as we know what happened); and today it Karachi. I have never heard such irrational, irresponsible, insensitive and ill-advised statements from any sane person as I have from our ministers Mr. Abid Sher Ali and Mr. Khawaja Asif over the issue of deaths due to heat stroke.

I wonder if the PM was on a high for not having taken action against these ill-mannered people who happen to belong to his party. In all of this mess, apart from the Military, it is the civil society that has moved forward to help the people of Karachi, be it for collecting donations, providing relief, or aiding the burial of the dead. This, however, did not make any difference for the representatives of the citizens of Pakistan.

They are still seem on television talk shows and on the floor of the parliament, passing uncalled for lousy remarks against each other. Khawaja Asif was reported to have said, nothing would change even if he resigns. Then Mushahid Ullah Khan’s pearl of wisdom shown itself when he said that the heat wave in Karachi was due to the fumes being exuded from a factory in Rajisthan.

Our elders used to tell us if you have nothing good to say, it is better to not say anything, at all. Can someone remind these politicians of this advice?

Where is the Bhago party – oops! I mean, the party Bhutto founded? I thought that Bhutto or his vision, if there was any, is still alive as the jiyalas always say? Judging by what I have seen: this vision or spirit is missing when people are suffering, and these jiyalas are not ready to step forward to own the people for whom their party was established.

Or was this just a tactic for emotional blackmailing? In the past four days I have not seen anyone from the Sindh PPP government come forward to help the people of Sindh, but this party does have a grand marble mausoleum made for its ruling clan like the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque located in Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, a visit to Naudero (and certainly much of rural Sindh) will bring you face to face with filth, poverty and death that haunt the place.

Why is Sindh in such a horrible condition? These parties always present the clichéd excuse of “forty years of army intervention”, conveniently forgetting that for the rest of the period there was civilian democratic rule. This begs the question that if they can live lavish lives why can they not provide comfort to the people of their own hometown?

On the third day of this extreme heat wave which claimed over 800 lives, it was the Army that stepped forward to manage the chaos; that same Army that was thrashed by Zardari a few days earlier. I heard a famous TV anchor comment that doing so is the Army’s job – in addition to the government.

I ask people with this mindset, why is it the Army’s job to pull the state out of crises, while these so-called leaders hibernate or dash out of the country? I wonder why people vote for them knowing well that in all of these years they have not administered the country properly.

The Sindh CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah is proud to be a “Syed” and an “Ali” yet he has no qualms about what he has not done. With these names and appellations he could have at least kept the sanctity of the names sacred if nothing else. And at 82 years of age, now is it not about time for him to sit back at home and let Karachi breathe a sigh of relief? In any case, at this age he cannot do much except sleep; like he does during the Sindh assembly sessions.

And I hope that, for once, these government functionaries – instead of arriving at a hospital or scene of devastation two days after the event, put up an act in front of the media with made up choked voices and handing out “cash prizes” to the affected families – would maintain the sanity on the occasion and not cause any embarrassment.

Not only this, the amount of hindrance caused in the relief work or any other activity due to security, protocol, media representatives tumbling over each other for an “exclusive” shot, and then finally departing – which can be up to two hours for a 15 minutes visit, I write from personal experience – can prove to be fatal.

And, then, we have the media houses, who on the one hand do not leave any stone unturned for “breaking exclusive news” to add to the viewers agony, are on the other hand vying to take the lead in Gross Rating Points by telecasting Ramadan shows where millions of rupees are given away as gifts, gift hampers, and other top of the line rewards. Meanwhile, they cry foul at the millions spent by the government on nonproductive activities.

If only we - all of us - could stop and think of the proverbial “let him who has not sinned cast the first stone” parable, we would find a sea of change in our lives, works, utterances and even beliefs.

In the past one year, there have been over 2500 deaths, if not more, only in these two crises, Thar and the Karachi heat wave. But all that was done was issue ill-conceived statements and throw lavish iftar parties.

On top of all this, even after Mufti Naeem’s fatwa people are still debating whether to fast or not in this heat? This is absurd as Allah has facilitated his people by allowing qaza fast without feeling guilty of sin.

And then misfortune never comes alone, the gravediggers and the shroud sellers have increased the prices of their work from Rupees 5,000 to 50,000 so that the poor cannot afford burial now. And there’s no one to keep a check on them. This news was not surprising – we saw this happen at the time of the earthquake, too.

Let us not forget that there is another issue that we, as a nation, are not cognizant of and that is global warming. This crisis has shown us where we stand and sadly such calamities are not going to stop. It is about time we took emergency steps to control this situation otherwise we are going to see more deaths in coming years.

If only people had water and electricity things would have been different; but for that we need people with brains and goodwill, not people with a lust for power!