We are currently being forced to watch and reap the fruits of what can aptly be termed as the worst political era in our history. The business of ‘leadership’ has always been deemed dignified, wise and to be taken seriously. Pakistanis are however, at the mercy of corrupt and morally bereft political leaders, who are surrounded by a coterie of sycophantic courtiers with character qualities identical to their masters. For all intents and purposes, we – the people are at this point in time being ruled by dynasties, whose appetite for looting money is insatiable. In their blind pursuit of power (and more wealth), they are repeatedly voted into power by a vote bank that is deaf, blind or suffering from cognitive deficiency, which renders them unable to accept or face the truth.
We have seen what one good man backed by a strong unadulterated institution can accomplish in a mere three-year tenure. Unfortunately, our politicians do not have the moral fibre to digest this fact, since by doing so they would be admitting their own failures and corrupt nature. It comes as no surprise therefore, when these individuals (wittingly or unwittingly) provide leverage to the enemy, by taking decisions and making the wrong moves.
The public impression following Indian aggression across the Line of Control (which continues as this piece goes to print) was that the political government appeared to be going soft in response. The notion was further strengthened, when viewed in light of the military reaction on the LoC, which was aggressively effective, befitting and resonant with the pulse of the nation.
Our eastern neighbour had long accused Pakistan and the Pakistan Army as sponsors of ‘terror’. This propaganda was ‘gobbled up’ by a gullible international community, without taking into account that it was India, which was actively engaged in fomenting terrorism in Karachi and terrorist activity within Balochistan. It was perhaps the capture of a serving Indian Naval Officer (seconded to RAW) that put his masters on the back foot. The recent breach of national security, provided the enemy with a much needed fillip to put new vigour into their information offensive. The ‘circumstantial finger’ pointed at a ‘small group and its leader’ from the inner sanctums of our own power corridors. Like all other things that happen in the ‘Land of the Pure’, this ‘breach’ appears to have been brushed under the carpet following the ‘resignation’ of the Information Minister’.
We were made a laughing stock, when extracts from a private conversation between the US President-elect (the controversial) Donald Trump and our Chief Executive was officially released to the media. According to the release, Mr Trump eulogised the PM and his leadership, but this immature attempt at domestic image building at a time when the ruling family was defending itself in the Supreme Court in a corruption related lawsuit, violated all diplomatic norms. The end result was the exact opposite of the one intended and the Pakistani leadership (and indirectly, the state) became the ‘butt of derision’ on international media.
Blissfully ignoring events along the LoC and Modi’s threat to block rivers, oblivious of what was happening to our image and unmindful of the need to uphold national dignity, our Advisor on Foreign Affairs was then asked to lead a Pakistani Delegation to the ‘Heart of Asia’ moot in India. As expected, the delegation was diplomatically insulted and even stopped from talking to the media, with the result that it returned in a huff to Pakistan prematurely.
And now the other part of the ‘dynastic merry-go-round’ has appeared on the murky political horizon, announcing that he would be our PM in 2018. If the will of the people is to embrace someone who cannot speak our language properly, whose speeches are memorised or read from a script in Roman Urdu and who is as divorced from our culture as ‘fire is from water’ – then so be it. If it is our destiny to be ruled by those who were born and bred in the luxury of their palaces unsoiled by squalor and poverty to lead the teeming millions that live in this miserable environment – then so be it. If it is our destiny that kingly dynasties should ‘lead’ us to ruin – then so be it.