Agent Provocateur Every year the upside of June is an abundance of mangoes and the dow-nside is the federal budget. This June is no different either. For whatever reasons, the people get no relief. The allocation of resources has all gone to the predictable heads like defence, pay raises, an increase in the Presidency and Prime Ministers expenses. The sectors of health and education have been left to languish among the unimportant and poorly funded, because they can make a difference to the teeming millions who have had the misfortune to be born here. The sad part is, that the teeming millions cant even enjoy eating mangoes any more which, like most other commodities they need, are unaffordable for them. We have experimented enough with ideas, with half-baked ideologies, with different styles of government. It is now time to go back and begin again. Lets try all that we did not. Lets focus on Pakistan and its people, its culture, its natural inclinations. Had we had less selfish rulers in these past 62 odd years, there is no doubt in anybodys mind that Pakistan had the potential to be as harmonious and as progressive as, say, Malaysia. There is a famous joke about someone who was very seriously ill. The whole village came to suggest various recipes and medicines for curing his ailment. While most of the advice involved bitter medicines, a person standing in the doorway said: Innu doodh jalebi deyo. The patient, on hearing this recommendation, weakly uttered: Booey aaley di wi gal suno With Pakistan being a similar patient, a recommendation came out of America, by a well known analyst recently which, to me, sounded as good as doodh jalebi Writing in the influential newspaper of the US Congress The Hill, Thomas Houl-ahan wrote an article with the title Pakistan; Time for the United States to choose. He advised the American government to side with the forces of law who were trying to keep Pakistan from collapsing under the weight of government lawlessness. Houlahan is a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and also served as an election monitor during the 2008 elections in Pakistan. The US government, which has zero tolerance for rule breaking by its own citizens, just looks the other way when it comes to governments they are supporting for their own short-term benefits as they did with Musharrafs regime. Houlahan quotes a couple of recent examples of decisions taken by the Supreme Court of Pakistan which, should serve as a red flag to our government about what the people running that country are up to. The article goes on to discuss how the PPP government is fighting accountability tooth and claw. It also says that some PPP activists in the United States have hired a well-connected lobbyist to press its case against the judiciary in the press and in Congress. The group also has its own website which devotes half its space to glorifying the current government and the other half to disparaging the Supreme Cou-rt and the Chief Justice. He asks the American government to make clear to the Zardari government that it will find no backing or even sympathy for attacks on Pakistans judiciary. At the risk of repeating myself, koi booey aaley di wi gal sunay Fauzia Wahab, the lady with a penchant for rolling her eyes and getting exasperated ever so quickly, reiterated the other day: Of course, it was the gove-rnment who reinstated the judges in 2009. She went on to say that there was no pressure on the government to do so It was only just over one year ago. So her memory cannot be so failing as not to remember when a sea of people removed the containers placed to block the roads and when the administration, outnumbered by millions, just calmly stood aside and watc-hed, as the will of the people prevailed. And how the march continued to swell in size as it progressed on the GT road and how on that night, the most silent of the majority decided to stand up and be counted and to join the long march on its last leg. You are lying through your teeth Ms Wahab, when you say it was the government who reinstated the judges. It did have many chances to do so but it opted not to go that route and that is how history will record it. Postscript: A lot of social activity in Islamabad is based around and involves the diplomatic community, it being the federal capital and all that Half the day of the many socialites found here is taken up just in keeping tabs on who is leaving and who is arriving, who is charming and who is not and so on. This is to inform the interested that the British High Commission has recently got a new High Commissioner. This is to beware all those who have not, as yet, made his acquaintance that he appears to be extremely friendly, misleadingly young looking and charming to boot. No sign of the famous British stiff upper lip there at all Up to now if a popularity poll was to be conducted in Islamabad as to the most liked (and most invited to Pakistani homes) Ambassador, the Argentinean Ambassador would win hands down with a comfortable lead, way ahead of the others. If he is not careful though, there are possibilities of the new arrival catching up with him fast The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: tallatazim@yahoo.com