I had decided to take a break from the irksome monotony of the Pakistani political scene, which, despite warnings, moaning, demands and reprimands from all quarters, promises nothing, but despondency, trade-marking, continued insensitivity and apathy of its faceless leadership to public issues, sentiment and national ethos; be it the Kashmir or the water issue with India, energy crisis, civil war-like targeted killings in Karachi or virulent attacks by coalition partners against each other. But one cannot stay aloof, looking at the precipice towards which our leadership was driving the nation. To this leadership, nothing but staying in power matters, even if it means continuing to play a mercenary role for its foreign occupiers, or opting for ideologically moribund bedfellows for expediency. Prominent among its achievements are blatant defiance of the judiciary and itself making a mockery of the Constitutional Order it avows to uphold, protecting corruption, eroding merit and patronising its cronies, squandering and stashing away scarce public funds, failing to present a national programme or policy on domestic and international issues, inability to arrest energy shortages and breakdowns, bringing the countrys industry to a grinding halt, and presenting a paralysed state apparatus with relentless price hikes, blasts, drone attacks and target killings, as gifts of democracy to the masses. Indecision, lack of transparency and commitment confound the ruling leadership and makes a laughing stalk of them. Those who, not too long ago, made jokes out of abbreviated title of dictator Ziaul Haq, i.e. CMLA (Chief Martial Law Administrator), going repeatedly back on his word, to in effect mean 'Contrary to My Last Announcement, were today caught re-enacting the pantomime ad nauseam. For all its ills, these stakeholders to power finding hard who to blame, refuse to look inwards into their own backyard, and either hold responsible some 'hidden hands, national outfits outlawed on foreign bidding without evidence, foreign hand, global recession, internal intrigues, and if nothing else, the countrys security agencies as they were working for the enemy, or the media which according to them were exceeding their brief; the case in point being the excessive exposure of the slinging match between the MQM Chief Altaf Hussain and Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, former PPP Interior Minister Sindh, whose conscience has enamoured him to come out with startling revelations on oath over the Holy Book, causing a national stir. Although one finds it rather farfetched that the MQM Chief would confide in someone like Dr Mirza belonging to a rival political party about his support to dismemberment plans in cahoots with the British government, the futuristic wish map of the region displayed as a scoop by Altaf to his marathon video press conference viewers, had already been widely circulated over the net and was no news. One thing though is common in the statements of the two, that our overseas 'friends had long been working overtime to further weaken or disintegrate Pakistan, particularly ever since its nuclear detonations that have been an eyesore for many, as has been Pakistani ISIs stellar performance in frustrating many a sinister plans against the motherland. And while many questioned the wisdom of affording such a marathon exposure to the MQM Chief by the media, besides his frequently televised telephone addresses from exile in London, I for one think that his lack of substance has been thoroughly exposed through this overexposure. But whatever the intrinsic value of Mirzas bold diatribe against the MQM, the joke has gone on for far too long, and it was time that the suo moto notice of the Karachi situation by the Supreme Court, carries out incisive scrutiny of Mirza sahibs statements on Quranic oath, identifies and punishes the extortionists and decides once for all, as to who was compromising the interests of the motherland. But such has been the sense of priorities of the present government dispensation that at this critical impasse in national life where national security should always occupy top priority and protection of life and property of ordinary citizens, besides securing them shelter and a square meal should be foremost on its agenda, it chooses to embroil the nation into innocuous non-issues like revival or otherwise of local bodies and creation of additional provinces for expediency, rather than administrative reasons. Declaring to scrap Musharrafs local government and reverting to the time tried commissionerate system in Sindh, as had been done in other provinces, but retracting within 48 hours under duress from the MQM; placing curbs on the movement of American diplomats (mostly proven CIA operatives) within the country, but lifting them after a few half measures, and relaxing them to an extent that the US Ambassador and other 'officials have been seen freely interfering in purely domestic Pakistani affairs that is none of their business, all this tells a very sorry tale about the mettle of Pakistani leadership. Knowing fully well the Zionist agenda in the region, particularly in Pakistan, one is aghast to see that the American operatives continue the masquerade across the country freely meeting people, and doling out money to those demanding separate provinces of which evidence was provided over a TV channel several months back, and fomenting trouble and daring renegade elements in the Seraiki belt and Balochistan, while our leadership continues its deep slumber. Is it now time to drop anchor and flush out the enemy agents operating as mercenaries, be they guised as NGOs receiving lavish monetary assistance (no wonder directly), or hired for their so-called security agencies by our providers? The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: zaheerbhatti1@gmail.com