Dr A.H. Khayal In Pakistan, the prices of consumer goods keep rising non-stop. The masses blame the government for the inflation. The masses are ignorant. They should know that it is the inborn nature of our consumer goods to keep becoming more and more expensive. The consumer goods hate to be within the buying capability of the masses. When a common Pakistani touches a potato in a vegetable shop, the potato feels insulted. In order to keep itself away from the lousy buyer, it raises its price. It is a matter of self-dignity for the potato to keep itself as away from the poor buyer as possible. As regards the rich Pakistanis, the story is radically different. The rich Pakistanis love inflation. The more expensive the goods become, the rich Pakistanis buy them in larger quantities. Buying expensive goods in large quantities raises the social status of the rich buyers. There is a very special class of Pakistanis who dont have to buy consumer goods at all. The goods keep voluntarily flinging themselves into the kitchens of the special Pakistanis in abundant quantities. The masses burn with jealousy. Like the prices of the consumer goods, the prices of the petroleum products also keep rising. The railway and bus fares keep rising at a phenomenal rate. For the common Pakistani, travelling between the cities is becoming an unbearable financial ordeal. But the masses need not be depressed. Their primitive ancestors are sending them signals from their graves. The signals are loud and clear. The signals are telling the masses: We used to travel from place to place on camels, on horses, on mules, on donkeys, etc. If you emulate our travelling techniques, petroleum products would set themselves ablaze. It is now the moral obligation of the rulers that they should establish animal breeding farms on a war footing. The farms should produce large numbers of beasts of burden to be used by the masses. The Pakistani masses themselves are beasts of burden for the privileged Pakistani. Imagine human beasts of burden riding on animal beasts of burden for travelling from place to place. Because of extreme inflation, numerous Pakistanis have nothing to eat. In order to relieve themselves of their starvation, they eat themselves. Thus, they migrate to the graveyards and permanently settle there underground. No wonder, Pakistani graveyards are growing more and more populous at a horrific rate. Pakistani inflation is doing with Pakistani masses what the American bombs did with the Iraqi masses for years, and what the American drones are currently doing with the masses in tribal areas. Pakistan is a political marriage hall. Our political parties love marrying each other and divorcing each other. The honeymoonings are very short-lived affairs. A coalition government is a creation of a political marriage. Our federal and provincial governments are generally creations of political marriages. A coalition marriage is essentially a business affair. The marrying partners extract immense monetary advantages out of the marriage. Unfortunately, the coalition marriages hit the masses the hardest. If the masses are to be rescued, the political marriages must be banned. When there would be no coalition marriage and no single party strong enough to form a government on its own, there would be no government. And when there would be no government, there would be no exploitation of the masses. Unfortunately, Pakistan is flooded with horrific inflation, corruption, terrorism, robberies, target killings, etc. These disasters are extremely poisonous. They are destroying Pakistans oxygen. The country is gasping for breath. If the disasters continue hitting, any moment could be the last moment of our dear motherland. Some analysts have warned the government that the countrys collapse is imminent. But the rulers have laughed off the warning. They are sure that the disasters dont have the guts to harm the rulers. They can only destroy the masses. And since the masses are an ugly burden for the country, they must be destroyed lock, stock and barrel. We have experienced all sorts of governments. We have experienced military governments. We have experienced feudal governments. We have experienced bureaucratic governments. And we have experienced democratic governments. Of all these governments, our democracy has been the worst. The misery which the current democracy has inflicted on the masses was never inflicted by any other form of government. The current democracy has demonstrated that democracy is a civilised barbarism. The writer is an academic.