Various sorts of tragedies keep regularly hitting Pakistan. Essentially, Pakistan is a land of tragedies. Let’s have a look at some of these tragedies. One of the tragedies is a tragedy of the chairs. We have two gigantic chairs: The presidential chair and the prime ministerial chair. Unfortunately, we have never had giant-size leaders for the giant-size chairs. Since the Quaid’s departure, we have been filling the gigantic chairs with political Lilliputians. The gigantic disproportion between the chair-occupiers and the chairs has been a tremendous national tragedy.
If for the giant-size chairs, the giant-size leaders are not available, the chairs must be kept empty. Filling them with political pygmies means insulting the chairs. Unfortunately, the constitution commands that the chairs must not be kept empty. They must be filled with whatever stuff is available. Obviously, the constitution believes that something is better that nothing.
Would that the constitution knew that in the case of supreme political affairs, the something-is-better-than-nothing philosophy is a tragic philosophy. Filling the supreme chairs with something is a tragedy. No wonder, our national misery is a creator of this tragedy.
Here is another tragedy. Unemployment, starvation and diseases have become permanent miseries of the masses. No government has ever tried to rescue the masses from their miseries. The miseries have been relentlessly crushing the masses. Any international human rights agency is welcome to Pakistan to see for itself the crushing process. Probably, the politicians believe that the masses have become addicted to their miseries; let them enjoy their miseries. What a tragedy!
Here is another tragedy. The rulers love visiting foreign lands. They undertake foreign visits torrentially. The visits cost the poor country phenomenal sums of money. The poor masses complain: “The money which the rulers spend abroad can rid us of our extreme poverty.” Poor, miserable masses! They just don’t know that the rulers don’t undertake foreign tours for fun. It is their medical need.
The Pakistani atmosphere is highly suffocating for them. The foreign tours improve their health. They come back with better health and serve the country. The country’s pollution again damages their health and they again fly back. It goes on like this.
Here is another tragedy. Almost every government has said that Pakistan’s gravest problem is the dearth of economic resources. What a horrific tragedy! As regards economic resources, Pakistan is one of the luckiest countries. But as regards the distribution of the resources, Pakistan is one of the unluckiest countries. It is not a dearth of resources but a horrific economic injustice, which has been the gravest problem of Pakistan.
Pakistan is an ideological State. The ideology aims at widening the economic gap between the masses and the rulers. Under the Pakistani ideology, it is the obligation of the rulers that they must ensure that the gap keeps on widening incessantly. The rulers have been performing their ideological duty absolutely splendidly. As a result of their efforts, Pakistan has become a theatre of two fundamentally different civilisations: The civilisation of the mammoth misery of masses and the civilisation of the mammoth affluence of the rulers. What a tragedy!
Here is another tragedy. According to international estimates, Pakistan is one of the corruptest countries. Corruption has progressed in Pakistan at the speed of a leopard pursuing a prey. If it continues progressing at this speed, the day is not far off when it would win the top position and all the other corrupt countries would feel ashamed of themselves.
Here is another tragedy. Pakistan has been an amphitheatre of democratic pantomimes and martial law forces. The only difference between the traditional theatre and our democratic-cum-martial law theatre is that whereas, in the traditional theatre the performers perform exclusively for the entertainment of the audience, in the democratic-cum-martial law theatre the performers perform exclusively for themselves.
Our latest tragedy is the memogate tragedy. So far, this tragedy has been different from our previous tragedies. This tragedy is shrouded in mysteries. Because of these mysteries, the masses are finding it difficult to breathe normally.
The writer retired as professor of the Department of English, Government College University, Lahore.