A tangled web

Oh, what a tangled web has been woven - and by those that scheme and practise to deceive. The 17 members of the country's Supreme Court have in unison acted to attempt somehow to untangle the contentious web. The disentanglement as it stands has proved joyous to many, a headache to others (though they are putting on a brave face), dismissible by a few, and some have taken it as displeasing in that it is felt the honourable judges have overstepped their set mark, even accusing them of dabbling where they should not - strangely, in the issue of morality. Whatever, the country has to live with the decision - which seems to be yet another crisis landed on us? Crises have existed since the country was born and it has been said forever that it stands at a crossroads. For 62 years, that crossroads has existed without any government or leader managing to either turn right or left and set an honest true course - it has been straight on, downhill, all the way. So let's stop talking about crossroads and try and come up with a government that will get on with allowing the nation to live life as it should be lived. And this is not going to be possible if we perpetuate a load of politicians who have been around and with us since 1985 or 1988 - just two examples being the Mian of Raiwind and the incumbent head of state residing in his ruling party's headquarters. The latest hiccup has been brought about by corruption, not the normal corruption that exists within normal bounds in all democratic or undemocratic dispensations, but corruption of a glaring and malevolent type - both material and moral that has bankrupted the country materially and morally. Now, when the party in power, the PPP-Z, all vestiges of the original PPP of father and daughter having been cleanly washed away, has within the ranks of its government a man appointed as a federal minister (of what matters not a whit) who can sit in front of the television cameras and claim that "corruption is our right" as did one Sardar Abdul Qayyum Jatoi when appearing on one of the seriously challenged talk show on December 14, how are the people expected to react? Hopefully with disgust, and hopefully that disgust will be manifested when they, said to be the final arbiters of a government's performance, next proceed to the ballot box. That will be the greatest test as to whether or not they really care about who sits on top of them. The NRO is dead, it is deemed never to have existed. But it did, and over 8,000 honest or dishonest citizens took shelter behind it and for a little time had their alleged or imaginary sins swept under the national carpet. Thanks to the Supreme Court the carpet has been rolled back and now comes the sorting out problem. For the moment, the sorting out has been pathetic, with the resignation of one sole man - Saeed Mehdi. The rest who were not expected to manifest any norms of decency or morality are busy trying to justify a multitude of wrongs and transform them into one right. Are we now embarking upon a lengthy and messy battle for the survival of the PPP, not of the system? Paeans are being poured upon Mian Nawaz Sharif for his out of character patience and forbearance, but no one is sure as to what is his ultimate game plan. How the army feels about the demise of the NRO is another unknown. It is not entirely divorced from the blowback of the now non-existent legislation as reportedly its chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, in 2007 at the head of the ISI was one of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf's chief negotiators when it was cooked up at the behest of Benazir Bhutto and the US. What are Kayani's private musings on this outcome in which he once had a stake one does not know. International fears are that with the squabbling and wrangling, the feeble attempts to camouflage a mighty wrong, the government will be sidetracked from its nemesis, the terrorism factor which will not go away. The army continues to be berated for not doing 'enough' to satisfy the powers that keep it going finance and armament-wise, and the suicide bomb blasts continue unabated. Verily, Pakistan can be said to be a neurologically challenged country all at sea with itself in which what is happening should not be happening and what is not happening should be happening. Are these men and women playing at politics, blotted with the stigmata of corruption, aware of the dangers that lurk around them? Where are friendly neighbours? China is too busy keeping ahead of India on all counts and India is still fuming in frustration over Mumbai putting blame where it cannot ascertain blame lies. Afghanistan, despite the Zardari-Karzai public embraces has never been a fan of Pakistan, right from the very beginning when it showed its hand in the UN. Iran is worried about Jundullah and is wary. As for the US, relations are said to be bordering on the contentious and publicly Pakistan has shown a tooth or two - but who knows what grovelling goes on behind closed doors? We need to stop whingeing and whining about how the US has in the past deserted us in our times of need and get on with normalising relations and realising how exactly we stand in relation to the superpower. If we cannot, as we say, do without it, then we must learn to live with it. The writer is a freelance columnist.