The Pakistani Spectator

Some people have inquired about my ‘unusually’ quiet stance towards the status quo. Is it a loss of faith? Is it disappointment? Is it apathy and indifference? I’m not quite sure but what I do know is that none of those reactions is helpful.

There is a lot of talk on how Zardari has gone back on written agreements. A while ago, I was watching the Lucman Show, in which the host showed the agreements the Sharif Brothers had signed off with then CEO/Army Chief and the establishment in the presence of our ever reliable and trustworthy ‘allies’; the Sheikhs. By signing on that piece of paper, the brothers had committed themselves to staying out of the political scenario and the country for ten years. These two were the ones who once had the shameless audacity to storm the Supreme Court in a remarkable display of impudence and effrontery. Today, they are the flag-bearers of justice, men of their words and champions of democracy.

This does not mean that I am supportive of the existential political setup. I will not pollute this note by bringing any reflections on Mr. 10 percent to paper. Pervez Ilahi used to sign on agreements with a pencil when he was Chief Minister just so that he could go back on them. As I look at today’s ‘progressive’ parliament with a 33% representation of women, what I see is the same crooks who looted my country installing their wives, daughters and sons to manipulate and exploit us over and over again. Moonis Ilahi [from the Wharton School of Business], Hamza Shahbaz, Fatima Bhutto, Farzana Raja, Marvi Memon, Sumaira Malik [the firebrand speaker] - the list goes on endlessly. And here some of us thought we had stepped it up by installing these graduates.

Where does that leave us? Is this the sham democracy that we’ll have to support continually to be a part of the election process? Am I being realistic here? Who else do we have to vote for? Should we go for a heuristic, trail and error approach? Does Pakistan have enough in it for us to play such a card? So what and who do I vouch for?

I vouch for change.
I vouch for educating the masses; education that corresponds to awareness of the fundamental rights that every citizen has by virtue of the constitution regardless of how distorted and amended it appears over paper.
I vouch for a people who will not allow feudalism to influence their choice and will stand up against injustice.
I vouch for a people who will not come out on the streets just because they loved the fiery speeches of a leader and the fake promises made in them only to be let down and to reinstate him as their chief just because there was no other representative to elect.
I vouch for better retrospection and the importance of not forgetting what history has taught us.

I vouch for the acceptance of the fact that these two families are not the only two options to vote for. But if we have to stick it out with them till non-feudal, educated, middle class starts entering the political mainstream and becoming a part of the political process, we should at the very least keep them on their toes. With a much more informed media and a decidedly less partisan judiciary with a want to be more independent, we should spread awareness and consequently use, our rights to freedom of expression and association. To continually remind them, that they rule but only to serve.

If we don’t let democracy prevail then either we’ll have to subscribe to something along the lines of the French or the Iranian Revolution or wait till the Taliban extend their rule all over the country. Lest we forget, there is always the military to call upon in dire times-we can always curse and blame it once it has failed politically.