By Saeed Qureshi
Imran Khan the PTI chief has thrown a challenge to the rampant
and repulsive status quo and it is a laudable mission. No doubt the incumbent
government of PMNL came to power through the popular mandate but it has failed
to address the most pressing problems of the masses and also of the society.
Mr. Khan has questioned the validity of an electoral
system that throws up only the rich families and individuals imbued with vested
interests. These dynastic MNAs and Senators mostly turn out to be self serving
and incompetent.
Imran Khan has proven to be uncompromising and undaunted on
his demands and can be the forerunner of a historic and monumental
transformation if not revolution to dismantle the stinking status-quo. What is
status quo? The status quo is that the poor
and lowly would remain stuck up in misery, poverty and degradation while the
rich and upper classes would continue enhancing their fortunes and wealth
without inhibition.
There is a glaring and deplorable yawning chasm between elite
and the downtrodden and it is widening as ever. The majority of the people in
Pakistan are exposed to the existentialism challenge. It means to eke out wages
for barest minimum living.
The status quo also manifests in proliferation of sectarian
Islam, poor governance, widespread corruption, weak economy, fragile law and
order, endemic violence and abysmal civic amenities. Pakistan is a country that
has been ruled by incompetent rulers, cutthroat thieves, inside traders,
traitors, loan takers and drunks.
The impunity and influence of the privileged classes is
so rampant and overbearing that they take huge loans and have these written
off. In contrast a common man suffers direly if he cannot repay the
installments even of a modest loan taken for house or small business.
It is a country that is the breeding place for religious
extremism along with terrorism, corruption. It is here that the police and
judiciary are for sale and where justice is a sheer mockery and is hijacked and
manipulated by the powerful and the rich.
In this land political and social emancipation,
individual liberties, diversity of opinion, or economic empowerment for all are
mere hollow slogans not to be materialized. It is here that inhuman institutions
of fiefdoms (big landlords), brutal Tribalism, rigorous religious exploitation,
fake saints and shamans remain in full bloom.
You may
compare very few countries with Pakistan in an unremitting profusion of corruption,
bribery, target and sectarian killings, religious oppression, smuggling,
abductions, tax evasion, rape and gross misuse of public office.
It is in Pakistan
that food stuff is willfully adulterated; the drugs and medicine are spurious
both in the hospitals and drug stores. It is in Pakistan where hospitals and
health centers steel the kidneys of their patients and where human life loses
its significance and sanctity due to the carelessness at the hands of fake and
phony doctors.
In Pakistan there has always been a breakdown of basic
services leading to the degrading quality of life with perennial food shortage,
inflated prices, electricity and water crises, lawlessness and unemployment and
no social safety nets and rule of law.
It is in Pakistan that democracy is like window dressing.
The democracy and elections are mere farcical as only the privileged, wealthy
classes, the same families and clans and rough necks and Waderas win elections.
Those elected members with stiff collars, expensive attire, slick limousines,
fat bellies, stacks of money in their coffers, ensconced by bodyguards come to
the assemblies and Senate as if an opera or a glamorous stage show is to be watched
and enjoyed.
Most of these elected representatives are illiterate, without
vision, uncouth and political pygmies. They are elected over and over again on
the strength of their money, clan, tribe, religious turf or because of fear and
their notoriety for revenge and brutality in the community. And yet they come
to the parliament rarely. They have scant interest for participation in the debates
and merely raise their hands in favor or against a motion.
It is here that after 67 years of its existence Pakistan
lags behind other countries in properly managing such vital sectors of public
welfare as education, health, housing, transportation, sanitation old age care,
law enforcement, environmental protection in order to bring this country at par with the modern societies
even marginally.
The people wallow in dirt, dung, filth, smoke and noise
and pollution from rickshaws, horse driven carts, overcrowded ramshackle buses.
It is here that electricity and water
are rare commodities and all these 67 years were wasted without overcoming
these indispensable needs.
The Constitution Avenue is not like Tehrir Square of
Egypt that swept away a powerful tyrant Hosni Mubarak who ruled that country
for almost 32 years. Yet it is mini Tehrir Square. Tehrir Square is in the
middle of the Cairo where all facilities such as food, water and tenting were
available.
The Constitution Avenue is a narrow strip where
conditions for long sit-ins are extremely inhospitable. Yet despite all the
hardships particularly the sizzling summer, the dedication, resilience and
steadfastness of Imran Khan, his close
aides and the demonstrators both men and women is exemplary and speaks for a
deep commitment to their cause and conviction.
Truthfully Imran Khan’s emphasis on reforming the
electoral system is pivotal to the flowering and inception of a genuine
democratic tradition in Pakistan. If Imran Khan succeeds in bringing about a
clean, accountable, transparent and tampering-free election system in Pakistan,
he would make history and indeed put Pakistan on the road to a true
representative system of government that Abraham Lincoln described as “of the
people, by the people, for the people”.
Pakistan direly needs a new social contract as well as a new
constitution that gives an ensured hope, a new promising destiny and a great
future to Pakistan and its citizens on equal basis and in disregard of such
narrow consideration as sect, race, the financial status, the rural and
countryside, the privileged and downtrodden, the landlord and serf and so on.
All the nation building institutions need drastic and
fundamental transformation for good and efficient governance and to make
Pakistan a Progressive, egalitarian and tolerant country. The writ of law has
to be enforced against all kinds of criminals from street vendor to a mill
owner. The abominable colonial vestige called fiefdom has to be abolished.
More provinces are
inevitable for devolution of powers and for rapid development of all the regions.
The enforcement of judicial integrity and razor thin accountability would impel
all departments from a municipal committee to the presidency to be honest and
efficient.
Let us give a chance to Imran Khan to knock down a system
that is outright inhuman and exploitative and contrary to the stability,
integrity, prosperity and uplift of Pakistan.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment