“And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing façade are all being rolled away –
Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about”
- S. Eliot
The sense of expectancy associated with every little happening is only growing more desperate with the passage of time. Doomsday scenarios are enacted around every voice raised to express a grievance. And if a few of them join in a chorus, predictions go rolling out for the fall of the government and other equally alarming eventualities.
This feature has assumed venomous pungency since the induction into office of the current government. The reason is not difficult to fathom. This is not a government in the traditional mould. In the past, only parties would change. Nothing else did. The core objectives remained defiling the state and its interests to fill some pockets. Even the methods did not change.
Extricating the country from the poisonous tentacles of the former beneficiary elite has been nothing short of a miracle. Though the struggle is ongoing, the foundations of a genuine welfare state have been laid. The indicators, all around, are turning positive. The priorities are right. The spirit is alive. The country is regaining its rightful place in the international comity fighting for causes which really matter
Imran Khan assumed charge as Prime Minister with accountability as his foundational ethos. Much is said about the failure of the drive, but that cannot be attributed either to any lack of effort or sincerity. The reasons why there have been no speedy convictions in spite of ample evidence being available are contained in the kind of system we have structured in the country and how it has been corrupted over decades of flagrant misuse by everyone who assumed power, both of the civilian and military brands.
They used it not to cleanse the country of corruption and rampant malpractices and put it on an upward trajectory to bring relief to the people. Their singular objective was to perpetuate their hold on the levers of power so that they could not only prolong their tenure indefinitely, but also make sure that their next generations would ascend the throne when they would leave. Instead of transparent and accountable political parties which are essential to the sustenance and strengthening of democracies, our leaders bred family dynasties to give continuity to their exclusive control of the country.
This meant that the institutions which are so essential for cultivating transparency and efficient governance were literally steamrolled into abject surrender. In order to do so, dishonourable lackeys and bootleggers were packed into every institution to take command from the leaders, or their chosen cronies. So, we were left with a country that did not bank on its institutional framework for induction of merit into various administrative echelons. Instead, it depended solely on the whims and largesse of its rulers regarding how it would function and who would be involved in doing it.
Though we talk much about democracy and its centrality to the progress of the country, over time, hidden behind a thin veneer, all antecedents of autocracy were put in place: a despotic mindset, dysfunctional institutions, an absence of transparency, and rank patronage of corruption and plunder of the state. So, a country that was rapidly taking off back in the 1960s and was looked upon as a role model by the developing world to emulate, took a plunge into despair and despondency. It was with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that the journey of regression started which later blossomed under the patronage of the dictator Zia. We remain buried under the growing weight of this divided polity.
It was obvious that the plunge could not be allowed to continue. But there was no one, in uniform or in civvies, who had the brain to understand the malady and the courage to initiate steps to remedy it. The slogans were raised aplenty, but they remained mere slogans. At a concrete level, their policies only aggravated the plunge into the pit till there was no space left to fall further. We were resting at the bottom.
Rot had set in through a combination of debilitating reasons, not the least an abject absence of sincerity with the state and the effort to unhook it from corruption and its attendant ills. That is where it stood when Imran Khan took over with a promise to bring about a change
But even he could not fully understand how deep the roots of corruption were dug and how powerful and connected the mafias were who had been uprooted through the vote in 2018. In this battle, and true to his own prediction, all of them joined hands against his person. They knew that the change would mean their political obliteration and that of their coming generations. It could not be allowed.
In this effort, they had the unstinted support of their bootleggers who had been injected systematically into various institutions to serve their cause. They were present in the bureaucracy, in the police, in the judiciary, in the NAB and all other institutions which mattered. The job assigned to them was to sabotage from within all the corrective measures taken by the government. They set about their task in a clinical manner by thwarting the varied initiatives to put things right
.So, what we really have at this juncture comprises a system rotten to the core through decades of grave afflictions, economic woes inherited from ancestors, a non-functional institutional framework infested with cronies and bootleggers on the take from their masters whose whims they are still beholden to, a ballistic media which is not fed the crumbs it has been used to in the past, a defeated beneficiary leadership conspiring to revive its erstwhile hold, and a non-conducive national, regional and international environment making it difficult for the country to take quick steps to recover from the pit.
In addition to that, Imran Khan also has to tackle the frustrations which have accumulated in the last three years by not being able to implement the reform and regeneration policy that he had envisioned. This has been principally because of the devilish machinations of the past ruling mafias by exploiting their people placed at all key positions in the institutional hierarchy of the country, a situation further aggravated by a razor-thin majorities with which Khan rules the centre and the province of Punjab. This does not leave any space for him to enact constitutional changes to facilitate his reform programme.
With a little over two years left to the next elections, there is a dearth of time to put long-term policies in place. Immediate steps are needed to stem the rot and salvage a country that was envisioned by Imran Khan at the beginning of his tenure in the government. In spite of dogged and dug-in resistance, a lot has been achieved in terms of transforming the face of the country and putting a transparent institutional framework in place. What is needed is to direct the focus towards the shape of policies and the people entrusted with the task of carrying them through.
Extricating the country from the poisonous tentacles of the former beneficiary elite has been nothing short of a miracle. Though the struggle is ongoing, the foundations of a genuine welfare state have been laid. The indicators, all around, are turning positive. The priorities are right. The spirit is alive. The country is regaining its rightful place in the international comity fighting for causes which really matter.
The pillars are in place to sustain the edifice of a new Pakistan. Having waded through a river of fire, there is a carnival of hope beckoning.
