Ugly Trends in Politics
Ugly Trends in Politics
Editorial
Editorial

Unfolding of recent political events reflect egregiously ugly trends in Pakistan. Politics of trading foul verbal confrontations has morphed into uncouth attacks. Minister for Foreign Affairs Khwaja Asif was doused with ink on his face while he was speaking to a PML-N workers’ convention followed by another shoe-throwing incident at PML-N supremeo the next day.

Unfolding of recent political events reflect egregiously ugly trends in Pakistan. Politics of trading foul verbal confrontations has morphed into uncouth attacks. Minister for Foreign Affairs Khwaja Asif was doused with ink on his face while he was speaking to a PML-N workers’ convention followed by another shoe-throwing incident at PML-N supremeo the next day.

Condemnable, if it may be, it has rightly bore forest of condemnations for the handlers of attackers on mainstream and social media, sending sentiments of resentment and sorrow over the abhorrence of democratic norms and peaceful political culture by apolitical and obscurantist’s forces at play.

Arguments that Sharif and his party had played second fiddle to the establishment in the past and had amassed illegal wealth do not give licence to anybody to attack anyone’s dignity or person in public while becoming judge, deciding the punishment and execute it right away.

Such trends mock at the legal system that so exhaustively spells out the fundamental rights of the citizens—their right to fair trial, dignity and the privilege of ‘innocent until proved guilty’, not necessarily the other way round. Sadly, these disgraceful trends are the very dragon’s teeth that once so proudly were sown by the insane elements in the saddle.

True, dummy politicians in Pakistan have always felt comfortable enough under the balmy shadow of the establishment tree and its patronage right from the first military intervention in the politics to the present date. But, promoting undeservedly pseudo leadership and systematically corrupting the Pakistan’s political system equally calls for strangulating the powers who have historically played one stooge to gain leverage over the other.

Flipping the pages of history at a cursory glance, one finds that how popular leadership was pushed to the wall by promoting dummies through sheer and naked use of power.

Squaring off the 1973 popular government of National Awami Party (NAP) ignominiously in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, cutting short the political life of hand-picked Muhammad Khan Junejo in 1988, sending into exile the once the blued eyed Nawaz by Musharraf and subsequent change of prime ministers in queue, promoting and buying overnight the loyalties of dummy leaders and creating a new party to place in cockpit following 2002 elections, playing Zardari against Nawaz and vice versa makes guilty both parties for betraying the true ideal of Pakistan that its founders envisaged and political stalwarts spilled blood to attain a Utopia of bliss.

The politics of patronage and playing stooges against each other wears its most horrible attire when it comes to the political landscape of Balochistan. Following 2013 general elections, how was a particular party given the slot of CM-ship is no secrete anymore. Shameful still was the power share deal—Marri Deal—that placed the former PML-N chieftain-cum-politician in power. As regards their performance, that really is a history! Nevertheless, when once the blue-eyed Nawaz spurted out of the good books of establishment, the change of government in Balochistan again ahead of Senate elections, was another ugly trend set by the peddlers of power.

If history has something to offer, excitement must never betray reason as to what climate would prevail for election of Senate Chairman.Having said all, the masses should avoid being a cat’s paw in the hands of one or the other party in the future as they would continue to play this game for self-interests by keeping the masses in marshes of poverty, misery and dejection by design. Therefore, the masses should strive to promote genuine leadership, free and fair elections, independent and efficient judicial system and transparency by upholding an across the board accountability which recently was echoed by some principled and veteran leaders in the Senate.

Hence, dummy politicians should be encircled for looking towards establishment for breaking into power. Establishment for playing such an ugly game. Leaders for betraying the mandate of the masses. Establishment for transgressing their constitutional limits. Politicians for playing with sentiments of the masses.

Establishment for promoting war hysteria and Jihadi spirit. Politicians for corruption. Establishment for being the deity of corruption. Politicians for pushing country to the chasm of backwardness, poverty, unemployment and misery. Establishment for impoverishing the country by supporting proxies. Politicians for lying to the masses. Establishment for institutionalising these trends. Politicians for using religion for political ends. Establishment for using layman as fodder for foreign wars. Politicians for giving in space to establishment on matters of foreign policy.

Establishment for making foreign policy a hostage of aid politics. But, in the course of this encirclement and accountability, sanity must never slip away from the hands of the masses to give way to anarchy and law of jungle.