Staying relevant

Politics is a wickedly brutal game. The players involved have to risk life and limb just to stay relevant because being out of sight and out of mind quickly translates to being out of power as well. So, politicians have to employ tactics ranging from the absurd to the most absurd, just to remain in the national spotlight. Be it street protests, project inaugurations or just plain old statements to the media, rest assured that what passes for actual content in Pakistani politics is, more often than not, just a veneer applied to the motive of staying politically relevant. In this game of relevance, there are no morals or ethics and whosoever can capitalise on the ever-fleeting moment stands victorious for a brief while, until another politician claims the burning spotlight.
Similarly, much in the vein of desperate times calling for desperate measures, last week’s outburst by former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-Chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, falls into the category of a desperate performance in the theatre of Pakistani politics. Zardari did not mince any words in his harangue, which largely targeted the country’s military establishment and the speech was a marked departure from his peace making tone of yesteryears. Almost immediately, the media went into a frenzy of epic proportions and the TV analysts have been splitting hairs over the issue to no end since then.
In the background of it all is the increased involvement of the Rangers in running the affairs of the government in Sindh. The Rangers were given the stewardship duties of the law and order situation in Karachi, but that mandate has since metamorphosed into direct governance in Karachi and other areas of the province. It is true that the security personnel have veered away from their original task but in a country like ours, where the affairs of one department are intertwined with many others and where self-aggrandisement is the name of the game, it is hardly surprising that this has happened. Furthermore, it is ironic that the PPP was the very party that gave the security institutions a wide berth during their stint in the federal government.
Perhaps the security personnel were getting a bit too close to the PPP’s jugular and diversion tactics had to be employed in order to create enough breathing room. The argument that the PPP is making is that politicians alone are not the only guilty parties in town and that former military men have also made hay, as the sun shone brightly on their respective tenures. The PPP chief warned that if any attempts are made to target the PPP, his lips will not stay sealed for long and he will spill out the dirty details of what goes on in the convoluted corridors of power in Pakistan. It has been apparent for some time that the networks of corruption run far and deep in our country, so this revelation is hardly surprising. But by lashing out wildly at an institution that is currently enjoying a rise in popularity, without giving any proof for its own innocence, the PPP has further incriminated itself by pre-emptively playing the victim card instead of absolving itself of allegations of wrongdoing. Therefore, the perceptions of its corrupt practices have been cemented.
Ultimately however, the ones waiting with bated breath for a political maelstrom will be left high and dry. Already, as if aware that the former President has bitten off more than he can chew, his party is engaged in damage control by entertaining everyone left, right and centre of the political spectrum, in a bid to placate ruffled feathers and forge alliances for rainy days. In this regard, it is interesting to see that the ones who have flocked to the PPP’s side in its time of need are the ones who have benefitted from military regimes the most. As I mentioned earlier, staying relevant is the edict by which political parties live. While the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) are hogging the spotlight for themselves — and also showing little interest in the PPP’s revivalist campaign — those that have been left out have to do something, even if it compromises their shaky ethical values.
In this scenario however, there really seems to be no hope for a revival of the PPP through staged antics such as these. Not only are the other important political parties (namely the PTI and the PML-N) shying away from ending up on the wrong side of the military establishment, the PPP itself stands to make little gains from this political posturing due to its diminished clout at the provincial and federal level. Politically, the party is not strong enough to take on the military, which no party ever is, and the ragtag alliances that the PPP seems to be stitching together will fall apart at the first hint of trouble.
All of this political drama has been unfolding as the government has once again been caught unaware of the burgeoning electricity demand. Consequently, large swathes of the populace in urban centres and rural areas alike are being subjected to endless hours of power cuts. The problem has somewhat been compounded by the onset of the month of Ramzan, as well as one of the fiercest of heatwaves across the country. Now, the endurance of the people in affairs both spiritual and worldly is being tested. One can only hope that as the mercury drops in the coming days, it will have an impact on the political climate of the country as well.

The author is a freelance columnist with degrees in political science and international relations