Daily Times

We, the first-born free generation of Pakistan, have experienced both the rise and fall of our own nation. First there were the ‘toadies’ and then the ‘lotas’ who managed to take control of the country themselves, got rid of the principled workers of the movement and eventually caused its decline. Since 1958 nation building has been replaced by empire strengthening. It has perhaps turned the country into the largest orphanage of the world housing close to 180 million orphans with no future. A passport to exit is their only chance to make it. These foreign exchange remittances from expatriates keep us afloat today.
In order to survive it is important to understand the phenomenon of ‘toadism’ and ‘lotacracy’. A toady is a person who praises and helps powerful people to get their approval, and indulges in distasteful and unprincipled acts to gain favour. After the Lahore Resolution of 1940, when Pakistan emerged as a reality, the toadies joined the Muslim League in herds. They were advised by their colonial masters to become a part of the movement. Being locals and sons of the soil they gradually managed to get rid of the founding fathers and entered the corridors of power through the back door.
Once in positions of authority, the toadies then introduced the lotas. A lota is defined as a water container with a round bottom. Muslims are obligated to use it to wash their private parts to keep them clean. Historically, they were made of steel or copper and carried some weight. They could easily gyrate and change positions but would not tilt over like the plastic lotas available today in all sizes.
Growing up in a Muslim League family with the Quaid’s portrait in every room, we had to endure daily tirades against the ‘red shirts’ led by Ghaffar Khan who was also called ‘sarhadi Gandhi’. The Muslim League believed in a strong centre and a federal structure of democracy while the red shirts, who ruled the frontier province, propagated a con-federal structure with provincial autonomy. Both parties believed in divergent ideologies and were led by ideologues that opposed but respected each other’s positions. There was no room for toadism and lotacracy. My father, the leaguer, never approved of the red shirts’ politics but always praised their steadfastness to their beliefs. He would say that individuals who compromised on ideology deserve to die. Because of the ideologues corruption was contained in politics till the first khaki takeover that then created the first lota hatchery, which then produced turncoat politicians.
Ayub Khan’s Elected Bodies Disqualification Ordinance (EBDO) knocked out the entire political leadership of the country and replaced it with lotas like Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, Yasin Wattoo, Anwar Bhinder, Khawaja Safdar and Aslam Khattak. Ayub Khan promised Sabaz Bagh but ruled through Kalabagh, the tyrant from Mianwali.
In the 1960s, while still in school, I witnessed a lota gyration. There was an election for the provincial assembly seat from Lahore. Ahmed Saeed Kirmani and Chaudhry Eid Muhammad were contesting. Sensing defeat, Kirmani sahib, while being a part of the opposition Muslim League (Council), started to flirt with the Sarkari Muslim League (Convention) Khawaja Nazimuddin was president of PML (Council), he came to Lahore. There was a huge reception for him at the railway station. A show cause notice was promptly issued to Kirmai sahib and he was expelled from the party. He eventually managed to get a ticket from the PML (Convention) but lost the election to Chaudhry sahib. To compensate Kirmani sahib for his lotacracy, he was then inducted as a provincial minister.
Lotas have proven more deadly than the toadies left behind by the colonial masters as they have no ideology or spine and jump from party to party at will for personal interests. Yasin Wattoo earned the title of Lota-e-Azam (king of the lotas). He started his innings as a provincial minister of Ayub Khan but after Ayub’s fall he joined Bhutto’s PPP and rose to be his lawyer and minister. When Zulfikar Bhutto was prosecuted he joined Zia’s cabinet. After the obliteration of the dictator he then entered the process of reviving his political fortunes with the party in power when he died in a road accident near Okara, paving the way for another lota to emerge by the name of Manzoor Wattoo, who continues to hop from party to party in the same tradition.
As a nation, while we were recovering from the onslaught of Zia’s lotas, we were put through another round of lotacracy under Pervez Musharraf. While he created a fresh hoard of lotas, some of Zia’s cronies also joined him. The Prime Minister (PM) was imported from the City Bank in New York and together they created the biggest circus ever. After the fall of the dictator Shaukat Aziz left the country while the lota herd was disbanded, enabling them to infiltrate other parties to keep the status quo intact.
Since March 1940, when the Pakistan Resolution was passed at Minto Park, as it was called then, the country has seen a lot of toadism and lotacracy. The founding fathers braved several storms to create and then build the new country from scratch. In the first decade, when institutions were being built, they had to face the toadies. From 1958 to 1969 they had to fight the Auyb lotas and the emerging corruption. In the first and only free and fair election of 1970, most lotas were defeated. Mujib’s six points and Bhutto’s socialism were not taken seriously. The Quaid’s Pakistan was dismembered when the ballot was overruled by bullets. By the 1977 elections the lotas had taken over the progressive left of centre PPP. After Bhutto’s exit a new lota experiment started that introduced a fresh generation like the Sharifs and Akhtar Khan brothers.
The lawyers’ movement started off well but it gradually drifted. The kaptaan and his party then started to gain popularity without lota infestation. This threat was not taken seriously till the mammoth jalsa (rally) of October 2011 at Minar-e-Pakistan where the journey for Pakistan had started in 1940. In the 1970s the lotas ignored the rise of Awami Pakistan; this time they did not risk isolation from the rise of naya (new) Pakistan and joined the PTI in hoards. In terms of intensity the toady infestation of the Quaid’s party in 1940 was perhaps the same as the lota infestation of Bhutto’s party in 1977 and Kaptaan’s party in 2011.
As a nation it seems no lessons have been learnt. As per design, the toady/lota infestation continues to thwart change. Being a part of the first generation of Pakistan we have seen it all and must expose their agenda, which only strengthens the status quo. Change is the way forward; old ways cannot and will not deliver it. A fresh start has to be made without the toadies and lotas in our midst.

The writer is the ex-chairman of the Pakistan Science Foundation