Daily Times

What is a flange? Fans of the television comedy serial Friends will recall the last episode in which Rachel has boarded a plane and Phoebe, with the intent to get Rachel offloaded, calls her and insists that something is wrong with the airplane’s left “flange”. For those who have no idea about Friends, a flange has something to do with planes and offloading. And while the television serial had a happy ending, perhaps not so in real life.

Having been away from the country for the last few days, and basically not being in touch with happenings back home, the first indication that business was not as usual came at the airport in the land of excesses, at the start of the journey back home. When the staff announced that the plane was ready for boarding and invited business class passengers to board first, there were some rather disparaging comments, almost verging on nasty, about giving way to the business class passengers. So much so that it was bloody embarrassing pushing through the crowd gathered at the gate and waving the business class boarding pass for the privilege of boarding before everyone else. The nerve of the commoners!

At Islamabad, standing in front of the immigration officer’s counter early morning, dead tired and in a sullen mood, an unknown gentleman accompanied by senior looking officials jumped the line and attempted to have his passport stamped first. Frequent travellers will appreciate that this is a normal occurrence at every airport in Pakistan and more often than not one quietly submits to this blatant abuse of authority. This was not one of those days, bad mood and all. Accordingly, the immigration officer was politely informed not to violate the sanctity and discipline of the line unless he wanted a bashing, perhaps in not so many words. Suddenly, all hell broke loose and the crowd behind in the lines everywhere went ballistic. The obscenities dished out were rather unnerving and even more surprisingly the senior officials quickly and very quietly scampered away. What had happened to beloved Pakistan in the last four days?

The mystery was finally solved once data roaming was enabled on the cellular device and after viewing the infamous video on Whatsapp. While one generally avoids predicting, all indications are that pretty soon all kinds of social media is going to get banned in the country; after all Turkey and China have already done that.

Notwithstanding, the video was a shocker, not because of the off loading of an ex-minister and an MNA but more so because of the fury of the mob. Once again, frequent travellers will attest to the fact that everyone, more than once, has suffered through such an experience but never before had anyone the courage to do anything about it. It was easier to sit on the fence rather than risking the vengeance of the mighty. This time around, however, the common Pakistani just did not seem to care! What has brought about this change?

Interestingly, the elitist class seems to be in a state of complete denial. The comments floating around at that level focus more on the airlines’ ineptitude in handling the situation coupled with the normal conspiracy theories rather than the causes behind the inexplicable actions of the masses. While explanations that the offloaded gentlemen were not at fault might even be the truth, the problem is that the populace is unwilling to digest any such assertion. And the signs are ominous.

When did anyone from the middle class ever imagine they would see this day in this lifetime? Seriously, where is the fun in being a VVIP if delaying a plane for a couple of hours becomes a scandal? To venture another guess, it will be a freezing cold day in June before another VVIP turns up late for a flight. Worse, what is next on the agenda? VIP motorcades? Contrary to the view in the upper echelons of society, the general, unanimous view floating across the second tier is that the dharnas did it. Apparently, as the argument goes, addressing the masses every day on prime time television for more than a month now has resulted in the dharna leaders creating an awareness of fundamental rights within the masses. If true, this is indeed a frightening development and if not nipped in the bud could have even more serious repercussions.

This was an instance of the middle class standing up to the rich class. What if the poor class stands up next? Has anyone even thought about that? Is it wise to categorise this as a onetime incident to be dismissed summarily? For every one rich person there are perhaps five middle class and 94 belonging to the lower middle/poor classes. These numbers can be debated endlessly but what is critical is that any which way the numbers are churned, the lower classes of society outnumber the rest by a gargantuan margin. And, more importantly, while till now revolution was just a slogan, this was a step in the wrong direction for it provokes the masses into believing that they can get away with lawlessness.

As mentioned in an earlier article, there seems to be a total disconnect between what the leadership believes to be the issues facing the masses and what the masses believes are their real issues. Struggling to make ends meet, the masses, especially the lower middle/poor, do not care two hoots about democracy and can hardly relate to this obsession with saving democracy especially when there seemingly has been no improvement in their quality of life for the past seven years or more. To even think that the masses have the capacity to read the constitution, let alone understand it, is more than naïve and if that were true, why on earth would they be interested in preserving it?

Whether or not Chinese project assistance is a debt or investment is beyond the comprehension of the masses and, therefore, expecting them to decide upon the pros and cons of either option is preposterous. At this stage, the prevalent mood down under is simply about quick fixes of their problems that fundamentally are still enumerated in the famous slogan of “roti, kapra aur makan” (food, clothes and shelter). Slogans are good for a while but when they become just slogans they make things worse.

Those at the top can continue to discuss the bigger things in life and Tweet about the voting in Scotland or debate about what is right and wrong about the dharnas. Alternatively they can sensibly unite and chalk out a course of action that addresses the needs of those at the bottom. Guess what is the writing on the wall?

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com and on twitter @leaccountant