Daily Times

Here we go again; promises, promises and more promises. All the stakeholders are out there, selling dreams that of course are a hard sell, but nevertheless being sold. The ‘lion’ without a tail is roaring about all the good times he had delivered in his previous two stints. The top on the list is of course the ‘Holy Islamic bomb’, and then the economic nirvana in his good old times that our poor souls were deprived of later. Only and if only the commando had let him complete his second term, Pakistan would have left Korea and China behind (sigh).

The angry middle aged yet novice of a political captain is trying to score verbal sixers with his rather make-believe bat. Then there is the maulana who is somewhat pegged to a petroleum product, unbeknownst to this novice of a scribe for the reason why he is issuing decrees of apostasy against his arch rivals. The ‘Lord of London’ is rallying his loyalists in urban Sindh, thanks to Skype. And the ‘Q’ Leaguers are perhaps measuring the next queue they have to line up for, while promising the common man the garden of roses, only and if only they are given the required seats for the required leverage come May 12.

The president and his party are flaunting their slain leaders to get sympathy votes, yet again. The rookie chairman has earned a new title called Patron-in-Chief (whatever that means). The president has saved his wild card for 2018 perhaps, when the rookie will not be so young and perhaps his star value would have quadrupled by then.

Oh wait, not to mention that the Commando’s party has boycotted the ‘selections’ in protest at the shabby treatment their leader has been receiving ever since he landed to save the Promised Land. Poor man has been trying to save his skin ever since, but to no avail thus far. This scribe stands corrected, along with many other veterans who felt that he would be unscathed and unharmed, given his connections and associations. For lack of better words, it sure looks likes he was duped and fell into a perfectly crafted trap. Must have been rusty on Indo-Pak history of court intrigues of the emperors I guess.

Last but not least, another messiah has joined the Commando in boycotting these selections, the Grand Allama of the globe, who back in December/January was bound to bring the biggest revolution in the history of mankind. If you were to ask this scribe, both the commando and Allama are saving their sorry selves from an inevitable round of embarrassment by boycotting these elections, as both had zero chance to garner any seats anywhere, whether it was National, provincial, or a school assembly for that matter.

If the aforementioned picture looks rather boring to you, then brace yourself for a major surprise. These elections will be much of a hung jury, let’s just say perhaps in a complicated legal case. There would be no solid landslide, despite all the noise by a former cricketer, because this is exactly the way the electoral map looks. The idea of the so-called New Pakistan will perhaps become old news on May 12, 2013. According to a veteran columnist’s assessment, Khan may be able to pull it off. His rationale is that Khan has roped in the segment of non-voters and hence those so-called traditional non-voters will take Khan to victory. I respect the veteran columnist; however, I disagree with his assessment. Khan, in the best case scenario, will have to form a coalition government, which he has repeatedly rejected. So if he goes to the opposition benches, with a few seats in his pocket, all his hue and cry and the bubble of an ‘overly patriotic youth vote bank’ will deflate.

On the other hand, even the ‘front runner’, the aging Lion will have to rely on the crutches of religio-political parties, the ‘turncoats’ and perhaps some ideological adversaries, in order to get a hold in the National Assembly. This too if these parties and their candidates turn out to be the winning horses. Chances of these guys scoring huge are very slim. So the chessboard will have a smorgasbord of some old some new. All with their daggers drawn against one another prior to May 11. All will come to their senses the following day and will cosy up to their enemies by using the famous line: “No enmity is permanent in politics and all this is to strengthen democracy” (Sigh again).

Speaking of deflated, well in that case the former skipper, his likeminded compatriots who reside mostly to the right and his overly charged and more often blind worshippers stand deflated by none other than the COAS. The skipper and the religious right have been peddling this wild narrative about the ‘enemies of the state’ as disgruntled warriors who would rehabilitate as soon as Pakistan sidelined itself from ‘America’s war’. I have touched on this fallacious fantasy in the past, so I will refrain from repeating the old counter-arguments. However, this is the mightiest man of the country showing the mirror to these minions. On the COAS’s unequivocal stand against the enemy of the state, one may laud him for such a move, but very respectfully ask him, “Sir you are the person in charge, why wait for this so-called consensus? Tomorrow if an external enemy were to attack the motherland, would you pause and wait for these politicos to give you a grand jirga-style nod?”

Moving on to the enemy, who is absolutely familiar with the weakness of the masses and has thus made some severe tactical moves. Fear is what it disseminates as a policy and as a footprint. The idea is to bomb, kill and or threaten the ones who it sees as its ideological nemesis. It is using the religious right as a conduit to funnel its chosen candidates in the electoral process. So again, call me whatever, but with this strategy it is preparing it is almost certain to advance towards the capital.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar