Daily Times

The economy is at an all-time low. The inconsistent foreign policy spirals downward into nothing-doing-without-an-apology imbroglio, turning the big ‘bully’ into a ‘don’t make me angry’ hulk of a super ‘freak’. Power crises make quotidian living a waddle in a yearlong ghetto and the fuel wars reduce stuttering mobility to a snail’s pace. Education is no picnic for many who attend state-run schools, and good healthcare is as rare as a perfect moonlit summer night. Lawlessness abounds, albeit not a priority for those who live in dark houses on even darker streets, with very dark prospects. Things are as bad as they could get. Nonetheless, there are bigger issues to focus on. The world will like us someday. Pakistan will be welcome at the Security Council. India will stop hatching evil plans against us. Afghanistan will be a happy, war-free neighbour. Our people will cease to attack us. The economy will boom, producing Ambanis and Mittals this side of the border too. Power outages like clean theatre and healthy entertainment will be outdated. Tourism will be as huge as the multitude of the Taliban occupying our tribal areas. The strife-ridden, underdeveloped provinces will be revamped, and all will unite under the green and white flag. As we await the good times to roll in, meanwhile, let us all focus on the one and only thing that matters. Everything wanes in comparison. Nothing else deserves bigger flashlights, more reporting, glossier headlines and more air space. The latest scandal. It will always be the most recent scandal — glitzy, with characters with more money than local banks can pay dividends on, accusations taller than the Burj, and more twisted sub-plots than The Bold and The Beautiful meets Dynasty in a remix directed by Christopher Nolan tiled Deception II.

This is a good time to be a TV show host on one of the big networks. It is time to play the kingmaker and it is the perfect moment to see the TRPs skyrocket, notwithstanding the veracity of the content propagated. Every ‘influential’ anchor has people to protect, names to smear, truth to distort into his or her own version of my-disclosure-is-more-sordid-than-yours, and more half-lies to twist and spin into indignant gospel. Pick a side and let the games begin. The panelists are the same politicians whose hairpieces belong in a third-grade 1980s Hollywood flick made for the South Asian audience; whose rhetoric is staler than a Socialist eulogising Lenin post-Cold War; and whose arguments are more predictable than an atheist negating life beyond death. The anchors choose the speakers and the speakers overlapping decide to victimise one and anoint the other. Notwithstanding the subject, the anchor in his/her prologue establishes the intent — the bored but avaricious audience for the unfolding of the newest scandal gathers where the very open, very blatant and very insidious arrows are being aimed. Then the fun unfolds. The same people who are the arbiters of truth on every subject under the ghostly white lights of a studio become the spokesperson of one ideology or the other. Right next to the politicians are the analysts, the columnists and the strategists — the ‘intellectuals’ who exhibit scorn for the ones who profess loyalty to any political entity. Together they initiate the penalising.

The subjects are varied. It could be the president’s immunity, the prime minister’s alleged contempt of the judiciary, the COAS’s haughtiness or criticism of the foreign minister’s refusal and then consideration of the rational solution to the present Pakistan-US stalemate. Be it the memo debacle, the former prime minister’s threats of long marches, the ‘next’ prime minister’s call for cessation of drone attacks, labelling him pro-Taliban or the self-exiled leader from Sindh’s premonition of an overall destruction, all are fair game. It may be about the PM’s sons presenting themselves for due process of justice, or the president’s son’s refusal to kowtow to the opposition to broaden the ‘alliance’, or the present CM’s son’s marital fiasco or the former CM’s son’s alleged land fraud — the arguments remain unaltered, the verdict the same. There are no grey areas here. One of them is the bad guy invariably, depending on whether you vote for the PPP, the PML-N, the PML-Q, the MQM, or the PTI. Only one party is on the right course, preaching the unblemished truth, propagating the true values and marching straight to heaven. The others are all villains, notwithstanding the nature of the discourse. The loudest and the brashest speaker gets the warmest pat, all the way to the next fancy position, present or future, and the anchor has the loudest chuckle.

What happens here? Everyone wants to pull someone else down. There is no limit to the dirt hurled, no allegation spared. They all take turns. If one is corrupt, the other prominent one cannot be clean either. Today, when media is faster and more destructive than a New Orleans hurricane, what keeps people’s black deeds camouflaged is anyone’s guess. Who gives whom money and for what is not the topic here. Why is their conduct a mirror image of one another? The sheep mentality, the march to materialism’s pied piper, and the rat race for more runs amok. If everyone out there is making the most of too much wealth in a very poor country then who is left to point the finger? The not so rich become globetrotters — holidays in the South of France, 25-carat diamonds from Graff, and custom-made German and Italian cars become their trademarks, heralding their acceptance into society.

Why the hell not? Nevertheless, once you let in people based on their material worth, then you do not turn around when it is inconvenient to accuse them of everything that is wrong under a cloudy Islamabad sky. It is not right to let people exploit one another materially, but then who is not doing it? Why not criticise the first immoral act? The first sign should be noted and debated, before it becomes way too big for anyone to topple. The tradition to look the other way must stop; speak up now or forever hold your peace. Morality has become so jaded that it is deemed correct to witness a bad thing, make a mental, audio or video note, and save it to be rained on someone’s flourishing ill-gained enterprise later.

Those who pass judgments on everyone fail to register one simple truth: those close to them are mere humans too. They err too. And they are being watched too. When every high-flying misdemeanour is being noticed, when no one is beyond the grasp of law, when every big-scale financial anomaly is being scrutinised and when every second person is being chastised for being impudent, or unpatriotic or a plunderer, the stakes against you become too high. People rightly or wrongly accused resent the exercise of one person’s power to topsy-turvy their lives. They seek retribution and they whoop in joy when a loophole is found. The son’s choices become the Achilles heel for his father’s undisputed stature, and it is ugly. When the PM asks the Supreme judge to expedite justice to his son if he cannot judge his own, it could be a connotation of one father’s empathy for another father in pain, or read more into it. The law will not spare anyone, but until that happens, heed the maxim: it is not wise to throw stones when your own house is made of glass. No matter how solid the glass, one stray stone will make its way in, shattering the entire edifice of ‘justice is blind’ to smithereens, in a moment.

The writer is an assistant editor at Daily Times. She tweets at @MehrTarar and can be reached at mehrt2000@gmail.com