The most dangerous times for a country that is already afflicted with a deeper malaise are those when its leadership shirks from treating the ailment, disregarding the impact of the treatment on their partisan and institutional interests. But alas, such times seem to have fallen upon us. Populism, adhocism and opportunism have become the dominant tenets of our national politics. Even a perfunctory review of the three vital areas — foreign policy, the economy and governance — would bear out this dark prognosis. Take US-Pakistan relations. They are in a state of limbo because the political leadership and the military generals are brooding on their respective political and institutional interests. With the passage of time, the rightist media and political forces will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for national ‘consensus’ on normalising relations with the US-led NATO at this critical juncture. Already, the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), a rightist alliance of forty organisations, has warned to block NATO supplies, if need be, with the use of force. Would this weak government and an equally irresolute parliamentary opposition go against the increasing anti-US sentiment? And if they did not, would the country not face more isolation, regionally and internationally? Already by force or by design, the US is playing the ‘India card’. At first, it warned Pakistan that it would try an alternative route courtesy India and the Central Asian Republics, if Pakistan did not provide the logistical support to the NATO forces in Afghanistan. Now it has declared a bounty of $ 10 million on information leading to the arrest of a controversial cleric, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of the now banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), which is accused of organising the Mumbai attacks in 2008. Considering that the aggrieved party in the Mumbai attacks is India and not the US, the latent message in the US action against the cleric is clear: the US could stand with India if Pakistan did not cooperate with it in fighting terrorism in this region. Obviously, an Indo-US strategic partnership at the cost of the Pakistan-US alliance will not serve our national security and economic interests in the midst of the war that goes on in the region and the country. We would also alienate 48 countries included in ISAF. Moreover, wars are ugly in any case and war alliances are not commercial partnerships, assigning equal rights and duties to all the partners. Indeed, unequal alliances seldom provide a win-win situation for all the allies, and less so to the proportionately weaker and obliged partners. At the end of the day, it was the US that dominated the strategic decision-making among the allied powers during WWII as it does now in the NATO-led alliance. Therefore, the test of our leadership’s political wisdom and diplomatic finesse lies in striking a common ground between the proportionality of its power vis-à-vis the US-led NATO and the vision of its strategic goals, within the country and beyond. Until now, we have shown only recalcitrance and shallow bravado to the US, without exploring the consequences of this braggadocio on the economy and our integrity. Do we know what objectives we will achieve by provoking the US to formulate its military and political policies in the region, unilaterally or with India? Would China come to our strategic aid in the same open way? Can we sustain the socio-political, economic and military costs of the new strategic alliance in the region? And even if we somehow contained the US’s hot pursuit and drone operations, wouldn’t the resultant anti-US sentiments strengthen right-wing politics at the cost of democracy and liberal values? Take the economic situation. The economic crisis also reflects a failure of decision-making and opportunism. The military leadership refuses to review its ‘minimum deterrence’ policy vis-à-vis India, and hence, the defence allocation accounts for one quarter of the total tax revenue. Indeed debt-servicing, defence and administrative expenses put together exceed the total revenue, leaving nothing for social development. As a result, the government is practically running the economy on borrowings from local banks, as much of the external resources have dried up due to our misplaced foreign policy and mismanaged economy. Economic revival demands robust governance, bold decisions and tenacity. The government must reduce unproductive expenditure and increase the revenues to meet the rising cost of running the state. But it is doing neither. Instead, it is conveniently bridging the budgetary gap through massive internal borrowings and keeping the external account afloat with the remittances of Pakistani expatriates. During the last eight months, the government has borrowed about Rs 1.4 trillion from the banks, crowding out the private sector and strangulating private investment. It is projected that by the end of this financial year, the budget deficit would have touched seven percent of GDP. It means a tighter monetary policy and higher inflation would continue to both discourage private investment and reduce the purchasing capacity of the common man. Nonetheless, instead of taking bold decisions, the government is protecting the powerful stakeholders in the garb of ‘reconciliation’. Thus, the wholesale and retail business interests successfully warded off the imposition of the reformed GST; the agricultural sector remains largely untaxed; the stockbrokers have yet again got ‘all their demands’ accepted by the finance minister on the promise that they would turn around the capital market; the banks and financial institutions continue to hedge their bets on safe investments, usually government treasury paper, avoiding risky ventures and long term investments; and the worsening energy crisis continue to keep half of industry and millions of homes and shops without electricity, putting thousands of jobs in peril. Likewise, mal-governance and corruption continue to gnaw at the foundations of our public finances and democratic institutions. The Supreme Court’s recent decision declaring the rental power agreements as illegal and void ab initio due to the suspicion of massive corruption is another case in point. But, surprisingly, no one seems to care about the increasing malaise. Instead of finding lasting solutions to the social and political ills, the powerful elite and their bureaucratic appendages have conveniently developed an alternative infrastructure that caters to their personal energy, security and services needs. It is the poor, the ‘scum’ of the earth, who are having to bear the brunt of their ill-doings and inefficiencies. And the most glaring spectacle of political conformism and opportunism is presented by the country’s largest industrial, capital and commercial market, Karachi, which earns three-fourths of total tax revenues for the national exchequer. Karachi has become an ethnic killing field. Much of the killings are largely due to turf wars among the coalition partners. Yet the coalition-government remains intact. Had the leadership been politically and ethnically mindful, if not answerable to the electorate, the coalition government in Sindh would have long fallen apart. But it doesn’t. No wonder, during the last three months more than three hundred persons have fallen to target killings. But who cares? The writer is a lawyer and academic. He can be reached at shahabusto@hotmail.com