Daily Times

It is a bottomless pit. As the country keeps on piling unbearable debt, load shedding reaches impossible limits, murders become unstoppable, the government breaks all records of embezzlement and fraud. The pilferage started from cutting development expenditures on health and education and since those have been exhausted too, the dig into charity money has shown the desperation of the government to leave no money unturned to bankrupt and blow away an economy already on the brink of disaster.

Our economy has already attained a status of the untouchable. Nobody wants to touch it and handle it as prominent people resign in frustration and disillusion. The governor of the State Bank has gone, so has the chief economist followed by the Auditor General. Stranded and unguarded the loot sale of digging deeper and wider for other people’s money has become the modus operandi in the government ranks. With US aid becoming more difficult and other friendly countries finding it difficult to show extra largesse, the only resources left to plunder are charity money. The audit report of the federal accounts published for 2010-2011 clearly shows misappropriation of Rs 35 billion, including embezzlement by the Prime Minister Secretariat spending charity money on employee entertainment like lunches, dinners, etc. To party with charity money is just about as heartless and as corrupt as you can get. The audit report also objects the usage of money by Babar Awan to buy lawyers’ loyalty in the bars and the story goes on and on.

The amazing thing is that these are factual evidence of corruption published in the media and nobody so much as contests it or takes action on it as if the president and the prime minister have legal amnesty against corruption. Is it a simple case of apathy of the public or is it the lack of trust in the judicial system of the country, which is responsible for this open dismissal of any factual evidence of corruption by our high-ups? It seems the first is the result of the second. That is, having experienced extremely excruciating circumstance of dealing with courts and having very little hope of timely and fair justice being meted out to the complainants, people have lost faith in our justice system being able to catch even those who are factually recriminated. Case in point is the Swiss cases against the president. After years of trying to prove something that all know is the truth, the cases have almost become history and the public seeing the maze of laws struggling to deal with truth has now started actually believing the media’s new portrayal of the president as an “intelligent politician”.

This new media label of the president having political wisdom is baffling. Calling the president an intelligent political strategist is really defaming politics. The damage done to the image of politicians and politics by the present crop of our politicians is almost irreparable. The brand association of a politician is a man who is corrupt, has low education and even lower intellect, is ready to violate all laws, and of course can lie with consummate ease. The level of trust in a politician is so low that there is an avoidance and aversion when you find out that somebody is working for a particular party. Under such circumstances, how can anybody even think of labelling any of our present crop of leaders as politically clever? The only credit that this leadership can get is to have ruled longer than other democracies on the plea of continuing the system. However, the fact of the matter is that this fake democracy claims are now shattered by the autocratic dismissal of legal requirements. The arrogant disregard of the Supreme Court reinstating Zafar Qureshi in the NICL case and the removal of Sohail Ahmed for daring to go against the wishes of the one and the mighty man at the top are examples of a law unto themselves attitude that only dictators are famous for. If martial law is unconstitutional and PCO was a legal degradation, what law is the government going by now? Probably it is known as Zardari law where the moods and fancies of one man reign supreme over the Supreme Court.

Such behaviour may be very heady and intoxicating for a short while but is definitely counterproductive in the long run. These are just the type of weaknesses the opposition is waiting to pounce on. Remember, the PPP stood for democracy, rule of law and the party of the common man. However, the damage done to the PPP brand by being oblivious the clamour of the public to give some heed to the devastation on all fronts is almost fatal now. Thus somebody who has really made huge dents to the brand equity of a legendry party can never be given any credit or compliment no matter how backhanded it is.

Leaders who in order to serve themselves and serve those who serve them are automatically restricting their support level. They come with a limited vision that finishes beyond the presidency and parliament lodges. The protected and plush surroundings of Islamabad act as an emotional lullaby to the screaming and yelling going out in the real Pakistan miles away in areas where food, energy and survival has become an excruciating struggle for the majority. The distance from the mundane reality is not just geographical, it is mental and emotional, and it is really this distance that creates a yawning divide that leads to the eventual demise of people who have fallen into an insensitivity coma. The fall of any leader is synonymous with his inability to withstand any criticism and opposition to ‘his’ way of thinking and his way of working. As the government punishes all dissenting subordinates, they may be doing it with the intention of teaching a lesson to those who are inclined to disobey, but its impact is contrary to their wishes. The impact of such arrogance is that all such people who have taken them on have gained support from the opposition parties and the public while the government keeps on adding to their list of avowed enemies. Never in history has the nation been so determined to put an end to the endless tyranny of misuse of public money, and more importantly, the complete breach of public trust.

The writer is a consultant and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com