Daily Times

“‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘to talk of many things.’” It is time to talk of many things for us in Pakistan right now: people being killed, budgets being presented, load shedding, petrol shortages and of course the ever present threat of terrorism. Things are evidently so bad that every prophet of doom and gloom is loudly predicting the end of everything as we know it and every Chicken Little is running around shouting that finally the sky is falling.

Are things really that bad in Pakistan? I do not think that anybody in his right mind will contest the fact that things are nowhere as good as they should be and that much can be improved upon. For somebody like me who came back after being abroad for many years, things are a lot better than they used to be. Of course my devout brethren will insist that we should go back to the way things were more than 1,400 years ago when the first four caliphs ruled in Medina.

However, I wonder how many of these devout Pakistanis would willingly give up all forms of mechanical transportation, modern weaponry, electricity, air-conditioning, cell phones and the facility to take an airplane on their next trip to the holy land. As such, however, we might like the past but it is gone and irretrievably lost. So we have to do the best we can with circumstances as they exist today.

As far as corruption and related problems are concerned, I will suggest that people should read Mr Jinnah’s famous August 11 speech. It might surprise them that Mr Jinnah devoted more time to all the different sorts of corrupt practices prevalent at that time than he did to any secular ideals. Corruption and poverty are unfortunately interconnected and whatever we might say, Pakistan is a poor country. To put it in perspective, Pakistan’s total federal budget offered recently is much less in dollar amount than one single recent corruption case in India that involved the sale of cell phone rights.

No, I do not have any magical potion that can be mixed in the water supply, fed to the people and will change how we in Pakistan live and behave. It is true that we have had bad leadership for most of our existence as a country but we must also remember that our political leaders, our bureaucrats, our army men, including all the generals that have unsuccessfully tried to save this country every now and then come from the people. Unlike many of our Arab friends, never in the history of Pakistan has a single person ruled this country for much more than 11 years. So, we cannot blame any single individual for all of our problems.

Some among the ‘liberal’ classes blame General Ziaul Haq for many of our present day misfortunes, especially when it comes to the rise of religious extremism. Sadly, the history of religious extremism in Pakistan precedes Zia by many decades. A little less than 60 years ago, Punjab was brought to a standstill by the religious sectarian movement that also brought us our first martial law. What happened since then has been a natural progression of religiosity. And yes, the so-called liberals have acquiesced every time the country lurched towards religious extremism.

The Pakistan Army and the ISI are under the gun these days but the fact is that three years ago they broke from past tradition and did not intervene in the general elections. So far the army has stayed out of politics and even though it is being accused of almost every conceivable wrongdoing, the fact that it can be blamed so openly is in itself a major change for the better. Rather than trying to beat the army into submission it is better to let the army determine what its real role should be in a functioning political set-up and I believe it will decide to do the ‘right thing’, for surely the army brass can read the proverbial ‘writing on the wall’ as well as anybody else.

Are there any real solutions to the Pakistani predicament? The only answer to our problems, however imperfect, is democracy and repeated free elections. Democracy is a messy business, especially when governments have to be run by coalitions between often ideologically disparate political parties like what we have in Pakistan today. Most political leaders, however weak or allegedly corrupt, in my opinion still have the best interests of the country as their major priority.

Pakistan has a relatively free media and this will continue to play its role in highlighting perceived wrongdoings of those in power. But we must remember that members of the media represent the opinions held by most ordinary people. That so many of the major media personalities have an on-’camera’ soft corner for religious extremists is a reflection of what in their opinion the viewing public wants from them. Pakistanis are a religious people and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

The judiciary is taking on an increasingly activist role and here again they represent what in their opinion is the ‘will of the people’. Right now Pakistan is in a transitional phase where the senior judiciary, the political leadership and the army are all trying to establish their ‘legitimate’ space of action. The ongoing tussle is not a pretty sight but that is how democracies evolve. Once this evolutionary process reaches a favourable conclusion, then only can Pakistan move towards good governance and predictable accountability.

Coming back to where I started from, things in Lahore at least are not all bad. We just had a rain shower the other night, which made the weather a bit cooler, and the mangoes are absolutely out of this world. My advice then to all the prophets of doom and gloom: have two Anwar Ratols and a glass of sweetened cold lassi and chill out.

The writer has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com