Daily Times

The only class mostly covering the front pages of any newspaper these days is that of the black coats and cases against politicians contested in the courts. Black-coats’ upward journey began when they launched a movement to restore Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Referring to Chaudhry’s refusal to step down, a renowned columnist then wrote an article in the News titled, “Your No has made you immortal.”

There was no looking back for the black-coats. Whether Chaudhry, after his restoration, made right or wrong decisions, including his frequent suo moto notices is history.

The past many months have only witnessed legal tussles between the lawyers community and the judiciary. There’s also an example of a lawyer exchanging hot words with the judge in whose court he had gone to plead a case. Many articles in newspapers and discussions on TV revolved around legal issues as if the middle class and poor of the society didn’t exist or were not part of the population of 240 million.

Recently I wrote an article ‘Politics of non-issues’ in this newspaper. The subject is close to my heart more so when I observe the upper crust of society, especially the bureaucracies that are supposed to serve the people but are rolling in luxurious lifestyles instead. It may be called a cliché though but one imagines that it’s public blood that burns in their monstrous vehicles. And when the lords travel on the roads, the poor commoners and the taxpayers are shunted to one side to let the VIP entourages pass unhindered.

The past many months have only witnessed legal tussles between the lawyers community and the judiciary.

The ruling segment of our society shows no moral values. In more judicious societies, if a rich man drives a Mercedes or a BMW, the average citizen also owns and drives a car of lower value. He has the basic amenities of life at home. In our case, the ruling class meaning all types of bureaucrats live in palatial official homes, with household staff at call and expensive vehicles to drive while the poor live in clusters of dirty and worn-out tents and dilapidated huts. To see their half-clad and undernourished children roaming on roads instead of going to schools only proves that a painful disparity in society exists. It asks for a drastic change.

So why don’t the deprived and hungry of society rise to bring change in the system that is geared to keep them poor and live from hand to mouth? If people could stage protests in Sri Lanka why not in Pakistan? Religion seems to be the basic reason for it. A large majority of the poor, hungry and semi-literate among our population believe that their miserable fate is preordained. To contest this argument is a sensitive issue but how did Singapore progress within a few years to be counted among one of the most developed countries with billions of dollars of forex reserves?

The dollar climaxed to the top leaving the rupee poorer. As a result, the prices of the commodities of daily use will increase, including the prices of medicines. The rich ruling class, which means the ‘Sahib Bahadurs’ and their families will not suffer since most of their health and household requirements are met by the state – in other words by the taxpayers’ money. When they have free medical treatment available to them, why would they care even if the prices of the medicines hit the sky?

Talk of rising power bills which are beyond the capacity of the common people to pay. There’s a history of consumers reacting to heavy electric bills and setting the Lesco offices on fire. Once the people learn that their demands are only met by protests, they will be encouraged to stage widespread demonstrations.

A situation could evolve when people gather in hundreds of thousands in support of their common goal – improve their pitiable living conditions. As it’s proverbially said about justice it should not only be done but should be seen to have been done. The same must apply to austerity. The ruling bureaucratic classes and the politicians, instead of sympathising with the poor by lip service, must demonstrate by living an austere lifestyle.

How unjust and tragic it is when commoners are fighting merely to survive under the present state of high inflation, the higher echelons of power are blaming each other whether the president signed a certain bill or not. The president blamed his principal secretary, knowing well that a storm was brewing in his closet. How could he imagine that the storm would blow over and he would continue to sit unblemished in his palace on the hilltop?

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at pinecity @gmail.com