Daily Times

A tale commonly told in our childhood was about a brilliant student, H, of extremely humble background, who was weak in English. Another student, a few years senior, took him under his wing to tutor. H’s progress was remarkable but he was still weak in essay composition. In a mock exam before he sat for his matriculation, H was asked to write on ‘a hockey match’.

His effort was merely satisfactory. So the tutor rewrote it for H to study. But H decided to learn the tutor’s effort by rote. When H sat for his actual exam, the topic for an essay was ‘A Journey by Bus’. H wrote that he was taking a trip to meet his family in Lahore by bus.

The bus broke down enroute, close to a college playing field where a hockey match was in progress, and then H went on to write the essay he had learnt by heart. H scored a B+ in English as well; with an A for his essay. The lesson here was not that H cheated; which he had, but that he had connected dots so as to make his effort relevant to the allocated topic.

It seems to me that, these days, everybody wants to get by, while narrating his/her own hockey match, verbally or in writing, without connecting dots to make the effort relevant. What is worse is that no one seems to care. Perhaps they think their audiences are fools. Ironically, this phenomenon is not confined to our domestic scene but seems to have spread to the entire globe.

The Trump administration is leading the way, for all his allies to his hockey match. Our government and analysts are still trying to reason. I wonder when they will understand that as part of the ‘China Containment Policy’, it suits the US and its allies to destabilise the region. They are well underway in Afghanistan. Trump is cooking up excuses to trash the US nuclear deal with Iran. Other co-signature countries are breathlessly awaiting progress.

And this leaves Pakistan the linchpin for success of the CPEC. It matters not whether there is a Haqqani or a Haqqani follower anywhere on Pakistan soil. US drones will kill and accuse Pakistan of harbouring a ‘US enemy’. It matters not whether the target is located within a refugee compound or in open spaces; wherever it chooses, the US will place its opponent’s goal posts and claim a goal.

Pakistan government and military need to figure out their policy under the ‘given’ US strategy, because US allies are not only present in Europe but have expanded to Middle East as well as Down Under. So Pakistan needs to come up with an adequate response.

It’s our domestic scene that amazes me. Nawaz Sharif continues his un-sharif ways with a slight difference. His accusations are now almost exclusively focused on the judiciary, and the deep state seems to have gone behind the Sharif scene. And his believes that the public can be his judiciary and jury is amazingly silly.

Imran continues dribbling his ball headed towards some imaginary goal. He was surviving targeting the Sharif brethren. I wonder why he had to join the silly Sheikh in heaping curses on the parliament. The parliament might consist of individuals who deserve every bit of what this duo said, but it is the house of public representatives; the symbol of the people’s will. The un-worthy Sheikh is hardly a good example for anyone, even the Khan, to follow.

As if members of royalty were not enough, now even commoners want their own hockey match. Dr Shahid Masood, a TV anchor, went on air to ‘uncover’ a huge international conspiracy; in which, the suspect of Zainab’s murder, Imran was actually part of an international child pornography and sex ring and enjoyed patronage of someone in the cabinet.

Perhaps politicians think their audience is composed of fools.Ironically, this phenomenon is not confined to our domestic scene but seems to have spread to the entire globe

Masood styles himself Dr. so he must have a doctorate for something. It certainly can’t be English, since for a considerable period he billed himself as ‘the most opinionated’ person. He obviously was unaware of what opinionated meant; though, if he knew, he would have deserved full marks for honesty. Judging by Masood’s TV performances, including the recent accusations, his degree also can’t be in ethics of journalism.

Our chief judicial activist, the CJ has got so used to frequent suo moto(s) that he couldn’t resist this temptation too and, has discovered to his chagrin (I hope), that poor Imran Ali doesn’t have a single bank account, let alone the 30 odd Masood spoke of so authoritatively. I hope there is something the CJ can do about Masood; perhaps for ‘bearing false witness’.

And finally there is the CJ who also seems to have picked up a hockey stick. He seems hell-bent on bettering the precedent set by Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry and interfere in matters of governance as well. But what worries me is that he also seems inclined to join the motley crowd of those who talk too much.

Everybody knows that ‘the more frequently one opens one’s mouth, the more likely it is that one puts one’s foot in it’. He did but, to his credit, his apology was prompt. I know neither of them but, I am told by those who do, that, unlike Chaudhry, the current CJ is a jurist. Therefore, I only hope he endeavours only to exceed Chaudhry in the quantity of his Suo Moto(s) and not in the quality of his judgments.

Come to think of it and considering the quality of those who man our political horizon, suo moto(s) by a jurist might be Pakistan’s sole hope for good governance in the interim period.

The writer is a retired brigadier. He is also former vice president and founder of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)

Published in Daily Times, January 28^th 2018.