From casting deadly aspersions on the prospect of the next elections being held at all to these being delayed for differing periods of time, there is also much speculation about their possible outcome. Some insist that the PMLN narrative is selling while others contend that the Sharifs are past their heyday and it may now be time for someone else. Most of them, however, agree that no one party is likely to run away with absolute majority and that there may be a weak coalition in place to run the country for the next five years. In addition to the respective popularity of political parties, this forecast is also based on some acidic speculation regarding the establishment’s preference for such a concoction to ensure easy manipulation. I have, forever, taken the position that there is no threat to the holding of elections on time except, may be, the delay necessitated to dispose of the petitions against fresh delimitations, thus provisioning a shift by a few days. Yet, the perennially suspecting echelons keep coming down with heavy doses of foreboding that elections may not be held and a situation may still be created for their postponement. There is no rational basis for this forecast except an inherent fear about the intervention of the so-called establishment and its complicit players. The season of the migratory birds is also at its peak with the flocks seen flapping their wings in quest of more lucrative espousals to satiate their lustful appetites. They desert in droves to join the one who appears to be on an upward swing. Simultaneously, they have at the back of their minds such further callings that may be necessitated in the not-so-distant future. You are no longer the human that you are taken for. You become a different species which sets and practises rules to advance only its own myopic objectives. You become tolerant of the evil that you see around in abundance, and you do so either out of fear, or indulgence, or both. In all of this, you become a carrier of a fatal infection that is almost impossible to cure once it takes a hold — like corruption has in this country The cause of the lingering doubts about the prospect of the elections being held, or the flocks taking off for more propitious landings is not rooted in any avowed distaste for the cancer of corruption that the leadership of one or the other political party may be afflicted with. Instead, the shift is determined by the rosier prospects they see in the new political outfit they are flying to. This mindset may emanate from either their own contribution to the evolving of a culture of pervading corruption in the party and the country, or their disinclination to treat it as cause for rebellion. This should not come as any surprise. Benjamin Disraeli once stated that “there is no act of treachery or meanness which a political party is not capable of. For, in politics, there is no honour”. From its intellectual variety to its financial and moral manifestations, corruption is a noxious den which provisions a habitat for divergent species to flock together. But, by far, the most evil of the varieties is the intellectual breed whose adherents harbour no shame even to beg the devil for a seat in the senate, be it a military dictator, or a leader of a political concoction tailored to serve a specific purpose, or the head of a mafia tasked with skinning the country. Pakistan has a vile history of breeding this flock through all stages of evolution, and its most heinous contemporary symbol can be seen sitting on the right of the leader he had deserted earlier for greener pastures — yes, the one who uses an extra ‘a’ in the prefix to his name. The reason behind the debilitating and self-serving narrative being advanced in defence of the noxious den of corruption and its adherents is the alleged role of the establishment — the ‘aliens’ which are being sighted of late. In the process, it is alleged that institutions like the judiciary and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have become tools to prosecute the forces not falling in line. Whether or not there is any substance in the news about the transaction of $4.9 billion, the venomous assault on the institution engaged in this pursuit speaks of a guilty conscience. If NAB would want to investigate the alleged laundering of such a staggering amount, as is its responsibility, it should be welcomed by all, more so by those who are being named in the transfer as a verdict of innocence will raise them to a higher moral pedestal. There is much in this transaction which may still be hidden and it is important that it is taken through the accountability mechanism for the truth to come out. No one has the right to thwart the legal process, or affront the institutions engaged in conducting this, much less demand the resignation of the chairman of the accountability bureau — this coming from a person who stands disqualified for life from holding public office, and who is facing multiple charges of gross corruption in the accountability court. Why is he so raw? What is there to hide if accountability were to continue? I am reminded of Wes Fesler who once said that, “hypocrisy is the audacity to preach integrity from a den of corruption”. Corruption and its perpetrators make a key component of the larger malaise that afflicts the state and its institutions and their elimination is, by far, the most daunting task at hand. Any such effort deserves the unqualified support of the people from across all divides. One can understand the uneasiness of a large segment of the beneficiary elite at the prospect of being exposed of their myriad crimes, but continuation of accountability is critical to the advent of genuine democracy rooted in a tradition of transparency and the ultimate evolving of a governing system that would uphold the enshrining principles of service and delivery at the grassroots level. A tolerance of corruption is a greater offence than indulging in it because it also reflects a weakness that makes the person that one becomes. You are no longer the human that you are taken for. You become a different species which sets and practises rules to advance only its own myopic objectives. You become tolerant of the evil that you see around in abundance, and you do so either out of fear, or indulgence, or both. In all of this, you become a carrier of a fatal infection that is almost impossible to cure once it takes a hold — like corruption has in this country. Despite the threatening posture that an accused leader and his bootleggers have adopted, the accountability process must continue unabated and it should be expanded to all others who have denuded the country of both its exchequer and honour. The state and such decrepit monsters cannot coexist — that is, if it is to be repositioned on the path to deliverance! And if that were not the objective, and if we were to continue benefitting from the largesse of the den of corruption, we will sink deeper in the putridity of what the state has cultivated over decades — a degenerate and perverted political elite. Sans accountability, this will only become more toxic with time. Adieus! The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute — an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan Published in Daily Times, May 15th 2018.