Daily Times

Keeping in view the sluggish journey of our country, despite swift moves of the people, one can suspect it to be a haunted house ruled by selected spirits, which work on their agenda instead of the people.

Renowned poet Munir Niazi has given a pen-picture of present-day Pakistan in one of his famous couplets, in which he mentions ironically that the journey of our country is sluggish despite swift moves of the people. The poet suspects it to be haunted or the ilk. One can blame that the curse of Bhutto’s judicial murder has spanned over the decades, and, also, eclipsed the future of this country. As a matter of fact, Bhutto’s illegitimate dethronement and subsequent assassination qualify to become the theme of Shakespearean tragedy since it has changed the political visage of Pakistan for good. The country has turned from democratic to dictatorial, moderate to immoderate, tolerant to fanatic, noninterventionist to interventionist and so on. Dictator Zia-ul-Haq has created a black hole in which Pakistan has been trapped. The more the country tries to rid of it, the more it slips and sinks.

This is not the country in appearance, the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the national poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal had dreamed of. In Faiz’s words, “Ye Daag Daag Ujala, ye Shab Gazeeda Seher, Woh Intezaar Tha Jiss Kaa, Yeh Woh Seher To Nahin,” (This tattered raiment of darkness, this sputtering of dawn. This is not the dawn we longed for, so long).

Unfortunately, Quaid-e-Azam found too little time to steer the nation out of the crisis. It was none other but Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who came forward to fulfil the dream into reality.

The state and non-state actors have grafted such people in parliament that feel no qualms to disgrace this sacred institution. In this way, Parliament is losing its importance over time. Despite the fact that parliament comprises of the representatives of the people and should be the place to discuss important issues relating to national security and the likes. But they make arbitrary decisions without consulting the representatives of the masses in the parliament. While claiming to be democratic in their dealing, they adopt non-democratic measures: preventing true leadership to flourish, closing the doors for negotiations, clipping the wings of free media, using abusive words during political talks and not believing in dialogue to proceed ahead.

The best way to move forward is to form the truth and reconciliation commission

Now, one can clearly mark a dividing line between real political forces and fake political forces in the arena. They work as puppets moving as per the direction of invisible forces. Zia’s imposed martial law proved to be more fatal than the one imposed by Yahya Khan who became the cause to disintegrate the country as Zia’s martial law made the country’s foundations hollow. He closed the doors for fresh air and damaged the country’s vision to perceive. The very act damaged the freedom of expression in the country and helped cultivate narrow-minded cohorts, who were not able to distinguish right from wrong or good from the bad.

Throughout his life, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto struggled against this damaging attitude of the ruling elite. She tried her level best to fashion politics based on political ideas instead of wealth, caste system and so on. Corruption, intolerance, extremism and terrorism are the gifts of General Zia’s rule. Zia’s legacy in the form of incurable damage to national unity and progress was furthered by General Musharraf. Now, the incumbent government has shown its tilt towards the dictators’ legacies. They are at variance with the political forces, which are committed to fashion Jinnah’s agenda in the country.

After the passage of a long, long time, still, there are efforts to bring democracy in chains. The institutions are not in the habit of working in their constitutional limits. Despite the fact that the public opinion reigns supreme in a democratic government, here, it is not given due importance. It has long been decided by the founder of Pakistan that democracy would be the destiny of Pakistan. The questions arise: Why is democracy not allowed to flourish? Why do civil liberties remain in chains? The idea of controlled democracy is being fashioned here. For this purpose, the political leadership is being maligned. There are deliberate efforts to control the media, judiciary and other institutions. You are not allowed to utter “selected” but you are free to use abusive words even at the democratic forum. If a judge appears to fulfil the demands of justice, you send a reference against him. In fact, you need judges who take suo moto too much but decides only the fraction of cases they give hearing.

Here, we need to have a glance at history. During the pre-partition era, state institutions were working not for the freedom of the people but to serve the queen of the UK. Bureaucracy, law enforcing agencies and judiciary were there to fulfil the demands of colonial government instead of serving the native people. These institutions did not come forward for the freedom of our country. They have no role in getting political, civil, financial and fundamental rights from the colonial government. Instead, they were abusing the rights of the local people. The political leaders, along with their supporters, started the freedom movement and got Pakistan at last. The founder of Pakistan declared parliamentary democracy as the polity of Pakistan. However, hindrances were raised in the way of democracy in the country.

With their decades-long experience, political leadership can steer the nation out of the crisis. But they have been put behind the bars. The people who disintegrated the country, violated the constitution, surrendered before the enemy, damaged the national image, created rifts in society and fashioned and flourished sectarianism should, in fact, be kept in chains but they are allowed to go abroad or else. They banned Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission lest the morale of an institution should not be got down. Is putting the politicians behind the bars, not an act to demoralise the patriot politicians? This is not the service of the nation and society by any definition. The people are taught that political leadership is corrupt and they are losing hope for the continuation of the political process in the country.

It is time to move forward without being stuck at this critical juncture. The best way to move forward is to form the truth and reconciliation commission for the dialogue to go ahead. The imperative of truth and reconciliation cannot be denied. If you are to punish; punish all without any discrimination and if you are to let loose; then adopt the same criteria for all. This is the way to meet the ends of justice. We know Asif Ali Zardari has been imprisoned for 12 years previously but the courts exonerated him from all baseless and fabricated charges levelled against him. How long would senior politicians like Asif Ali Zardari remain a target under the pretext of accountability while others remain above the law despite doing crimes like violating the constitution, tearing upon the social fabric and even breaking this country?

How long can you make this country and its people hostage?

You cannot make good by saying bad to others. Hazrat Ali said, “An un-Islamic government may stay in power, but the government based on injustice cannot last long at all.”

The writer is a Lahore-based barrister, politician, writer, political analyst and social worker