Daily Times

Yousuf Raza Gilani from Pakistan People’s Party has been elected the opposition leader in the Senate and with it, the ways of PML N and PPP are parted, perhaps for good. PML N was trying to designate Azam Nazeer Tarar for this position but Mr. Zardari threw a spanner in the works, foiling PML N’s bid. He has already started to part his ways from PDM. Taking each other to task, calling each other ‘Selected’, PML N and PPP loyalists have shown that politics is after all inhospitable. Pakistani politics, in particular, is shorn of mercy.

Politics of vested interests is order of the day. When political interests are served, they live and breathe together. If not, they are at daggers drawn. Pakistanis have not forgotten the claims of Shahbaz Sharif to drag Asif Zardari on the roads of Larkana but then Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif joined hands for their vested interests. They seemed to be working in tandem.

People also remember those speeches of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari when he called Nawaz Sharif ‘Modi ka yar’. Again when they have shared benefits, Bilawal Bhutto sat on the same table with Nawaz Sharif only to separate once again. Pakistanis also know how Maryam Nawaz used to tell them that vote for PPP is tantamount to voting PTI and then the time came when Photos of Maryam Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif were displayed on banners of People’s Party in Karachi.

Now again in the wake of conflict of interest, Maryam Nawaz mocked Bilawal as ‘Selected’. Countering it, he also called a Lahore based family as favorite of ‘Selectors’. In short, current politicians have made politics so much avaricious that ideological politicians are devalued. They are from pillar to post.

Once, ideological politics was considered a sacred thing. The leader of ideological politics is Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah who, despite the offers made by British government, stood on his principles. No one was going to question him if he sought personal benefits and not showing his commitment to the cause of Pakistan, which he did despite his illness, but he was always firm on his principled stance. Before the creation of Pakistan, he was offered the position of prime minister or Viceroy of India if he stepped back but he was not interested in positions and personal gains. That’s why he preferred the ideology of Pakistan and rendered the separate Homeland for Muslims a goal of his life. Then the first prime Minister of Pakistan Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan left his properties and lands as he migrated to Pakistan and he never claimed for them.

With the passage of time, politics continued to degenerate. Committed and dedicated people disappeared. Now we hear manifest justification of malfeasance under the sun. The standard is that if a politician stoops to venality while completing the projects of public interest then he is right and if someone fails to work without corruption then things are otherwise.

Unfortunately after 1988 elections two parties played the fundamental role in fashioning this type of politics in the country. Now people have no service without bribery and personal relations. Rapacious politics has so much deep impact on institutions that all seem to be the chip off the old block. Bribery is considered one’s right and others duty.

No country can make progress until its ideological foundations are resilient but it is unfortunate for Pakistan that we have concept of state of Madina and a code in the form of Two Nation Theory but what is happening actually is that all politicians are busy in filling their pockets without any exception. All parties including the ruling one is involved in this game. It is our tragedy that those who claim to be ideological politicians have gone astray. Until politics gets rid of these greedy people, Pakistan is bound to be unstable. To make Pakistan an established country, patriotic people must come forward so that we can get rid of these politicians.