Daily Times

Recently, Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, sister of newly appointed foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, congratulated her brother on becoming the youngest foreign minister of Pakistan in a tweet. Many people reacted to her tweet by saying that Bilawal Bhutto is a product of the Bhutto dynasty that has looted and plundered the country for the last few decades. Some PPP supporters also wished him well to Bilawal on his first job to which people retorted saying that he has been the party Chairman for the last 13 years, therefore, how could becoming a foreign minister be termed as his first job.

Some differently opinionated people also asserted that Bilawal has served as an MNA for four years just because of the nepotism that exists in Pakistani political culture. To which Bakhtawar Bhutto further reacted in a demeaning comment that the opinion of such people cannot be cherished because of their “elitist ignorance” and that “the 90k people who voted in favour of Bilawal Bhutto as MNA for the last four years is greater than their bitter and irrelevant existence”.

The main target of her derogatory remarks was the young journalist Ariba Shahid who is an economy and business journalist at ProfitPk. Furthermore, many other Twitter users commented on their Twitter spat and particularly clamoured Bakhtawar Bhutto’s opinion and termed it a result of dynasty politics, nepotism, and elitism ingrained in politicians. What rankings, reviews and profits are to filmmakers; attention, top trends and entitlement are to politicians and their families. One can easily believe that Pakistan has entered its most sinister phase since independence. It seems that the sole purpose of dynastic politicians is to secure top positions, and gain blind followers while serving their personal interests only. The opinion and attention of politicians on the looming critical issues of Pakistan are no longer in their interest or seem to be in hindsight. Dynasty politics has nearly destroyed the political milieu of Pakistan.

What rankings, reviews and profits are to filmmakers; attention, top trends and entitlement are to politicians and their families.

This was the well-grounded fear of everybody who was apprehensive of the dynastic politics, supremacism of politicians and fragile state of Pakistani politics. Today, with Pakistan People’s Party’s failure to ensure justice, eradicate poverty, and eliminate corruption in Sindh, its supporters and family members have resorted to fuelling personal attacks, marginalization and thinking of people outside their clan as the ‘other’. Their self-proclaimed entitlement compels them to treat everybody as a second-class citizen.

This incident has proved that instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue and resorting to mutual respect, our politicians are insensitive and too full of themselves. Personality traits are barely inconsequential in politics, as many politicians including Bakhtawar Bhutto revealed in an earth-shattering stint.

Do they need to belittle others to feed their egos? Is political power their birthright? Why do they enter politics with a greater sense of entitlement when their sole purpose should only be to serve the people of Pakistan on the grass-root level? Politicians, party leaders and their families should uphold greater moral values as they represent the hundred thousands of people they represent.

They should not get indulged in low-blows to get a point across because belittling others just because they were not born into an influential family can never be entertained. Countries such as Switzerland, Denmark and Finland have a strong political culture just because their politicians are impartial and only aim to best serve the interests of their public and handle criticism by taking actions that fulfil the needs of their people. Pakistani politicians also need to recognize and deal with the demands of people in a conflicted and complex current environment.

The writer is a staff member of Daily Times and can be reached at raesaf21@gmail.com