While the din of the media-based politics of the moneyed political elite with the petit bourgeois hordes scrambling erratically in an orgy of vain haranguing between pseudo-experts of different factions is unending, there is stagnation and indifference of the oppressed masses beneath the surface. Yet this stark silence of the vast simmering populace has its own clamour, the resonance of which can only be felt by delicate and insightful minds based on dialectical scientific thinking. After more than two and a half years of the elections, the agenda of mainstream politics has not moved beyond the issue of electoral rigging. The PTI has developed a twitch, inadvertently moaning, groaning and cursing rigging and corruption. This soap is being displayed on television screens and social media as entertainment for the vociferous and fitful middle classes. The masses are cloistered and apathetic about this gimmickry. However, every mainstream party is in crisis and is losing its social base within the population. The PML-N regime is being run by a ‘kitchen cabinet’ of three while all the other federal ministers are openly tearing each other apart. The PTI has lost most of the by-elections and the internal dissensions are ferociously repressed by its despotic leader Imran Khan. The PPP’s mass base has shrunk drastically as seen in the recent by-election in NA-122. What Ziaul Haq and the military establishment could not do to the party, Zardari has managed and turned the PPP into his own image: despised and discredited. The revival of the PPP’s fortunes becomes bleaker by the day. The MQM is facing internal splits and fatalist conflicts as much as the wrath of a military establishment that was scorned by acts of insolence to its mentors. The ANP after blatantly embracing neo-liberal capitalist policies, internal dynastic strife and, more importantly, its dismal and corrupt performance in the previous provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been reduced to a shell. Like most other mainstream parties, the family soap of its dynastic leadership has entered a tragic phase. The nationalists have been weakened more by the betrayals of their leaders and their capitulation to capitalism than manoeuvres of the state. Those genuinely fighting for national liberation are smeared by the links of their leaders with various imperialist vultures pouncing upon the resources of these lands. The JUI-F and other known Islamic parties are not immune to this process. History is a testament that these obscurantists’ entities only flourished under the patronage and watchful eyes of the military establishment. The madrassas (seminaries) and their other social welfare projects are a façade for their criminal acts to accumulate black money. Their predominant army of supporters came from the petit bourgeoisie who, in the current era of social media, are being lured by other, more attractive avenues and commercial indulgences. The organic and inherent weakness and erosion of corrupt civilian-political elites raises the spectre of the repressive alternative of the military as the saviours of this tragic land. Trotsky, a great revolutionary Russian leader, said, “The crisis of mankind can be reduced to the crisis of leadership.” This has never been more applicable as in today’s Pakistan and explains why, in a country where the military has ruled directly for almost half its chequered history, it is again being peddled as a saviour. However, the military is reluctant to take over direct power. Why should they when they can see the burgeoning economic and social crisis in society and are also calling the shots in crucial policy matters from foreign policy to commercial decision-making? At the same time, they are the biggest entrepreneurs in manufacturing, real estate, construction contracts and service sectors in the formal economy. The military’s imprint in the economy penetrates deep but none of the ingenious ‘think tanks’ can dare expose it. The hegemony of finance and corporate capital in Pakistan is now absolute and all parties have capitulated to preserve this system by hook or by crook. Some more savvy and astute politicians, realising the historical bankruptcy of this system, have developed plunder to a fine art. The topic of all political spheres and intelligentsia debates is corruption. The more they scream against it the more it ensconces itself in the economy and society. It is a social norm that has become a way of life. With almost two thirds of the economy in the informal sector, corruption is not the cause of the crisis of capitalism but is the product and a seething need of this system. A society where the ruling classes cannot generate a healthy rate of profit to preserve their socio-political status and certain stability in society have no option but to plunder the state and society. The resultant deprivation of the masses spreads misery and destitution all over society. The more the misery, the more the corruption. It has penetrated in every aspect and organ of the capitalist state and society like a metastasizing tumour. The PML-N’s victor from NA-122, Lahore, Ayaz Sadiq, in his first interview after victory, let the cat out of the bag when he said: “Now it has become impossible for any ordinary person to contest elections as it has become such an expensive exercise where only billionaires can seriously indulge in this electoral process.” This shows that ideologies and politics hardly matter in elections. All one needs is moneybags to reach the height of power. In today’s Pakistan, jobs are at the mercy of bribery; health and education are a privilege for the upper middle classes and the moneyed elite can buy off ministries and dictate every policy. This mad lust for money has created an insane social milieu. Human souls and delicate relations have been debased by the lust for money. This system has reached a stage where any reform or improvement of society has become a deceptive slogan. The crisis is unravelling rapidly, pushing society even further into the horrific abyss of plunder, bloodshed and human devastation. Under capitalism, the future of society is harrowing and barbarous. It is not an accident that the masses have profoundly rejected prevalent politics. In their agony and pain they have come to the conclusion that this system cannot deliver. The system is rotten to the core. It cannot be reformed. The seething silence and alienation of the masses reflects a burning quest to end this misery. The necessary task of a surgical removal of this cancerous system depends upon the oppressed masses’ ability to carve out a revolutionary mass party and a Marxist leadership as it enters the arena of class struggle. The historical task of every class-conscious youth and worker is to fight to the finish for a socialist transformation of Pakistan. The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at lalkhan1956@gmail.com