Whenever people meet these days, the topic of discussion mostly revolves around national politics. It’s immaterial whether the occasion is a happy or a sad one. After the customary exchange of ‘hello and hi’, politics must take over. Since tolerance is not the nation’s high point, emotions often flare up. The last five years or so served as the testing arena of political brinkmanship. What suffered as a result is the public welfare. Standard of administration was nosedived because of frequent shuffling of bureaucrats; rule of law suffered, and the people had to bear the direct brunt of poor governance. What future planning could be done under the circumstances of vicious political infighting? For instance, consider the recent floods that devastated vast areas besides causing loss of life and property. Some months ago, the government at the time warned that the country could face an acute shortage of water both for the purpose of agriculture and human consumption. But the floods have completely changed the situation. In Districts Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan, especially in its tehsil Taunsa to which the former CM Punjab and PTI’s genius Usman Buzdar belonged, the rainwater gushing from the mountains has played havoc. What kept Wasim Akram plus busy in nearly four years as provincial head, only Imran Niazi could tell? Niazi rightly said that Buzdar worked hard but it didn’t show. People at the lower rung of society are least interested in who occupies the top slots of the society; they’re only interested in meeting their daily needs to exist. As this newspaper reported, hill torrents emanating from Suleman Mountain Range affected the lives of 100,000 people and damaged 4,000 homes and 200,000 acres of crops in Rajanpur and DGK. Couldn’t the hill torrents be contained by making small dams to store water and later use for irrigating thousands of acres of parched land in the area? The damage caused by floods only shows ignorance and lack of planning. The situation in Balochistan is even worse where more than 40,000 houses were reported damaged, 16 bridges collapsed, 200 people lost their lives and 10,000 were displaced. Ten dams were damaged and many connecting roads were washed away by the floods. Were the designs of the dams faulty or the material used in their construction of low quality, the public will never know. On the 75th anniversary of independence, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed his views in The UK Economist. He enumerated how the country could improve its economy and what actually hampers its growth. His main thrust was: “Our political environment has become increasingly polarised. Instead of debating on how to run Pakistan better and rid the country of poverty, political parties have been at each other’s throats.” Who in his right mind could disagree with his analysis? And when the Prime Minister offered to consult political parties on a Charter of Economy, the PTI’s top spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry dismissed it as a ‘foolish idea’. This is when The Economist wrote that “Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is setting the direction for economic recovery.” Choudhry will do well to remember what Bill Clinton famously said – It’s the economy, stupid! Incidentally, it’s the same magazine that reported on PTI prohibited funding. And it waits to be sued. As the politicians play their power games, what happens to the ordinary citizens, many of them taxpayers? Power outages for ten to twelve hours are normal. The electric bills are not delivered in time if and when delivered. Bills are tossed into the houses of the neighbours instead of the actual subscribers, which often happens in the Lalazar Colony on the canal bank road. Inflated billing is the norm. Visit the relevant office for correction of bills, SDO is out on a meeting. What future strategies the SDO and his higher bosses plan so regularly is hard to understand. For the horde of officials in Lesco who enjoy free units, there’s a simple test of their efficiency: Do the subscribers get their power bills in time and whether the bills are exactly according to the units consumed? By the way, who indirectly pays for the free units enjoyed by the high-ranking bureaucrats of all hues if not the wretched consumers? It’s time for the freeloading elite to introspect. People at the lower rung of society are least interested in who occupies the top slots of the society; they’re only interested in meeting their daily needs to exist. Most pathetically, sometimes they even take their lives and the lives of their wives and children for not having enough to merely survive. Is it not happening in this society where hundreds of millions are misappropriated on official protocols, perks and privileges? The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at pinecity @gmail.com