Daily Times

Good mangoes have disappeared. That means summer is coming to an end. The rains came and are still around but their frequency and ferocity both seem to be on the wane, and the children are back in school. And, yes, the number of weddings going on has diminished considerably. Pakistan will now slowly wake up and get on with more important things. The most important thing in Pakistan is politics. All else is just to help keep us amused or seem busy. We will, I suppose, have the local bodies elections later this year and a few by-elections are also on order. However, the most important political news is that the PPP leaders are being arrested for corruption. In Punjab, Qasim Zia is in jail and, in Karachi, Dr Asim Hussain is in jail. That both of them are short and sort of fat might just be a coincidence. Arrest warrants are out for a former PPP Prime Minister (PM) from Punjab and the official president of PPP parliamentarians from Sindh. Clearly, these PPP arrests are not related to terrorism in Karachi.

In Punjab, the PML-N government is sitting pretty except for having lost ‘three wickets’ and having to confront frequent protest demonstrations by the likes of milk sellers, farmers and the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA). These protests plus incessant road building is making traffic in Lahore a perfect mess. So far the Rangers have been staying away from Raiwind but will that change? This remains to be seen but already one of the more important PML-N ministers from Punjab has declared that there are no terrorists among the hordes of madrassa (seminary) types in Punjab. And when the PML-N speaks, only the truth or pearls of wisdom come out. So, I suppose the madrassas in Punjab are all devoted to religious teaching and that alone. No sectarianism or jihadist ideation is being taught. Though I always thought that sectarianism and jihadism are a part of madrassa education, but then what do I know?

From a personal perspective, mangoes were enjoyed with relish and now it is time to lose the mango pounds thus accumulated. And, yes, binge watching Game of Thrones’ last two seasons was also accomplished. Contrary to my assessment that the PML-N government would cut back on load shedding this summer, that did not happen. I had thought that if the local bodies elections in Punjab happened at the tail end of summer, the PML-N would somehow manage to cut back on load shedding to get the votes. The PML-N folk are smarter than I expected them to be. They just pushed up these elections into the early winter months. So, needless to say, we in Lahore are witnessing the usual amount of load shedding plus the added burden of missing electricity every time it rains. Thank heavens for the mangoes for making life bearable.

What then do we, the ordinary citizens of this great nation, have to look forward to for the rest of the year? Personally, I am sure that our PM has visited the last of the Central Asian Republics (CARS). Evidently, all the memoranda signed are about building more roads. Clearly, the CARs have realised that they need roads to roll and who best when it comes to building roads than the PM and his talented sibling? I am sure that some Punjabi bureaucrat is busy trying to figure out a way to solve the child abuse horrors in Kasur and elsewhere in Punjab through the building of more roads. Of course, as far as the PML-N is concerned, especially the Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab, building roads is the best way to fix all problems, including even the lack of roads! So many roads to build and so little time.

So what should we expect now? The first thing to disabuse ourselves of immediately is that contrary to whatever our non-cricketing, cricket talking heads are saying, there will be no India-Pakistan cricket series anytime soon. So, of what can be expected, besides cricket we will probably, maybe, possibly, eventually have local government elections in Punjab and Sindh. In Punjab, they will — if they happen — be interesting. In Sindh, it will be business as usual. As far as the by-elections on the lost wickets are concerned, the ruling government party rarely, if ever, loses by-elections. But then, never ‘misunderestimate’ Imran Khan.

The other thing we can count on is that the Pakistan army will take Operation Zarb-e-Azb to its logical conclusion. The only problem I have concerns the ‘logical conclusion’ and what that might be. There is, however, one thing that has sort of bothered me about the army action. That is the announced number of dead terrorists on the ground after aerial attacks by air force jets. Here, I must aver that I have total and complete faith in the veracity of announcements by the armed forces public relations arm, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). That said, I must be forgiven if I cannot but wonder how the absolutely definitive number of casualties on the ground is determined. Exact announcements like 14 dead after aerial bombardment sounds great but did somebody get down on the ground to count them?

Finally, about Imran Khan. He is not going away and his reputation has been refurbished considerably by the three wickets he just gained. He and his party will remain a viable option to the Sharif brothers and the PML-N, not because he is better, which he might be as a person, but rather because the PML-N has lost much of its ‘can do’ reputation except when it comes to building roads and erecting iron fences along them. Imran is untarnished by any report of corruption and, more importantly, contrary to all the PML-N’s propaganda, the situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is not too bad, possibly much better than it was in the past.

The author is a former editor of the Journal of Association of Pakistani descent Physicians
of North America (APPNA)