The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting
The hoi polloi have invaded Islamabad and the chairman Capital Development Authority is helpless. This should be the 'breaking news' to be flashed every hour on the idiot box. More of this later. Meanwhile, another 'breaking news' hit us when out of the blue Chaudhry Nisar of the PML-N called Musharraf a 'liar' warning him to stop lying otherwise the Chaudhry will spill the beans and tell the awam of how the general several years ago lobbied for promotion arriving in "black tinted glass cars" or went abroad (US) disguised as a "tourist" gratuitously asking for alien help to make him the chief. Speaking of more current times, here's'breaking news' in the epic making. What if Shahbaz Sharif's sola crore (160 million) that he regurgitated in his rambling speech after becoming the chief minister of Punjab were really to invade the chief minister's house in Lahore and share his air-conditioned space and comforts?
The day of the hoi polloi is here. These ordinary blokes – deprived, exploited and kept in ghettos – are slowly but resolutely breaking loose and copiously spreading to the 'green zones' reserved for the rich and powerful elites.
Last Saturday we should have seen Naveed Qamar announce the budget. Instead we saw President Musharraf announce he ain't going anywhere. Wow! What good news. In a country where the budget date gets tossed out of the window; in a country where the finance minister gets replaced weeks before the budget is to be announced; in a country where the prime minister and his party chairman dash to the Holy Land at the eleventh hour to get oil at cheap rates announcing to the wide world why they are going; in a country where electricity runs our lives and yet no one raises a ruckus; and in a country where its president refuses a mea culpa for his criminal negligence, for sure Pakistan lags behind the 'civilized' world by a century and a half.
This is no brain teaser but a simple equation.
Some think-tank came up with this news last month that Pakistan needed 150 years to catch up with the developed world. It didn't startle a squeal out of from any intelligent quarter. This bit of news got stodgily drowned by the current judges' issue and the triviality- of- the- day, dished out to us by our various television channels and newspapers currently engaged in the ratings war to earn revenue via advertisements.
It was galling to hear President Musharraf's airy remarks before his chosen audience of media persons. Full of himself and how he finds time to play bridge, tennis, golf and gets invited every night to dinner by 'friends', the man responsible for our present energy crisis and national gridlock got away light during the question and answer session.
Shouldn't someone have grilled him for bringing this pathetic state upon us where the electricity dictates our every move? Does the man know that in Islamabad, our electricity connection gets switched off every four hours? Does the man know how much loss the economy and the individual is incurring? Does the man know that it's sheer hell to wake up in a pool of sweat and bodily grease night after night?
Oh, I forget. The Army House in Rawalpindi where the former general lives and leads a merry life with a band of merry men playing golf, tennis, bridge and is out every night to dinner with buddies, does not have to deal with loadshedding! He has generators that keep his environs climatically controlled. He has slaves to run all his errands. He and his missus don't need to go to the kitchen to make tea or wash the teacups. This lifestyle can't be had anywhere else in the world irrespective of billions stashed away in foreign lands. These billions can't buy you fawning 'friends' who are available to humour you 24/7.
That's the reason why the Sharif brothers and Asif Zardari with crew of émigrés are back and Musharraf swears never to leave Pakistan.
But I digress. All I want to say to these great leaders of ours who have been ruling over us for decades – coming and going in between – to take a drive around Islamabad's newly-constructed avenues at night when some part or the other is in darkness. Peering out of their air-conditioned, bullet-proof gas guzzlers, they'd notice miles and miles of humanity sitting on the grassy land in clumps.
These unfortunate people – men, women and children are the hoi polloi, the great unwashed swathed in shalwar kamiz of shadowy colours and shapes. They are the multitudes who have literally been left on the roadside by our leaders - lovers of the awam. They invade the green islands when their homes plunge into the dark. Mr Kamran Lashari, the CDA chairman, who has survived so many prime ministers, has an eye for beauty. He loves to potter with shrubbery and colourful flowers that adorn the main roads where the rich and the privileged live. It makes for a very pretty picture and all kudos to Kamran. But the Seventh Avenue that connects the Kashmir Highway to the arteries and capillaries leading to homes of the rich and powerful passes through shanty quarters where the hoi polloi live like packed sardines. The CDA is still working on the Seventh Avenue footpaths which are being paved with slate tiles of enticing designs and shapes embellished by plants and flora.
It's a story of the beauty and the beast. The poor have already staked their claim on this little God's acre of beauty. And why should they not? Let the Sharifs, Zardari and whoever else rules today make true their promises, so far hollow, to the soula crore. Can they do it? Not in a million years! The poor are multiplying every second and the powerful are making hay while the sun shines, sending millions outside the country for a rainy day.
Such has been the pattern in the past, present and even the future if the hoi polloi don't stand up and revolt. It will be an ugly sight.
Until a change takes place or the present system gets purged and purified of NRO; constitutional package; judges issues; undeserving appointments based on partisan self-interest; state patronage at the cost of the taxpayer, cronyism, favourtism and nepotism, we can get succor by seeing photos of our leaders in ihram performing umrah asking Almighty Allah to shower His blessings on the soula crore. Our last hope is that may Allah hear the prayers of Prime Minister Gilani and Asif Ali Zardari (their photos flashed everywhere in ihram) and provide relief to the soula crore for whose sake they undertook this mini-pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Our last hope is that may Allah soften King Abdullah's heart and guide him to give his 'poor, impoverished' brothers, the soula crore (160 million) of Pakistan cheap oil so that the country's economy can splutter on without coming to a grinding halt.
Let me end my column with 'breaking news.' Let's ask those in charge of our destinies, the egomaniacs who refer to themselves as the first person pronoun: When will load-shedding end in Pakistan – next month, next year, next decade or never. The answer surely will make for 'breaking news.'
But, here's one 'breaking news' which shows Pakistan on the top in bridge. Javed Khalid and Saeed Akhtar who participated from Islamabad won the Worldwide Pairs bridge championship played simultaneously the world over last Saturday. They made history by accumulating 71.79 percent score, highest in 22-year history of the championship.
Bravo and congratulations to the pair!
Email: aniaz@fas.harvard.edu
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