Two Months in Pakistan: Part II
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg , CA
During my stay in Pakistan I made it a point to conduct my own survey by meeting as many people as possible from all walks of life. I virtually landed from my Lexus into rickshaws and taxis, and I lived during most part of my stay in my ancestral home in a Mohalla with people who actually constitute what Pakistan is.
Hiring each day about five taxis/rickshaws, I interacted with close to hundred people a month. This motley of people included vendors, barbers, washmen, tailors, fruit-sellers, and taxi/rickshaw drivers.
One theme they all reiterated had been inflation and high prices of items of daily consumption. They incessantly complained about their falling health, pollution, lack of drinkable water, and the hardships they were facing in getting quality education for their children. Often they said that they were a doctor’s visit away from a state of extreme poverty. Teachers like doctors and lawyers have established their evening ‘academies’ where they offer packages that stay well beyond their reach.
In my observation, Pakistan is also beset with another dilemma. Otherwise a blessing for a budding and blooming country, but in Pakistan it has become a problem. Two of every three Pakistanis are aged below 29. So there is what is called by a German social scientist, Mr. Gunnar Heinsohn, “The Youth Bulge”. His theory that the more youth population you have, the more violent you are, seems to be proving true in Pakistan. Just between Hasanabdal and Hazro in three months, more than five kidnappings took place for ransom. The practice is widespread in Karachi, interior Sindh, and in Punjab as well. This growing wave of terrorism and looting is not due to poverty or mullah’s radical rhetoric; it is more so due to lack of economic opportunities; lack of justice and merit and accountability and, above all, due to sexual and emotional suffocation in the youth. For many, it is just fun to kidnap. Ransom is just a dividend. I saw hoards of youth, sauntering aimlessly in and around shopping plazas, or riding motorbikes at reckless speed, sometimes on one wheel, just for fun.
Politically, Pakistan is as unstable as it was between the years of 1988 to 1999. Mr. Babar Sattar, a writer and lawyer in his article “Dicey all the Way”, published in The News, is right when he says, “President Zardari seems to have learnt little from history and especially Nawaz Sharif’s experience, who had little use of his 2/3 rd majority, his handpicked president, ability to appoint service chiefs, and other constitutional guarantees when his nemesis struck. By refusing to fix the corrupting imbalances introduced in the constitution by dictators, President Zardari is leading the PPP astray”. If only our leaders could learn from history. Coleridge is right when he says, “Alas experience is a ‘lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us”.
Mr. Shaheen Sehbai, in his scathingly critical article, published on December 26, 2008 in The News, is right when he says President Zardari has made ten biggest blunders, and writing his political obituary, Sehbai says President Zardari has already squandered away the opportunity that had fallen in his way by accident. Counting his blunders he writes that President Zardari has failed to “show any enthusiasm to track down Benazir’s killers; support the judiciary sacked by Musharraf and adopting a hostile attitude towards Justice Iftikhar Choudhry”.
Further he betrayed his political coalition partners by refusing to follow the Charter of Democracy; he opened himself and his party to blackmail by smaller coalition parties to an extent that the entire government has become a hostage; he boasted about his capacity to get economic and financial aid from Friends of Pakistan and failed miserably to do so; he kept petty bickering alive in Punjab through a nonsensical presence of Governor Salman Taseer; he showed unnecessary and grossly counter-productive support for justice Abdul Hameed Dogar; he failed to make any move towards the repeal of the 17 th Amendment; he turned into a widely disliked person in Pakistan within months by letting Musharraf go scot-free; and finally, he humiliated and then forced loyal PPP leaders into submission. His prime minister heads a cabinet that can rightly be called a crowd. One minister for whose sake a special ministry was created was heard saying that he did not even have an office to sit. It is a shell government that has nothing under control.
In all honesty, perhaps the most unpopular person, (Musharraf was in his last days at 17%, and Zardari currently is at 19%), more so due to his personal arrogance and bad performance than due to his past sins, has been the president of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari. Invariably all taxi/rickshaw drivers to my question, “What do you think about President Zardari?” the response that came from them had often been so un-complimentary and un-parliamentary that it is just not civil to reproduce it. And these diehards and jialas make the main membership of PPP.
Pakistan can be likened to an old vehicle with new paint, trying to vie with the new model cars in the fast lane. In this effort, it has become a hazard to its own well-being as well as to the well-being of others. Musharraf’s government prided itself on producing the maximum number of motor bikes and cellular phones and cars - all the three, no doubt, have become a part of people’s lives, but on borrowed money. The result is obvious now. Pollution in big cities has reached a level that is life-threatening. Traffic jams in inner cities are turning people into jerks. On the slightest indication of a traffic hurdle ahead, people initiate making U-turns right wherever they are. And this further complicates the situation.
Load-shedding up to 10-18 hours a day of electricity has brought the industrial wheel to a standstill. Water shortage is menacing to turn the country into a desert. These very urgent matters do not figure out very high in the government’s list of priorities. The tussle between the PM and the President on one hand, and between the PPP and the PML-N on the other hand, is about to gain momentum. The month of March will determine which way the country would be heading. Why to accuse the world when the worst threat to Pakistan’s existence appears to be coming from within its own borders. Shashi Tharoor in his article, “After the Horror”, published in the Time, Dec. 15, 2008 depicts India’s and the world’s mood. “Pakistan was hacked off the stooped shoulders of India by the departing British in 1947…if it turns out that the massacre in Mumbai was planned in or directed from Pakistan territory, the consequences for Pakistan are bound to be severe… there would be ‘cost’ to our neighbors. India has no good options”. The creation of Pakistan, and its present existence stands threatened in this article.
If there were any good words used for anybody, they were being used for the traffic police introduced in big cities. They are really earning a good name for themselves, not because they fine the defaulters any less, but just because they address them in a nice and professional manner, and inflict the fine as per the violation and stay honest and fair as far as is humanly possible.
People in Pakistan very strongly yearn for justice, rule of merit and equality and fair-play for all without any discrimination. That is one reason that the graph of popularity of President Zardari and PM Gilani is going down, and that of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry keeps rising. I found people willing to accept discipline and law if it were administered even-handedly. In one case I saw one driver using his turban as a seat-belt just to avoid a violation of law. A general sense of helplessness was also found prevailing in people who live in inner cities due to absence of security and law and order. New cities with gated communities are emerging, leaving the commoners without any such protection.
Among the politicians, very few are found in the good books of people. Perhaps the most popular person in the country is CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry. In the government, Mian Shahbaz Sharif is remembered by most for his good governance. “How do you view the performance of Mian Shahbaz Sharif?” is one question I kept asking to most people. In 95% cases people praised him for the efforts he was making to improve the quality of life of the common people. Aitzaz Ahsan has been next in line of popularity.
The country has moved fast in many fields, but somewhat in haste and without planning. The roads have been widened, no doubt, but without any relief to the people. The extra space thus created most criminally remains consumed by the encroachers, leaving little space for the sea of vehicles, let loose on people by the bankers through easy loan schemes. Due to the absence of foot-pavements in most cases, and the number of vehicles on the roads, it has virtually become impossible for the people without a ride to walk. Inflation runs over 45% in most cases. Austerity in the life of even those people who perforce are supposed to have it, is found missing. There is a general lack of empathy in people. Mind-your-own-business has become the motto for most people. Old social and family values are crumbling fast, and the new ones are in a fluid state and are not firm-footed.
The writ of the government in most cases is nominal. Statements mean nothing if they are not translated into meaningful actions. People virtually are rudderless and leaderless. They often appear to be in favor of “rough justice”, the kind administered by the Taliban. They are more turning towards religion, as if waiting for a Messiah. On Eid-ul-Adha, I saw very small children watching the slaughtering of sacrificial animals with a sense of amusement, while their parents stood nearby. Blood sights do not scare children. So no wonder if people read or hear about the things happening in Swat or other places and stay emotionally unmoved. One business square in Mingora, Swat now stands named as “Khooni Chown” because each day when shopkeepers come to open their shops in the morning, they see four or five dead and headless bodies hanging over the poles or the trees. And all this remains unnoticed.
There is a mushroom growth of plazas and shopping centers, built without any provisions of parking space or safety measures. Most shops in these plazas sell garments as if the nation of Pakistanis had been naked for centuries. The destruction of Ghakkar plaza in fire in Rawalpindi took place the same night I had shopped there. On each visit I termed it a death-trap because the whole complex was built with very few exits.
People in Pakistan shop a lot; spend a lot; eat a lot; litter a lot; grumble a lot and accuse a lot Each day at the local bakery, I would stand for well over 20 minutes waiting for my turn. It just would not occur to people that standing in a line, driving in a lane, giving way to others, opening a door for others, saying thanks for a favor received, keeping the front part of the shop or house they own as clean, waiting for the turn, greeting others with a smile, and many other such small, and inexpensive acts, by adopting which the quality of life can improve considerably, is not an American agenda. The local Imam where I would go for prayers, in his Friday sermon, never even once touched any of these topics. Past Islamic history or rejection of the Western values often remained the main theme of his address.
Like here, small children remain glued to the watching of cartoon movies, and grownups to chatting on cellular phones. School-going girls often move about in Hijabs, and young boys in jeans and T-shirts with inscriptions on them. Media, indeed, has made tremendous progress. Popular anchors and columnists roll in money paid to them in “lafafas”. At least, this is what I heard from a person running a media department in a university. Civil society is gaining momentum and strength, which is a healthy sign. Middle class is fast disappearing, though Mushashid Hussain keeps on harping on its rise.
There is an open talk of a change in the government in the month of March. Staying in jail does not make one a Nelson Mandela. Mandela remains popular due to some sterling principles. One such principle of his was: “Courage is not the absence of fear - it’s inspiring others to move beyond it”; another was, “Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front,” and the third most important secret of his popularity was, “Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer”. Did President Zardari possess or practice anyone of these? By the way, yet another golden rule followed by Mandela in life was, “Quitting is leading too”.
In order to save democracy, and the country from another military takeover, it would be great if the current leadership gives a serious thought to Nelson Mandela’s last principle quoted above. After all, politics like the game of cricket is all about performance.
