What else we need in this country!
By Shahid Rizvi
We are strange people. We are experts in mixing positive and negative factors. Look at the list. We have democracy but without tolerance. We have a constitution with unconstitutional clauses in it. We have an elected president who always relying on self-nominated caretakers. We have a very busy president with enough time to play with his hobbies. We have MNAs supposed to be the representatives of the people, who are only safeguarding their interests.
We have a judiciary that decided that consent of “Wali” is necessary for the marriage of a woman – a concept totally inconsistent with the norms of democratic life. We have an unruly bureaucracy to control the affairs of the state. We have the departments of the government which work exactly opposite to the assigned functions. PWD, KESC, PTC, and others are busy day and night in tormenting the public.
On top of it, we have the agencies like CIA, FIA, IB, etc. Besides federal government agencies which are numerous and all very active. There are provincial and then departmental agencies. The number goes to thousands. Their job is to save the country from foreign and internal subversive agents. But we have never heard that these agencies have ever prevented any subversions. What we hear is that cry of subversion after a bomb blast. What we hear is that internal terrorists have very strong organizations. It is revealed that there are arms supply routes but without any check on arms supply. These agencies start their jobs after something happens.
They are too active in what is not their function.
As soon as a government is overthrown mostly through 58(2)(B), within no time thousands of persons are arrested, and millions of stories about those arrested are spread over the whole world. Rumors fill up the columns of newspapers from the news coming from these agencies. Within a few days, thousands of crimes are assigned to the deposed party. We have a police force which is meant to keep law and order in a legal way. This police force of ours is a proud object of lawlessness. They can arrest anybody anywhere at any time against any charge. They can even deny the victim to inform the relatives. They can arrest the father if the son is not available. They can search your house without a search warrant. They can take you to such far-off places like ‘nara’ without permission or information from anyone. If need be, they can, instead of safeguarding your life, kill you in the lock up and show that you were trying to escape.
There are jail authorities who have burnt their copies of jail manuals centuries ago. A jailor is an employer in his domain. Jail is not for criminals but for those who are sent to hell.
We have politicians who have never known what politics is. We have cricket players who after retirement from cricket came to politics in search of earning more money. There are actresses who want to test their charm of beauty in politics. There is Qazi Hussain Ahmed. Political circles think he is a religious leader. Religious circles think he is a political leader. And he is nowhere. We have political parties that have little public support. The solidarity and strength of a party is gauged from the factions it has. Muslim League is the strongest party because it has a number of attributes like Qayyum League, Qutubuddin League, Khairuddin League, Pagara League, Junejo League, Nawaz League, etc. Next comes Peoples Pary. It is divided at present in three or four factions but if Farooq Leghari remains in the presidency, will be divided into a few more.
Our politics is not concerned with the real problems which it should be, instead, we are interested in gimmicks. We show dead bodies to collect public donations. Last but not least, our simple sage Meraj Khalid who is supposed to fight for the survival of the country, announces that the country according to American documents will be disintegrated within 20 years. Thank you, Mr. Caretaker Prime Minister!
