People need solid opportunities to survive

People versus parliament, people versus institutions, people versus Constitution, people versus politicians, people versus industry and the last but not the least people versus clergy. Fortunately or unfortunately, Pakistan is passing through a crucial phase of its existence that revolves round these debates and conflicts i.e. people versus all others.
In a situation like this, who should prevail in the end? Obviously, the reply in the first instance by every sane (or even less sane) person will be that people should prevail. And there is no exception to this rule. May they be human rights activists, civil liberties’ supporters, legal eagles, nonchalant bureaucrats, peasants, labourers, businessmen, media persons or intellectuals, all will unambiguously vote for the people.
Right from the days of Athenian democracy till the modern days when the world witnessed the prevalence of Westminster type democracy and other improved versions of democracy with parliamentary and presidential types, everything has been said, decided and done by the governments, state institutions and other leading sectors in the name of people. And this goes on and on till today.
Even in the states that truly and intrinsically believe in the final, supreme authority of the Almighty Creator, the acts of governance, legislation and dispensation of justice are undertaken and carried out by vicegerents of the Creator which means the humans assigned to do these jobs through a system of selection and seniority. So, people do matter through all the phases and processes of administration, legislation and decision-making especially when it comes to making hard choices between the people and other structures as it happened the other day when industrial units objected to the two-day suspension of natural gas for accommodating the ordinary CNG consumers who are faced with acute petrol shortage.
It doesn’t mean that all the entities other than the people hold less significance in the national scheme of things. Rather they are the main arm of the people’s will. The fact is that the people’s will can’t materialize without a system of services, departments and institutions where chosen experts selected on the basis of their competence and where people-elected representatives perform the functions entrusted upon them by the people.
As for the elected representatives or the parliamentarians, they are supposed to gauge and express the genuine wishes, expectations and unavoidable needs of the masses and provide an overall enabling environment for their practical fulfillment.
At the present juncture too, the situation has taken the same controversial turn when debates have started in different leading circles of the society and state structures like ‘people versus the Constitution’ and ‘people versus the institutions’.
Many intelligent brains are putting forward the argument that such and such entity holds supremacy over all other entities and the decisions taken by them. This is not fair to plunge the nation in these unnecessary debates or ‘clash of wisdom’ within the pillars of the state particularly during the present critical times when the entire citizenry has not yet come out of the shock of brutality and bestiality unleashed on schoolchildren at Peshawar. And even though no such occurrences have taken place since that tragic incident till now, people and children still live in a state of constant fear and shock. That needs to be addressed. It can only be addressed by all the entities if they genuinely realize and understand that the present warlike scenario demands accepting the ultimate supremacy of the people as against the much projected and frequently debated supremacy of other structures.
Even in peace times such debates and controversies that are basically meant to win a position of dominance on the basis of proving wiser than the wisest, end up in a vote in favour of the people but it only happens in a society where the decision-making-cum-management structures are really civilized, sacrificing and supportive toward the masses’ existence and wellbeing.
In the present circumstances, the people in general and their children, in particular, need to be given not only hope to live, but also solid opportunities to survive and thrive. These opportunities would be denied if the public wisdom is denied.
The public wisdom demands strict punitive action against the cruel, merciless perpetrators of frequent bomb blasts, suicide attacks and ruthless killing of children and innocent, unarmed citizens whether this punishment is awarded through the existing legal system or through changes made in it for the purpose of plugging the loopholes that have tended to provide practical immunities to militants thus emboldening them to conduct their destructive missions time and again without any let, hindrance or fear of law or even fear of God. This demand is not only justified in the wake of mass martyrdom of innocent flowers, the schoolchildren of Army Public School Peshawar, but also because all the sincere efforts, direct as well as indirect, to hold reasonable peace dialogue with the militants have failed, yes failed miserably and practically in all respects, not hypothetically.
It is, however, very unfortunate that controversial observations and statements are coming to the fore every now and then as if the children’s martyrdom has been forgotten. Such things are only multiplying the confusion and weakening the resolve against terrorism which means returning the country to the same sorry pass of indecision and inaction as against the speedy decision-making and action-planning by anti-law (anti-faith, according to Senator Aitzaz Ahsan) militants and their sponsors and financers, what to talk of their arms suppliers and their agendas.
Isn’t it injustice- and a joke- with martyred children of Peshawar tragedy and with more than 50,000 martyrs of the land as well as around 5,000 martyred personnel of the armed services?