Over the decades the trees around the Liaquat Bagh have heard a plethora of speakers and seen their styles – gesticulating wildly, shaking heads and hair and so much else. But this time, Sheikh Rashid sahib’s oratory was a capper. I was amazed at the gutter language, at its worst, that Rashid used in trying to make a point. I have no love lost for the personalities the gentleman was indirectly referring to but it seems civility is not our strong point anymore. Politics is dirty and ruthless, but all over the world a sense of decorum and certain ethics are usually maintained by politicians. Well, maybe, Sheikh sahib was giving vent to his feelings at the small turnout which made the event more like an inconsequential Hyde Park corner affair.
Does he realise that his call to the armed forces was bordering on inciting the military to overthrow the government – a treasonable offence? Sheikh Sahib, Leave the armed forces out of the fray. They know what to do and they are already doing more than their bit. As for the Skipper, well, skip’, seems to have gone rusty in the art of reading men, unless he was gauging Sheikh Rashid’s present credentials...at his own expense, and pretty expensive it was, so say the citizenry, I being one of them. The focus, the sharpness, the mental agility and the cool calculations on the green which brought us umpteen laurels are required much more on this uneven and bumpy, but green nonetheless soil, of ours if a change for the better has to come.
Akram Paunwar
Islamabad