Snow cometh in white

Rather unexpectedly, London has already had a fair showering of snow, draping the city in white barely days before Christmas. While this will add further to the festivities, it also brings in a change in weather that may cast a subdued glow.

My work at the King’s College is taking a while picking up owing to the break preceding and following Christmas, but there is so much else which is on one’s mind, visits to bookstores being a personal favourite. With the unimaginable stock of wealth lined up there, these are the alleys one would love to get lost in. Back home, we may have lost the art of reading altogether, but there are people who continue to benefit from the habit by adding to their reservoir of knowledge and learning. In the buses, in the underground, in restaurants, pubs, sitting on a bench basking in the occasional sun, standing in a corner waiting for someone – almost all of them have a book in their hands.

We believe that we don’t need to learn anymore. We have mastered everything which we are ever so eager to pass on to the world. The most gruesome manifestation of this is provided by the television screens every evening where half-literate, often completely illiterate, folks are pretending endlessly to be the specialists in fields they are ‘invited’ to talk about.

Here may be a core reason why the difference in the growth of reality and potential among our people and the rest of the world is expanding momentously, with us falling way short of even meeting the minimum benchmarks of retaining the prospect of some level of progress in the future. This is so sad, yet so true. Where are we headed?

The answer may not be difficult to fathom either. The malevolent and systematic manner in which we have made a mess of things in Pakistan speaks loudly of the reasons leading to this criticality. The immensity of the crime world that we have raised through decades of misrule is now complemented with the complete erasure of any distinction between what is right and what is not. That is why you see criminals and absconders of not-too-distant-a-past securing protective bails without appearing before courts and then moving on to having their cases written off by the highest judiciary of the country. So, instead of being indicted for grievous crimes, they are rewarded with positions of prime minister of the country or chief minister of a province and, instead of spending time in jail for crimes committed, are given the luxury of palatial homes to reside in which too are constructed with the illicit earnings from their previous stints in power.

This is the new paradigm in Pakistan which is now being sanctified through the use of state apparatus encompassing the accountability bureau and other investigation agencies, the justice system, the bureaucracy which is totally infatuated with expanding its scope of power, the criminality that has penetrated the political world and the deep servility that has crept in to make one do anything and everything if it comes with a profit. Selling souls and bartering state interests are two of the most notable commodities which are forever available in Pakistan for a price.

At times I have a feeling that I may be much too critical of the kind of people we have evolved into. That makes me think. Every time I do so, I conclude that I am not even half as probing as I should be because, after all, it is a matter concerning the fate of a country and its people. Their future is at stake. But nobody seems concerned about the malaise as the pit of degeneration continues to get deeper and the depravity of its leaders assumes more gruesome proportions. Think as much as one may, what can one say of a nation that is insensitive to its deeds and unconcerned about what may likely befall it in the future? Their rationale of pronouncing its inevitability is that it is willed by the Almighty. That means they are not only exonerating themselves as reasons for it’s happening; they are also expressing their utter helplessness in doing anything to stall the doom.

It is neither a question of more criticism, nor less. It is also neither a question of harsh criticism, nor soft. It is a question of facing the prospect of continuing degeneration in society, some inspired by the criminality factor which has sneaked in at multiple levels and some by the absence of the institutions commissioned to check it. Its acceptance is now a societal norm. That is a crude attempt to rationalize what is exclusively a criminal undertaking which has been wilfully perpetrated by dominating the institutions. It is an expanding business with more and more inductees as potential beneficiaries of the spoils. Is this sordid business likely to stop any time soon?

On the face of it, and with the current mix of things, there does not appear a chance. For any change to take shape, some constituents from the current edifice will have to crumble which are all inextricably linked through common profit. An effort of a messiah’s proportions may be needed which does not happen in realistic times. Must we, therefore, give up on the situation and begin flowing along looking for our own bit of profit? A teasing question, indeed, which I am sure many in the land would be asking themselves with dominant likelihood being that they will also fall for the quotient of profit in preference to reform and regeneration. Sad, but true!

But the rebel in me, the eternal fighter in me, will not give in no matter what the odds and what the daunting challenges. We have reached that critical stage in life when going further will be possible only if the path in the front is redefined and rechartered. Walking the beaten track is only going to plunge us further into the pit where we have already hit rock bottom. Giving up is an option which may be the preferred one for exploitative forces as their progress may be rooted in that remedy. But this is neither an option for the country, nor its people.

Snow cometh in white spreading rays of hope and happiness. Let’s not allow criminality to walk among us shrouded in black. The dead stock can neither steal dreams, nor dash hope. Pakistan shall bounce back.

The writer is affiliated with the PTI, and served as a special assistant to former PM Imran Khan. He tweets @RaoofHasan