State of apathy

From the Punjab IG to the caretaker prime minister, our state officials seem to have decided they bear absolutely no responsibility to understand the sentiments of the people. This time around, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar ended up trivializing the helplessness and outrage of millions of Pakistanis by downplaying both inflation and the energy price hikes. In an interaction with senior journalists on Thursday, the caretaker PM said that the electricity bill problem was “being exaggerated”. In the same meeting, he announced that his government would announce a relief plan on the electricity bills that have led to countrywide protests. He also said that his government did a detailed review of the electricity bills for the last two months and all institutions were asked how much free electricity they were consuming. According to PM Kakar, only Wapda’s employees, including retired ones, get free electricity and there is no such facility available for anyone else including judges. This claim may be easily disputed through some cursory research. Leaving aside the fact-check part of the reaction to the PM’s media talk, one wonders how much apathy is required to not understand the financial boulders every citizen is bearing at this time. In less than a month, petroleum prices have risen manifold; the same is the case with electricity prices. Perhaps not content with making the point robustly enough, the PM also added that, while there is inflation in the country, it isn’t “so much that there should be a shutter-down strike”.

Millions of Pakistanis are struggling to make ends meet. Households where there is only one bread earner can barely manage to put three meals on the table, let alone pay rents, electricity bills and commute to work. In recent months, there have been countless stories on mainstream media and social media where people have complained of how difficult their lives have become. Maybe the government should have listened to those stories, the helplessness in their voices, the frustration and anger at the protests. The apathy displayed by the political elite in the country has always been shocking. It is now furthered by open gaslighting of people’s realities. The prime minister could have chosen his words carefully and empathized with the people even while accepting that the IMF conditions are extremely tough and there is little margin to give relief to the people when it comes to petrol prices and electricity prices or taxes.

For an era where media spin and optics are high on the agenda of governments, what other than the knowledge that the people and their opinion really don’t matter could lead to government officials ignoring the anger and vulnerability of their own people? Sometimes, even an apology works: we are sorry; this is not a situation of our making; we are working to find a solution to what you are facing. This may not have mitigated anyone’s pain or brought relief to anyone’s life but at least it would show someone up there in the corridors of power is understanding that things have reached breaking point for the people. Perhaps, an elected government would be more cognizant of keeping a fig leaf of solidarity? Given the past few months and years, that too doesn’t look too promising. But one thing is for sure: this is why we need a government with the people’s mandate to make decisions, even if they’re tough. At least the people can make them accountable. This is also why 90 days of an unelected government are 90 days too much.