A breaking point

How would you react if someone were to tell you that Karachi is at “a breaking point”? Most likely you would connect it with this week’s highly dramatic developments in the city. Since I consider myself a chronicler of the sorrows of Karachi, I should be looking at the existential crisis of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – the MQM. But this is a developing story and I am making a slight detour.

Besides, it is possible to interpret the ongoing upheaval in the politics of urban Sindh in a positive light. They are beginning to attend to lethal derelictions that were tolerated, even wilfully protected, for a long time. Karachi, in a sense, is in a process of being liberated though the territory is still a security minefield.

Anyhow, I have chosen to pick up an interview of the outgoing country director of UNDP, Marc-Andre Franche, published in the Business Recorder this week. It relates to the overall state of affairs in the country and Karachi comes up in passing. Essentially, the remarks made are almost an exact replication of the views that have repeatedly been expressed by a number of our commentators. The reality of Pakistan is too glaring to be passed over by any observer – except, incredibly, by the rulers.

However, observations made by a person who has served as country director of the UNDP for four years would appear to have a stamp of authority. It is also significant that he chose to share his assessments in such a candid manner. I take it as an expression of the person’s moral and professional integrity and his sincere affection for the people of this country.

I was led to this interview by an excerpt in social media, posted by our respected investigative reporter Umar Cheema. This was it: “If there is one thing I leave with, it is a sense that the only way a critical change will happen in Pakistan is when the elite of this country, the politicians and the wealthy sections of the society, will sacrifice their short term individual and family interests in the benefit of the nation.

“You cannot have a political class in this country that uses its power to enrich itself, and to favour its friends and families. This fundamental flaw needs to be corrected if Pakistan is to transform into a modern, progressive developed country. The political and economic elite must also try to build consensus”.

The heading of the interview that I located on the web is: “Pakistani elite needs to decide whether or not they want a country: outgoing country director UNDP, Pakistan”. I am tempted to quote some more from the ‘parting thoughts’ of a foreign development expert about Pakistan’s socio-economic problems. Keep in mind that he was watching us closely for four years. That exactly was his assignment.

So, about Karachi: “I was in Karachi this month and the situation there is appalling. It’s at a breaking point. If Karachi is at all to continue being the engine of growth in this country, something needs to be done about public utilities. You cannot live in Karachi and grow your business anymore with the state of disrepair of public institutions”.

About inequality: “Pakistan will not be able to survive with gated communities where you are completely isolated from the societies, where you are creating ghettos at one end and big huge walls at the other end. It is not the kind of society you want your kids to live in”.

Finally, about the shamelessness of the rich and the privileged class of Pakistan: “I have visited some very large landowners who have exploited the land for centuries, paid nearly zero money for the water and how they almost sometimes hold people in bondage. And then they come to the United Nations or other agencies and ask us to invest in water, sanitation and education for people in their district. I find that quite embarrassing”.

Now, it so happened that I read another report in an English daily on Friday with this heading: ‘Poor are born to serve the rich’. This, to me, was a providential affirmation of the views of Marc-Andre Franche. It is to be noted that the words in the headline were spoken by a PML-N senator in a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Devolution on Thursday.

What one gathers from the report is that Senator Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar – the name itself announces the pomp and power of its bearer – of the ruling party was responding to remarks made by PPP Senator Taj Haider. Journalistic decorum demands that I tell you that Taj Haider is my wife Sadiqa’s elder brother and I am only referring to the published story. Taj said something about how the country had become the property of the ruling elite and that all decisions were made in the interest of the rich.

Senator Nasar is reported to have remarked that if everyone were to become wealthy, here will be no one to grow wheat or to work as labour. “This is a system created by God, and He has made some people rich and others poor and we should not interfere in this system”, he said.

We are informed that the PML-N senator’s remark triggered a strong reaction and also that Senator Nasar could not be convinced. This for me is the pivotal point: you can hardly argue with a person who believes that a social order that has put him in authority is ordained by God. The irony is that such individuals are able to exploit a system that is designed to empower the poor and the underprivileged.

What can you do about it? What is evident is the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of our rulers. Otherwise, how could a person of the views that Senator Nasar is reported to have expressed be located in that august chamber as a representative of a mainstream political party.

To continue with the format of this column, I would like to conclude with another excerpt from another report – and I have taken it from social media. Another bookstore has closed down in Peshawar, and the owner of Shaheen Books displayed this banner on the closed door: “The entire society is in grasp of moral degradation, senselessness, extremism and terrorism because of their ignorance. People don’t have the habit of reading anymore. So libraries and bookstores have no meaning for such [a] society. Under such circumstances, we are forced to close down our bookstore”.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com