Sometimes acronyms create lot of confusion like, for instance, CCHD. Previously, I thought as if it were some kind of a brain-strengthening medicine administered most often by psychiatrists but later on, when I explored the contents of the invitation for delivering a speech on behalf of media, I came to know that it is the acronym of an organization that aims at human development. CCHD, according to the invitation message, stands for Citizen Commission for Human Development. The talk that ensued during the discussion came up to the mark as some elegant ladies charmed the audience by way of their intellectual beauties which were certainly far more enchanting than their first impression. By first impression, here I mean not their routine glamour with which they are already blessed by Nature. Rather I mean their political or working facade as two of them happened to be politicians, namely PTI’s Mehnaz Rafi and PML-N’s Lubna Faisal and the third one, Aima Mehmood, headed an organization or a non-government organization (NGO), looking after the interests, nay welfare of working women. As for Mehnaz Rafi’s versatile background and vigorous services rendered towards the civil society and citizenry’s empowerment, they are widely known to be matchless and need no emphasis. There were other women too rather their presence was quite heavy, and it has been reported that there is a woman behind CCHD, I mean the one who is the chief of this setup. So, at the outset it was just but natural to form the impression that the first ‘C’ might denote ‘cacophony’ which is typical of any discussion or seminar densely populated by the 50 plus percent population that is known for its fascination for talking more and more. But things turned out to be just refined as the womenfolk, just like their male counterparts remained focused less on rhetoric and more on pragmatic suggestions, like the raising of a system that ought to ensure empowerment of the masses, especially at the grassroots level. It is from bottom to the top that democracy needs to be organised and strengthened; otherwise, it will turn into stagnant democracy sans the participation of the masses. And that can be done quite effectively if the local bodies elections are held at last, and the local government system is put in place. But what fears and apprehensions are coming in the way of local government elections? Is the ruling lot frightened with the powers of ‘Shamay Jalana’ and ‘Putlay Jalana’ (lighting candles and burning effigies) of the empowered civil society that it is dreading nearness with it—the same people-government nearness which could have come into effect had the local government system been made practically functional? Perhaps no one will disagree with this consensus suggestion that it is about time that the country gets rid of the ‘one good-man-on-the-top’ model of governance so as to do away permanently with stagnant democracy and replace it with participatory democracy. Of course, one good man or for that matter one good woman on the top is a redundant model of delivering. Isn’t this model somewhat akin to addiction? In what other manner would we like to describe idle waiting for one saviour on the top to resolve all the pending matters and doing nothing on our own part till the descent of such a pan-powerful, pan-charismatic saviour to do our bidding like an indebted genie who has just been released out of the bottle? And the endeavours of journalists—Tanvir Shahzad and Salman Abid—deserve mention on two accounts, one for giving weight to the opinion of media men and secondly for carrying out the anti-addiction therapy. ….mianrehman1@gmail.com
