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Friday March 29, 2024

A choice of parables

By Ghazi Salahuddin
June 04, 2017

A crime mafia – particularly when it has a Sicilian connection – is brutally efficient in its operations. And this is something that our present, or any previous, government would never be found guilty of. That is why we have been blundering into one crisis after another.

Nonetheless, the mafia parable – or analogy – does underline some aspects of our present existence. It is important that a parallel between the Nawaz Sharif government and the Sicilian mafia was drawn in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

What prompted the proceedings was the angry tirade of Nehal Hashmi of the PML-N that Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed equated with the kind of threats that the Sicilian mafia used to issue to the judges and their families. He told Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf : “Congratulations! Your government has also joined these ranks”.

This led to fresh intimations of tensions between the superior judiciary and the federal government. A statement issued by the government expressed “deep concern and regret” over the judge’s remarks, accusing him of violating his oath of office and bringing a bad name to the country.

The three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, was hearing a contempt case against Nehal Hashmi. He had seemingly threatened the members of the joint investigation team (JIT) and the judiciary for pursuing the Panama Papers cases against Nawaz Sharif and his family. A suo motu case was initiated against Hashmi by the chief justice.

Meanwhile, there has been a heightened sense of drama this week over how the JIT has grilled Nawaz Sharif’s sons, Hussain and Hassan. This is the kind of stuff that thrillers are made of. If Pakistan were culturally and intellectually more endowed, there would be books and movies on these encounters – just as Watergate had become the subject of documentary dramas, even when its main characters were alive.

In our case, the mafia parable has gained extraordinary significance and the story has some gripping twists. A fascinating backdrop is provided by the Panama case verdict, which was delivered on April 20. In his dissenting note, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had alluded to a quotation from the epigraph of The Godfather that was attributed to Balzac: “Behind every great fortune there is a crime”. Mario Puzo’s popular novel, celebrated in two outstanding movies, was about a mafia family.

It so happened that Justice Azmat Saeed, who mentioned the Sicilian mafia on Thursday, was one of three majority judges who did not want the prime minister to be de-notified and had instead called for the formation of a JIT to probe the Panama-related financial affairs of Nawaz Sharif’s family. Interestingly, the Supreme Court is also hearing a disqualification petition, filed by Hanif Abbasi, against PTI leader Imran Khan.

These climactic developments have overlapped the beginning of the traditionally slow month of Ramazan when many things are shelved until after Eid. In fact, Imran Khan’s party is set to launch its agitation against the government after Ramazan. As it is, the pace of life slackens quite a bit during this month of piety. The people are inclined to put things off and productivity suffers across the board.

Yet, the juridical affairs are not the only source of heat that is being generated at this time. In addition to its meteorological dimension, the national scene has sizzled because of the inordinate levels of loadshedding and breakdowns in the supply of electricity. Karachi has suffered frequent disruptions this time. In many parts of the country, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there have also been violent protests. Some power-sector installations were also attacked.

Irrespective of how this crisis is to be explained or understood, with a statistical reference to supply and demand, the uninitiated observers feel intrigued by the almost mythical nature of the energy situation. It is possible that this shortage becomes a greater threat to the present government than the political opposition that makes all the noise. One opinion piece has put it quite bluntly: “This is beginning to look like a rerun of the previous government’s last year in power”.

Why is this problem so insoluble, even for a government that boasts of its magical capacity to build physical infrastructure? The impediments are all known and must have been carefully studied. If the distribution system is rotten and if the electricity is stolen and bills are not paid, some measures have to be devised to overcome these problems.

For many years, those in power have been setting deadlines to finally put an end to loadshedding. Many of these assertions, made with bombastic pledges, are often shown on television as comic relief. Is it a task reminiscent of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a boulder up the hill and then watch it roll back down again?

During General Ziaul Haq’s long military dictatorship, commentators would often express concern about when power would be transferred to the people through a democratic process. Dr Mahbubul Haq, the economist, was a member of his cabinet and I remember him saying: “I will transfer power to the people”. And he meant electricity.

A generation later, the people are still without power – in both senses of the word. How loadshedding and stoppages can play havoc with the lives of entire communities would be a story of much human interest, if told in a creative manner. It could be a metaphor for a nation’s quest for light in darkness and for power to forge ahead in the modern world.

Our inability to solve the energy puzzle also illustrates a steady decline in our administrative and managerial capacities. These defects are multiplied by the dilapidated state of our society. We cannot collect our garbage or run schools or manage the traffic on our roads. Running an airline or a steel mill is obviously something else.

Ramazan should be a time for quiet contemplation – and it has just begun. But somehow there is a growing sense of disquiet. So much is happening on different fronts while the popular media is merrily pursuing its obsession with politics. The courtroom sparklers are also rooted in politics. An additional focus on the judiciary’s role in our history is provided by the death of Sharifuddin Pirzada, who possessed an excellent legal mind that was invested in the defence of our military dictators. He was the ‘jadoogar of Jeddah’ who repeatedly pulled the ‘doctrine of necessity’ out of a hat.

Ah, but all these worries have to be set aside for a while. We are playing cricket with India today, which is another parable for our highs and our lows.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com