Lagging behind, as always

In the midst of this existential war against terrorism and extremism, the attention of our political leaders has almost totally been distracted this week by the spectre of horse-trading in the upcoming Senate elections. So much so that a constitutional amendment was seriously proposed to change the entire process and make it an open ballot.
On Friday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with the heads of parliamentary parties to seek consensus on the amendment but it remained inconclusive after certain parties opposed the idea. One argument was that the issue demanded comprehensive electoral reforms and not a hasty, reactive amendment in the constitution.
This certainly would not be the first time that votes for the Senate elections are bought and sold. This has been a trend. But some party leaders now seem anxious to do something about it and the easy way they deciphered is to opt for an open ballot instead of the secret ballot that is prescribed by the constitution. This is another example of how very complex and seminal concerns are sought to be tackled through expedient and devious devices.
After all, where have these legislators who could shamelessly sell their votes come from? They are obviously an integral part of our political system. That is how our major political parties that preside over the destiny of this nation conduct their affairs and make their choices in the first place when party tickets are awarded.
Besides, what we describe as horse-trading is just one facet of how corrupt and immoral we are in a collective sense. Our leadership, in fact, should have been more disturbed about the overall decline in our values and the level of performance in various different sectors. One glaring manifestation is the quality of governance across the country, with some variance on a regional basis.
In one context, the solution that the political leaders are proposing subverts their professed desire to promote integrity in the political process. Our leading human rights defender and former president of Supreme Court Bar Association has rightly described the recent outburst of political leadership on a secret ballot for the Senate elections as “a unique spectacle of mistrust and ignorance”. An open ballot would manifestly violate the basic principles of secrecy and sanctity of the ballot.
“Amazingly, a parliament whose members go through the rigours of qualifying as ‘ameen’ and honest are not trusted by their leaders”, Asma said. This reference to moral standards that are already planted in the constitution is very relevant. A system is not cleansed by expedient edicts often imposed for opportunistic reasons. The real task is to create a moral society in which individuals are inspired to value integrity and fundamental social obligations.
These deprivations, of course, are not restricted to the political class. We, as a country, are lagging behind in many crucial ways. Our capacity to function as a modern state is evidently deficient. At the same time that we brag about the potential that we have, our performance in almost every sector is unsatisfactory. We remain near the bottom of every global assessment of human development.
So, instead of devoting so much of their time and attention to the imminent buying and selling of votes in the Senate elections, political leaders have more vital issues to contend with. I mentioned the war against terrorism and extremism at the outset. In recent weeks, there has been a specific focus on sectarian violence. That the situation has deteriorated to this extent is in itself a manifestation of the depredation of our society. All our institutions seem to be in a state of decay or disrepair.
All this has not happened suddenly. We had seen it coming. However, our rulers have apparently not undertaken any thoughtful study of what is happening to Pakistan. Evidence of continuing deterioration in our performance is all around us. Take cricket, for instance. It is even worse in some other areas. For instance, people may not even have noticed a small item buried in the inside pages of a newspaper on Friday. It just said that another Pakistani has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia. He was convicted of heroin trafficking. Pakistanis figure regularly in this dreadful list.
I would not go into any details but I was not pleased with a report I read in the Economist last week that said, with considerable statistical evidence, that Bagladeshis in Britain have overtaken Pakistanis in social indicators. What I think is extremely pertinent is that the Bangladeshi children have performed so much better than the Pakistanis in education.
Irrespective of how this comparison in a specific context is interpreted by our critics, I would urge our leaders and policymakers to read the report carefully. There may be hints here of why we as a nation are so intolerant and unwilling to accept modern ideas – including that of democracy. The Economist has noted that “the growing success of Bangladeshis appears odd because their living conditions are often so dismal”. Pakistanis, on the other hand, “are more likely to own houses”.
The key observation, as I see it, is this: “Cultural conservatism, which has deepened among many British Pakistanis, makes things worse”. It is this cultural conservatism, enveloped in a hypocritical display of religiosity, that has sabotaged the progress and emancipation of the Pakistani society. The problem is that our ruling ideas are in harmony with this cultural conservatism.
This also means that to deal with our present challenges, critical shifts have to be made in our ideological sense of direction. A comparison with Bangladesh would be instructive in a larger context. When it was East Pakistan, it did lag behind what was then West Pakistan in most economic and social indicators. Now it is markedly ahead of us. Look specifically at population control, education and the status of women.
This is not the occasion to go further in this direction. And yes, Bangladesh is also a Muslim country in South Asia. There is this shocking news I have read this morning. Its intro: ‘Machete-wielding assailants hacked to death a blogger in the Bangladeshi capital, in the latest of a series of attacks on writers supporting freethinking values in the country’.
Religious militancy, it means, is becoming a threat in almost all Muslim countries. But what we confront in Pakistan is more severe in nature. The very survival of Pakistan is at stake. That is why our rulers must devote their entire attention to creating a society in Pakistan that is more moral, more civilised and more progressive than it is now.
The writer is a staff member.
Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com