Beware, we’re losing it

Every passing day we seem to be getting fresh hints that we, collectively, are beginning to lose it. But the evidence there is of a likely societal failure is not always easy to decipher. With our focus on rising economic difficulties and gathering political disarray, there is not enough concern about our fearful deficiencies in the domain of social capital and human development.

What is, however, obvious is loss of hope. Even when they do not understand the economy and the assertions made by political adversaries, ordinary people are fully cognisant of the brutal realities of their own lives. And they do not only see but live this drift towards disaster.

Meanwhile, we have to contend with the heady rush of headlines in the media. So the big news at this time is that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, with the help of its allies, managed to get the budget approved from the National Assembly on Friday.

Also on Friday, Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa addressed a seminar on ‘Pakistan’s Economy: Challenges and Way Forward’, held at the National Defence University (NDU). In the present situation, his observations are quite significant and it was perfect news sense that they became the main lead in Saturday’s papers. The passing of the budget was largely a formality and had to take second place.

He endorsed the tough measures taken by the government of Imran Khan and blamed decisions that had been taken in the past for the current fiscal mess. It has been noted that Gen Bajwa’s observations were very significant since he is the first army chief of the country to have been included in a top economic consultative body.

For the purpose of this column, I want to underline the army chief’s appreciation of the present difficulties and that “it’s time to be a nation”. He endorsed the view that Pakistan should have greater connectivity with all its neighbours and with the region. The stress, thus, was on trade and greater economic cooperation.

The big question, as always, is why this has not happened. Why are we not a nation, in some ways? Why have we not concentrated on our social and economic development? And, finally, what can we do with what we are left with?

One measure of what is rotting is the spectacle we are constrained to watch on the floor of the National Assembly. I find the squabble over the expression ‘prime minister select’ or ‘selected prime minister’ very instructive. It tells a lot about how our political discourse has degenerated in recent times and what messages are contained in this communication.

Look at the comedy that was prompted by the ban on the word ‘selected’ by the deputy speaker of the National Assembly even when the august House has usually been reverberating with vile accusations against adversaries. Of course, an idea can be conveyed in many different words. Marriyum Aurangzeb called Imran Khan ‘handpicked’ in the National Assembly on Friday.

Expectedly, this frivolity of making an innocent world un-parliamentary invited widespread comment, including in the foreign media. It was said that the phrase ‘selected prime minister’ thus used by the opposition, implied that Imran Khan’s election victory last year was engineered by the establishment, the press was muzzled and opposing parties were targeted long before the polls.

Still, take this as an aside. Incredibly more serious and shocking were remarks made by Faisal Vawda, who is a federal minister, in one session of the National Assembly. If you remember, he had suggested in a talk show that if 5,000 persons were hanged, the problems of the country would be resolved. Speaking in the sacred premises of the National Assembly, he amended his previous recipe for progress by recommending that those people should first be tied to a vehicle and dragged on the streets before being hanged.

Believe it or not, this is what we have to endure and if we really try to comprehend this and similar performance of a number of federal ministers and leaders of the PTI, our minds boggle. Needless to say, Vawda’s words spoken in the National Assembly were not expunged. Are we slowly and gradually slipping into some kind of a fascist dispensation? Some of the signs, with reference to freedom of expression and human rights, are easily detectable.

Hence, the real worry is about where we are headed, despite all the corrective measures that our rulers are now being compelled to adopt. As I see it, and it is something that social scientists should be assigned to study, the life that is led in the lower depths of our society is beyond redemption. It is so dreary and contrary to any political perception of what the ‘awam’ really are like that if any change is in the offing, it is bound to be catastrophic.

Signs of a breakdown are becoming more fearsome. Reports of suicides, murders, heinous crimes and other forms of what they call deviant behaviour are not properly reported. Only occasionally does a child sexual abuse case become a national crisis. But this does not seem to affect the situation on the ground.

You may find some glimpses of this collective disorder if you make contact with ordinary people and observe the struggle they go through to make simply to stay alive. You can see how they behave when they become members of a mob. Walk the streets and breathe the air of utter madness that pervades the environment.

Yes, there are also some hard facts about our social reality that are truly disturbing. Probe any aspect of our society relating to education, health, women, children, minorities and many other areas polluted with violent extremism and orthodoxy and you will find some evidence of what is happening to us.

One area of great concern is mental health. I recall that in one discussion on the subject of de-stigmatising mental health held last month, Dr Haroon Ahmed, president of Pakistan Association for Mental Health had said that every second house in Karachi has one or more persons taking tranquilizers and every fourth house has a psychosomatic or psychiatrist problem. This and widespread, masked depressive disorder.

Unfortunately, the IMF cannot advise or help us in dealing with these issues. All it can do is contribute to our post-budget stress disorder. But our rulers do talk about other countries that have met their challenges, without being able to look at the difference.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com