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Thursday March 28, 2024

Unsuccessful

By Abdul Sattar
June 11, 2020

Pakistan has witnessed a number of unsuccessful and incompetent governments but it seems the current regime will set a new and higher standard. The tall claims of the Kaptaan have turned out to be nothing but a mirage.

Soon after coming into power, the party started exposing the luxuries enjoyed by former PM Nawaz Sharif and his family. The PM House was opened and, from buffaloes to VIP cars, everything was on exhibition. This almost led to the impression that Khan would move into a five-marla house, riding a bike to the PM's office to perform his official duty. The gullible imagined that their ministers would now give up expensive and luxury cars and vacatw fully furnished ministers’ colonies, chief minister houses, governor houses and parliament lodges. This was also the time when people were entertained with ludicrous claims about the fuel price of the helicopter used by the PM to visit Bani Gala.

The PM House still stands where it used to. Other palatial houses occupied by chief ministers, governors and ministers are also right where they were. More lavish cars and vehicles have been added to the imperial caravans of the prime minister, his brigade of the ministers and advisers as well as a myriad of chairmen of various useless task forces whose sole job is to do nothing.

The much-vaunted ‘Western’ democracy has been turned into a mockery with principles of transparency, freedom of press and accountability having been torn to shreds. Critics argue that Khan acts like an autocrat, making life difficult for those who do not please him. The media remains a target and the incarceration of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman is a glaring example of it.

This speaks volumes about the ‘respect’ accorded to freedom of the press. The solemn promise of accountability has also evaporated in thin air after the sugar report.

Khan tried to woo the support of working class people by pointing out the gross anomalies in our justice system and political structure, which according to Khan, benefits only oligarchs. But his time in power so far has witnessed police brutalities – not only in Punjab where the Sharifs ruled in the past but in the most perfect province of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa as well. The justice system of the country continues to help the powerful instead of the oppressed. One of the ways to improve it would have been to allocate more funds for hiring judges and prosecutors in lower courts. Simple reforms in the police could also have been instrumental in stamping out these injustices but Khan’s government, which allegedly lavished money on the Tiger Force and a social media team to counter criticism, chose not to allocate sufficient funds for this purpose.

Skyrocketing inflation and bailout packages to rich businessmen created skepticism among PTI supporters, which was further solidified when the government recently made a callous decision terminating over 9000 workers of the Pakistan Steel Mills.

Now, they seem to be of the opinion that all political parties here are serving vested interests. All declare the panacea of privatization, liberalization and deregulation to be good for the well-being of the country while in reality it proves to be catastrophic for working people. All do the bidding of big businesses, ignoring the interests of the common citizen. One may lambast Khan for introducing an amnesty scheme to whiten black money but people wonder which leader has to date not announced such schemes in the past. One may criticise Khan’s policy of doling out stimulus packages on industrial tycoons but which government did not come up with such packages in the past?

Governments are only out of money when it comes to helping poor people. For instance, there is no money for over 60 million people living below the poverty line; no funds for over 60 percent people living without a concrete roof; no relief for those over 80 percent hapless souls that do not have access to cleandrinking water, no succour for more than 40 percent children with stunted growth and the over 20 million children that are out of school.

It is disappointing to see that our parliamentarians are talking about a raise in their salaries and perks and privileges while thousands of our doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and general public are facing the specter of death at the hands of the coronavirus pandemic that has already affected over 100,000 Pakistanis besides claiming more than 2000 lives.

People wonder as to why all miseries and hardships are for them. Why are they chased like criminals if they secured a few thousands rupees of loans while those 273 individuals who embezzled tons of money were never caught? They fail to understand why a common man can be arrested for merely violating a pillion riding ban, ending up in jail or getting released after greasing some palms while the elite have managed to escape in their own private jets in broad daylight and nobody bothers to take any notice. They are at pain to see that the parliament that carries out legislation does not have even a single man or woman from the bottom layer of our social stratification.

The government’s attempt or non-attempt to arrest the spread of Covid-19 appears to have worsened the problem. During the tenures of other governments, people lost the right to housing, education and health but under the present government they fear that they might even lose the right to live as the pernicious tentacles of the coronavirus are likely to engulf the entire country.

Empirical evidence suggests that the virus has hit the poor hard because of the elitist policy of various states. People might ignore other blunders but if the government fails to save precious human lives and if fatalities occur on a large scale, the infamy would become a legend.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

Email: egalitarianism444@ gmail.com