Game of power

It very painful and stressful to watch and hear our politicians constantly fighting with each other. Muslims in India, under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam, struggled a lot to get a separate country. Little did we know that power will move from the representatives of the British Raj to their proxies who amassed land and wealth through loyalty to the very power we got freedom from. We have ended up with a system that makes the rich richer and squeezes the blood out of the poor. It seems we are in a perpetual loop of the same episode of corrupt practices in our politics over the last seven decades. The recent Senate election is yet another example of this farce. All major parties including the ruling PTI are alleging the involvement of money to trade votes and, unfortunately, all are right too.

However, it is important to mention that it seems that our politicians only see democracy at risk when it does not favor them. They all need people’s votes, but will not do anything to change the lives of those people. The result is that amidst allegations and counter-allegations, politicians and power brokers keep getting richer and poor people keep suffering. Unfortunately, such is our fate that the same handful of rich and influential in connivance with power brokers remain in power. One wonders what options we have now.

Raja Shafaatullah

Islamabad