By: Asem Mustafa Awan
Ongoing monsoon spell and the brief spatter to quell the heat wave resulted in displaying the government’s apathy towards its citizens. Different cities have different scenarios but it all point fingers at the officials who claimed salaries from public tax but did nothing to earn their keep.
The anger and anguish in the air with thousands having nothing or very little for sustenance.
A cruel callous approach towards the residents in ‘land of the pure’ from the rulers is an established norm and it stays unchanged since the inception of Pakistan.
Leaving millions in the lurch and deserting them in the need of the hour is a tale which is repeated every year in floods which happen due to monsoon besides India’s treachery which releases water from its dams to over flood Pakistan.
The great Quaid in making Pakistan ‘land of the pure’ took everyone along sadly he has to go to his maker and the followers ensued were not having the vision to guide the nation.
The tall claims from political stalwarts are all in papers only and nothing concrete and the mighty slogans are but slogans all air and nothing solid.
A question in the current flood is raised from the people who have suffered most and have voted their respective leaders to the ‘august house’ the parliament, is their (political elite) absence.
None of these political elite live in their constituencies and now if at all Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to make his team members work, this is the time. Now is the time to stand with the people and now is the time if PTI wishes to gain extra political mileage and the same goes for other political parties.
The anger and anguish in the air with thousands having nothing or very little for sustenance, there is a possibility that none of these political stalwarts will make it to the ‘august house’ the parliament alive and intact.
PM IK should call it a day as ‘no more meetings’ and send all its political stalwarts to their drowned and drowning constituencies for the relief efforts and same goes for opposition benches as they can now gain the political mileage they aspired earlier.
This divine intervention in the form of rains will cleanse everything once and for all, as the masses will pick the ones who have been there for them and it is believed that not many will make it back.
How many reports have been there, when angry mob took justice in their hands and killed thieves and robbers. Sad but it is true the gimmicks these political leaders with their protective and political entourage is seen doing distribution to but a select few and in a very isolated corners where people who are dying of disease and hunger have very little left in their bodies to make a strike on the ones who are responsible for their ongoing miserable lives.
Such is the anger masses hold in their hearts there is possibility ‘hung and lynch parliament’ written in the text books will be an actuality.
The relief efforts as always announced should also go with a check unlike the established norms since long where relief goods were looted and plundered by the ‘political goons’ who stored the booty and later sold it in the market. This happened during 2005 earthquakes and unaccounted for donations if not plundered were enough to built the rubble cities three times and more.
The woebegone tales of people losing everything in the rainy water will never get compensated as there is no system in the acclaimed ‘welfare state’ which could help these people.
The laws of the land whether existent or non-existent in case of natural disaster and calamities dole out the funds for those who are reachable while many complaint that there is no one who has come to their rescue.
This needs to change and there should be a system devised and planned for the unseen. The government has made a body which announce and forecast these disasters from time to time and get funds for these announcements. The need of the hour is to make these bodies at the grass root level.
The Baitul Maal operates on public giving out Zakat has other money coming from banks which operate on interest based economy and hence the ‘dream of Riyasat-i-Madina’ gets tarnished as the source is contaminated.
The need of the hour is how to curtail the damage resulting in loss of lives and material and these political stalwarts sadly will visit their constituencies when it is declared safe to do so.
There have been many a instances when people out of frustration have thrown shoes at presidents and prime ministers and seeing is believing, you tube can be searched for these epic clips.
The recent rains have resulted in thousands getting displaced losing their belongings and thousands more are likely to suffer as the spell which has spellbound the government in a ‘trance of immobility’ is a charm which has moved from one government to another.
Unwinding and deciphering the charm from leading experts including consulting the reference and written manual from John Perkins who wrote ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’ makes the conclusion that ‘look busy and do nothing’.
The writer is Special Correspondent at The Dayspring
