A Heinous Joke With the Nation

If 18 February 2008 was an historical day in the history of Pakistan, the subsequent events have proven to be nothing more than a shameless consequence of imprudent and incompetent political leadership. The entire Parliament, lawfully elected by the people of this country is now rendered hostage in the hands of two stalwarts viz. Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, whose claim as helmsmen of this nation has never been validated by the electorate and another non-elected and non-descript person known as Rehman Malik, whose dubious reputation happens to be his introduction.

Merely acting as party leaders does not empower them to hinder the working of a genuinely elected Parliament especially when they have not, in their individual capacities been given any mandate by the people. With a properly installed Prime Minister, a working Cabinet and elected members of the Parliament, there appears no justification in continuing talks by the two party leaders making the entire process of election appear as a heinous joke with this nation. Criticism of Musharraf’s hand-picked National Assembly that was eventually rejected by the Pakistanis, can now be directed to the present Assembly which is more or less moving on the same track except for change of faces (or rather return of former ones). Perhaps, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had shown better political acumen than her Pakistani male counterparts. Its very unfortunate for PPP that they lost Benazir at a very critical juncture and even more unfortunate that her undeserving husband had to become her successor.

Instead of wasting precious time in pursuing a non-concluding negotiation, had the Cabinet and Assembly been more focused on carrying out their respective responsibilities the nation would have probably been lifted out of its current dilemma. Its impossible to understand why are ministers such as Mr. Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif and their likes, tailing their party leaders all over the globe while the people of this country are patiently waiting to be delivered from their daily miseries of price hikes, power/water shortage and above all, wheat crisis. Indeed, one can only marvel at the audacity of these ministerial portfolio holders who are conveniently ignoring their duties