EDITORIAL: If chatter coming out of PML-N’s recent huddle is anything to go by, the party leadership has wisely decided to adopt a reconciliatory approach instead of a head-on collision with the establishment and elements in the superior judiciary to spice up its election campaign.
It seems Shehbaz Sharif’s hurried, and quite mysterious, second trip to London did the trick just as his elder brother was looking to resume his venomous assault on the previous military leadership, which was cut short by his arrest and subsequent mini exile, only this time he was squeezing in a senior Supreme Court judge in his target list also.
Everybody, especially the political elite, knows about the checkered nature of Pakistan’s politics; more so since the unceremonious departure of the last two elected prime ministers. But it’s still a shame that the country’s most experienced and senior politicians have made its most important institutions and their past and present leadership fair game in their single-minded pursuit of power and riches.
It’s as if the people fighting tooth and nail to lead and represent Pakistan’s 250-odd million souls are the farthest removed from the most pressing concerns of the citizenry.
People need a credible roadmap out of the economic crisis, a plan to solve the country’s debt problems that have unleashed a wave of historic inflation and unemployment, and an end to the oppressive tax regime that hurts the poor and protects the rich.
And they would happily vote for whoever leads them away from the abyss even if those leaders aren’t rolling up their sleeves to pick fights with powerful quarters to settle personal scores.
Nobody should have any doubt that Pakistan stands right at the edge and the slightest misstep could send the country tumbling head first into default and crippling economic/financial crises.
Even now, we’re barely staying afloat because of a last-minute and extremely harsh Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF (International Monetary Fund).
And we only have to look as far back as a few months ago to know how quickly such arrangements can unravel if we don’t keep our part of the bargain – which in this case involves taxing honest taxpayers to the point of bankrupting them and provoking angry riots that can spiral out of control very quickly.
The fact that the top political leadership was just too occupied with their own fights, refusing to so much as sit together and declare an economic emergency when the country was falling apart, provides enough proof if any was still needed that their agenda begins and ends with their own selfish interests.
That is why PML-N’s new slogan, of reconciliation, comes as a breath of fresh air. One can only hope now that it is not just a fancy gimmick to attract voters to get back into power and business as usual.
Everybody must understand that this is truly Pakistan’s last chance to get its act together. Otherwise, a country with the fifth largest population in the world, and in the top ten in terms of poverty and illiteracy, has a dark and painful future ahead of it.
Already it is the politicians and their toying with this country that has reduced us to this wretched state of affairs. If they cannot pull their socks up even now, they will further expose themselves to the people. And then no manner of chest thumping and sabre rattling will earn them the attention, and votes, they need.
For the sake of the people and the country, all parties need to take a leaf out of PML-N’s new book and let reconciliation, not confrontation, chart the way forward.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.