Between Emergencies

Mush…pssst Bush here, its not Us vs Them man, its Us vs Us
so lets not make this into Torah Borah man..Cmon

As i sit here writing this, it has now been precisely 14 days since the Great Leader in his ever omnipotent mood decided to thrust us back to deja vu on the 3rd Of Nov. The reasons he has pointed out in his several and getting more magnanimous by the minute interviews are several. Ranging from the apparent chaos in the government created entirely by the judiciary who are releasing wanted terrorists as we speak right now, to the 500 or so “militants” in Swat who are forcing the armies hand to take immediate action. Off course the fact that these so called militants seem to kidnap entire battalions of our troops, around 200 at one go is totally lost on us. Just how do a band of 25 men kidnap a battalion? could it be…that the battalion defected because it was getting kinda sick of umm maybe killing their own countrymen?

The powers to be also never cease to remind us that all of this has happened before, that the last elections were also held in an emergency, that we have been in one emergency or the other since we came into existence. Well who’s bloody fault is that?

The people of this great country have given and bled and done whatever is humanly possible throughout our not so illustrious 60 yr old history. They were out chanting on the roads in Ayubs era, they watched in despair later as their country was ripped apart by a leadership not open to being governed by East Pakistan. They then suffered further humiliation under lashes in the Zia era and when democracy came to them in the name of the daughter of the east, it was riddled with corruption. Then came the great bald hope from Punjab, promising to make every house a palace in raiwand and every business like his own burgeoning foundries. This too proved futile and we were out on the roads again singing and dancing as the daughter of the east claimed victory again in the elections. It would be wise to mention here that the last time there was a typhoon warning there were several people dancing on sea view in karachi to welcome it also. Such is the bane of our great positive spirit.

So….the daughter turns out to be the molester of the east once again and in come the chawdries, back to beating their drums, back to the same old tune. I was one of the people who welcomed “The Great Leaders” coup, and was thrilled to bits that suddenly he would change things. He did not do so bad at all in his tenure up till march this year, when i guess the pressure got to him finally and he started making one rash decision after another.

We have to give the guy some credit as well, he did make a lot of things happen in these last 8 years, the living standards of the general populace went up through various leasing schemes we cannot afford. Cell phones were made available for all which are stolen faster than u can say Nokia and lo and behold the stock market outperformed every other market in the region. Not to mention that only about err 5 people run it, while the rest are busy making them their money? Ok so some economic turnaround did happen, sectors like media and tech did go up and there has been a 7% sustained growth every annum. It is also true that most of the inflation these days is not due to governmental policies but private hoarding and the rising cost of transportation being directly related to oil and such. I would still rate his performance as more than better of his predecessors

The coup de grace is off course the fact that in the end… after all is said and done our “Great Leader” did what we always feared him to do. He got angry.. and in his anger or perhaps misinformation by his several cronies in vests and shalwat kamizes he moved as a commander would move. He first cut off the enemies supply lines by ousting those of the bars and the councils. Then he destroyed the enemy’s communication by putting a stop to it. Plain and simple, radio silence leading to confusion, leading to his army assuming total control of the battlefield. But….but he forgot one thing in his strategic haste to conquer back his supremacy. He forgot the people in this equation, the people of Pakistan. Who are let’s just put is this way a very tough and unforgiving race. The same populace is now out on the roads… protesting..nay demanding that their rights be given back to them.

We must understand that although it looks as if only a 100 or so protestors are out everyday, the number is growing, and growing fast. Even the disillusioned are now saying “look here man enough is enough” and this will continue to grow, till it reaches a tide that will sweep this nation and make it normal again, either that or we will have a revolution and whoever is stronger will seize the helm to bring about change. I pray it is the people, because in the end, even if for a brief period between the so called emergencies, it is only them that matter.

(will not be published anywhere :P)