To Resign Or Not To Resign?

The last week has had us here in Pakistan bear witness to two short resignations. I say short because they lasted for a couple of hours only. First to try out this road was Mr Aitezaz Ahsan of the famed and now in famed turn coats err Black coats movement. When Sher Afghan was summarily beaten up by his or lets just say “namaloom afrad” he decided that he could not stand to be the head of such a movement any longer and resigned. He then came on TV and showed us 32 missed calls and 40 sms messages. Yes the leaders of our countries movements are transparent enough to share their phone details also. All of the requests on his phones were for him to come back, and that all the chiefs of all the bars in the country (law bars) not the others ones would resign also if he did not relent. So unfortunately he had to cancel his jab at humility.

Then we saw how it is really done today. Altaf Hussain chief diva of Pakistan and leader of the MQM in a surprise and gut wrenching i mean heart wrenching move decided to step down from the high command of his organization. Immediately chaos erupted as his party workers descended on 90 his HQ in Karachi crying and wailing at this sad news. One by one all his deputies, the elected Parliamentarians from this party as well as other notables pleaded with him to take back his decision. Then everyone and i mean everyone who had anything to do with MQM resigned. There was chanting, there was wailing and there was singing. Obviously such gusto struck Altaf Bhai’s heart and he chose to take back his decision after 90 minutes.

As this was going on i was in heated discussion with a notably outspoken and opinionated friend of mine who (you know who you are) made certain points which struck me as quite convincing. Firstly i do not care what people call Altaf Hussain but any other party leader resigning would create a rat race for the top spot, here they were all bawling their eyes out. What charisma does this man posses? what charm does he hold over his followers? it was a spectacle to see. Secondly both instances described by me have come with a silver lining.

Both Aitezaz Ahsan and Altaf Hussain resigned because they owned up to their movements mistakes. Both resigned as protest against their inability to maintain peace in the society. For a Pakistani & a Karachite just to see this is enough to give me some hope. By god this is a silver lining is it not? If our leaders are owning up to what went wrong? Instead of shifting the blame like in the past? To me at least, in spite of all the histrionics and chest beating this was a big deal. I welcome this new trend, even if the resignations do not last long, they at least make a dent on public opinion which screams loudly “We want peace in our land”

Check out some resignation and retraction scenes below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiWLpjrXWko]

Credit : Youtube