Press Gallery
Politics of Eyewash
Saeed Minhas
Islamabad: In the on-going tug of war between Khaki and politician-led corporate entities or should we call it parliament and the uniformed establishment, parliamentarians were seen beating about the bush to show it to the down and out people that they really care about them as they have adopted a unanimous resolution to reverse the recent increase in oil prices in the country.
Just to remind you that government has not opposed such a resolution, but neither has reversed the prices. Syed Khursheed Shah, the dam-breach-fame federal minister when asked by deputy speaker whether he is opposing the PML (N) resolution, he mawkishly nodded not to, because Dr. Asim the federal minister for Petroleum stubbornly looked other way knowing very well that how far Dr. Hafeez (IMF-Sponsored finance minister) will let this resolution and its spirit go in favour of common people of Pakistan.
How cheap are these tricks of our democratic lords that they continue to proverbially and practically play with the galleries and emotions of people with such an impunity that every time election bells starts ringing the oligarchy of the country occupying the political parties and parliament of this country start shedding crocodile tears to appease rather fool the voters by playing the usual democratic band.
How can this be wiped off the screens of those minds and books which take stock of the history, and this is not very distant rather very recent history that hardly four years back Mian Nawaz Sharif’s dollar-fame relative and kingpin of his political as well as financial set up, Ishaq Dar helped Peoples Party government, which in the initial days did not even had any finance ministry expert to hold the seat and had to use the services of turn-coat Hina Rabbani Khar as assistant minister under the tutelage of Ishaq Dar to resort to the infamous US $ 11.3 billion loan agreement with IMF in 2008. While finalizing the conditionalities of that agreement Ishaq dar led the government agree to drastic financial and taxation reforms besides radically cutting the subsidies in oil, energy and food sectors.
Anyway as this hoodwinking game is going on inside the parliament, one thing remains quite obvious that the secret deal stuck between the Opposition and the government to not let the uniformed guys take advantage of this situation was very much on display when our Chakwal-Express asked for calling the chief spy of Pakistan before the parliament to answer their ultra constitutional rather criminal acts of picking up people in defiance of court orders and the leaving their tortured dead bodies on the streets.
The complexity and game of nerves amongst various institutions of the state which of course involves our political, strategic, black robes and invisible or should I name them as wikileak masters is reaching such heights that new alignments are worked out on almost daily basis. If Cricketer-turned-politician was given a new ray of hope after his 15 years of struggle by the strategists then Black robes also tried to jump into the foray by re-opening their set of embarrassments with regard to Swiss cases. Since black robes want to remain as alive to the changing game plans as they can—which was evident when all 17 had to rush back in the middle of night supposing that something is reported by anonymous sources by one of their lead TV sources.
Many observers believe that the recent kick in the butt over the fake medicine issue in Punjab was nothing but a reaction towards the secret deal or should we call it understanding between Zee and Sharif camps in which an agreement was made not to let the usual adventurers take advantage of the political infighting rather help each other send them home one by one as most of them are reaching the end of their allotted legal time (including those sitting on extensions) in office. Their argument is that had that not been the case than if black robes can remain stead fast in making sure that Swiss money is brought back to the country than why not no action was taken when their lead actors in Punjab were doling out national exchequer in the name of Sasti Roti and Sugar subsidies which eventually caused impoverished country and province something in the tune of over Rs. 30 billion. By putting the missing persons case on the back burner—remember it was one of the mainstay of the lawyers’ movement as well—and taking up the same old cases, one just cannot take the credit away from Black robes for sticking to their self-styled morality and agenda. Many leaders of the lawyers’ movement also believe that the Wild Card thrown at them from their archenemy in the form of Barrister AA, has also been shown the door for the same reasons. Whether this will help them align with the establishment is still a question mark to many others. As one of the independent-minded senator from Baluchistan put it that adventurers are certainly not in a position to get this roll-out of politicians blame rather they wanted to have a hired assassin to do the job for them. This, according to the wise old guy would have helped create a vacuum which would have been set on fire by return of the former dictator and ultimate calls for take over. But as the spin doctors are working almost on 24/7 basis on all sides and it needs lot more space to continue with this theory, things are yet to shape up to the advantage of any one party or group. Therefore keep your fingers crossed and we will dwell on this in more detail in our next column.
Leave Your Comments