Sanitary murders

Two famous events this week. One was the very showy investigation of the PM for money laundering that resulted in a verdict that there isn’t sufficient evidence. The other was a very public and gruesome lynching of a student by fellow students for alleged blasphemy.

I wonder which will shape the nation in days, months and years to come.

In the first, an accusation was made with lots of hearsay but no proofs. Never mind that the PM and his team repeatedly confabulated and obfuscated to incredible levels, the system just did not have the wherewithal to find proof. In the end 2 judges felt that a “smell” was sufficient and 3 felt that the case needed more investigation than the supreme court could do. In the final analysis the case was punted off to the army which can now hold it over the PM in his final “lame duck” year as premier. No systems were formed, people were generally kept unaware of what happened behind closed doors and there is no more accountability than there was a year ago.

In the other event, it is suspected that the lynched student was silenced from criticizing the university admin. This was followed up by 3 sisters shooting someone that they and a mullah had accused of blaspheming 12 years ago. The mullah was an uncle of the deceased and apparently in a family feud with him. So is this how personal enmities, petty grievances and monetary differences will be settled from now on? Have we created the perfect perpetrator less crime, completely sanitary murders.

Why Imran Khan Is No More A Democrat

Democracy is a process. After many fits and starts, we finally got it going in the past 5 years, We had the first peaceful transition from one to the next democratically elected government last year. Was the election 100% fair. Probably not. Was it fairer than earlier ones. Absolutely. Do we think that Nawaz Sharif, the current prime minister, is doing even half of what he should or his advisors are apt, heck no.

But here’s the thing. Imran Khan (for whom I voted) wants to abrogate this system because he thinks there was rigging in either 4 or 10 seats (the story changes with time). Nevermind that his party was short by about 140 seats. Nevermind that his own polling agents called the election in Nawaz Sharif’s favor (his party leaders tweeted congrats to NS BEFORE the election was called even by the media), Nevermind that international and civil society observers thought that although some rigging did happen,it went both way (Free And Fair Elections Network report is available online at FAFEN.org). And nevermind that in review the high courts and the supreme courts agreed that the elections were fair enough to stand.

Still no one grudges IK his point of view. If he wants to believe it then that is his right. If he says so to his workers, that is also his right. However if he wants to abolish our current system in order to be declared PM (or king) on the force of a mob of 10-20,000 that he is using to lay Islamabad (and all of us) to siege, this is reprehensible. He wont agree to any other opinion than his own for the veracity of the elections and has already discounted the national election commission, previous chief justice and the civil society as being partisan.

And btw, crowds that have besieged Islamabad on the behest of IK and his co-agitator Tahir ul Qadri must have cost an estimated PKR 1+ billion thus far to keep, transport and feed. Who paid for this and what will be their pound of flesh for it.

We want Pakistan to improve. We dont like the rampant poverty, avoidable deaths, the misery that is so unnecessary. We also understand that the current group of politicians (including now Imran Khan and his cronies) are too corrupt and inept to deliver against these. But we also recognize a slow change where the voters have voted out incompetents in the last 3 elections. The change is slow but there. We like it and want it to continue. While it does, we will tolerate inept politicians as long as we the people have the power to change them. And we resent Imran Khan abrogating that system to take that power from us. So IK, no more tantrums. Please go home and stay. Be at peace. You were once hailed as a democrat. No more.

Why Politicians Don’t Smile and the Political Crisis in Lahore and Islamabad

I never realised it until I worked closely with them, politicians in Pakistan dont smile much. The more senior they are the less they smile. Of course this is completely opposite of what you see in the US or UK. Smiling is a gesture saying: “I am going to be nice to you”. Politicians in the US or UK thrive at the pleasure of their voters. They must behave nicely to their constituents. A US politician who can’t kiss a few babies on the campaign trail should probably just not contest the election. So what’s different with Pakistani politicians. Their power comes from who they can push or extract favours from, that is what they are elected for. Helping voters and their approval means little. If you are in the business of pushing people, you dont smile, you scowl. Pakistani senior politicians are somber people, they scowl a lot.

We are seeing this in the current crisis playing out in Islamabad and Lahore. Mian Nawaz Sharif, the legally elected Prime Minister with over 50% of seats in the National Assembly is running scared against the onslaught of Imran Khan who has fewer than 10% of the seats and Tahir ul Qadri who has absolutely none. Both want to topple his government and dream of becoming kings. 

Imran Khan feels that electoral rigging in May 2013 elections cost him Prime Ministership. Why he is turning to street protests 15 months later is beyond me. Never mind that FAFEN felt that although there were malpractices, all parties did them and they would not changed very many seats. Surely not the 120 more seas that PTI needed to form government. The courts agree with this conclusion. So now Imran Khan has taken to street intimidation (ironically their partners in KPK government are Jamat-i-Islami, the seldom elected masters of street intimidation). There is an implicit understanding that PTI and its leaders are demonstrating: People and their will means little, when you want political power, do it by force. 

Tahir ul Qadri is doing the same. He never contested elections. He even tried to stop them last year with his week long siege of Islamabad (where he got the 50+ crore rupees it must have taken to do that is beyond my understanding). He too is using his street power to topple the legally elected government of Pakistan and has explicitly expressed this aim in public. 

The leader of the nation, Nawaz Sharif, also has little confidence in the will of the people. Ideally when faced with intimidation from IK and TUQ, he should have come out and said: “the right to protest is constitutional and we respect that. Please use these designated public spaces legally to do that. We will listen and talk with you. But you can not hold entire cities hostage. Your protest must only happen on holidays. Dont stop the businesses because we are a poor nation and cant afford the roughly 20 billion rupees that this stoppage will cost the residents of Lahore and Islamabad for each day that you hold your dharna”. But this is not what he did. His minions used heavyhanded and sly approaches such as closing off petrol pumps and commandeering cargo containers (wonder if they paid for their use) and blocking roads and adding to the misery of the people. They were faced with illegal protest and feel reluctant to use legal force of the state to restrain it speaks volumes of their belief in the system. They could have relied on the voters that brought them into office and said: we are faced with this challenge, help us sort through it. It may have been difficult and perhaps even uncertain but that would have brought the voters into the decision making centre and would have strengthened the government. But that didnt happen because like IK and TUQ, NS also does not believe that voters have any say in all of this. They too resorted to what they understand politics to be: overt and covert weilding of power. After all, that is what politics means in Pakistan. Its not about pleasing the voters or making allies.