That’s not cricket

With the progress of societies in the world, advancement in each walk of life happened. Ignorance drowned in the brightness of knowledge-savagery mellowed down to forbearance-violence subsided into tolerance and that’s how man left the bush and made life and co-existence a sustainable experience. However, politics and media in Pakistan somehow took a regressive option and degraded over the years.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s term as the prime minister was probably the last time politics was done within the bounds of relative purposefulness. There were intense differences between political parties, but the animosity stemmed from ideological standings. Bhutto hated the ground Abdul Wali Khan stood on, but respected him as a politician of standing. Mufti Mahmood ranked as an opponent who defeated Bhutto during the elections, but Bhutto liked him as a politician. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan never had a party to reckon with, but he stood tall as one of the most respected politicians of our country. In totality, the politics clearly pivoted around Islam, socialism, nationalism, capitalism a.k.a. centre-right parties. Endemic corruption as politics didn’t figure at all.

Media was essentially print specific and political reporting and analysis were of superior quality. The likes of Ahmed Ali Khan, I A Rehman, Ziauddin, Cowasjee, Abass Athar, Munno Bhai, Khalid Hassan, Shorush Kashmiri, Shaheen Sehbai and more commanded tremendous respect in the society. Thus, the hand in glove working of both media and politics produced a pleasant and reassuring atmosphere of events and their reporting. The power of the pen was at it’s prime with Abass Athar creating the famous headline “Udhar tum Idhar hum” and “Maudoodi thhaa!”. Such reading was more powerful than today’s TN audio visual sensationalism.

Today’s milieu present chaotic, unprincipled politics and equally sub-standard electronic news reporting. The worry is greater. The style and language overriding deceitful politics is bruising the impressionable students of politics. Let’s put our finger on the ills.

Parroting democracy day in day out and churning out second and third tier leaders from the same house has become the norm. Right across the country, almost all political parties have their offshoots or siblings as the budding leaders. A young student of politics is learning this to be the elementary lesson of democracy. Because of unbounded powers of the leader putting to shame the dictatorship, no accountability within the party can ever raise its head.

Late Hafeez Pirzada told me in London’s Royal Automobile Club, where he would stay each time he visited London from his farmhouse in Berkshire, that he just met Zardari and he said that he will rule this country for 30 years! How come, Pirzada asked, to which he simply gave ten years premiership to each of his children. Can anyone beat that in any democratic country in the world?

Repeating the mantra of democracy and holding sham elections or no elections within the party is yet another malady of our political system. We always have single leadership, just like dictators. Once removed from the scene, there is no stepping in of the number two. Benazir Bhutto (BB) once told me after her ouster that just before Farooq Leghari sacked her, a visiting Chinese guest asked about what Leghari was in her party. To this she said that he was number two. The guest without a pause said, “Oh you made your number two in the party as the president. Wouldn’t he desire to be number one?”

Each political government sends merit to the winds, turning bureaucracy, judiciary and police as their handmaids, leaving hapless people of our country at the mercy of the ruling elite. Bureaucracy has always been dancing to the tune of ruling masters, but of recent some unmeritorious judges looked like domestic helpers.

A long term sentenced convict pulls the wool over the eyes of all and sundry and flies off to the luxury of his flat just like that! And after finding himself on the immigration precipice gambles, a no- trust move against the PM arises so that his 10 years jail sentence is pardoned so that he can rule the roost!

A band of accountability struck or defeated politicians huddle together to cause disarray and commotion just for the hack of it. A juvenile crop of wannabes are dabbling in politics to take revenge for the predicament of their parents. Zardari conveniently send his Mohammad bin Qasim from Debal to capture Islamabad on truck! One more twisted finger juvenile joker masquerades as a politician to make us believe that is our leadership. What a pity and what decadence from sobriety!

Take the circus of requisition of the National Assembly to pass a vote against the premier. The speeches by the movers will harp on inflation and high prices of commodities. But imagine this: Nawaz Sharif being shown the door by UK immigration. Coming out on parole, he lands into Adiala jail. A fanciful proposition may have been given to him to re-open the old file of Iftikhar Chaudhry. Judgement exonerating him or any wrongdoing, even though it was hopelessly time barred. The new move according to him might be buying out PTI MNAs to get rid of Imran Khan and pave way for his acquittal. Zardari, for the first time, finding the accountability noose tightening around his neck, opens up his residential vaults to sit like Don Corleone making offers MNAs can’t refuse. And the diesel mullah just satisfying his toxic ego that has still not come to terms with the loss of his constituency where his father had defeated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Our politics has dwarfed into cheap political engineering for personal gains and to me, that’s not cricket.

The writer is a former senator and a practicing lawyer in England and Pakistan