Shahbaz's tenting

EDITORIAL:FRONTIER POST

What brownie points does Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, think he is culling with his tenting device? At least, the people are not impressed. Nowhere on the street are they found lined up with bouquets in hands to garland him. Instead, his tenting show is being pooh-poohed far and wide as a cheap self-projection ploy. And generally it is being derided disdainfully as sheer political gimmickry as was his joining of the people's power protests earlier. But who is he befooling? Does he think that our people are such simpletons that they would be easily taken in by such a blatant buffoonery? Does he think they know not after spending a few hours in a commodious tent he would retire to his luxurious Raiwind palace offering every comfort on the earth that fabulous wealth he is in possession of can buy? Had indeed he been a bit real, he would have spent a few nights in the tent and would have known feelingly what it means in living with power load-shedding. And had he been street smart, instead of mounting this funny tenting show he would have set about redressing the people's grievances that stem forth from intermittent power outages. There is public outcry that prolonged power interruptions have adversely affected the functioning of tube-wells, resulting into disruptions of water supplies. Even the provincial metropolis of Lahore is resonating with this public uproar. The predicament of other cities of the province, whether big or small, can be well imagined from this. Had he sat down in his office, thought out an innovative way to meet the people's water scarcity and mobilised his administrative leviathan to fructify it, he would have gained something both by way of earning the citizens' goodwill and reaping in consequence quite a bit of political harvest also. But such things come to the minds of leaders who are real, no pretenders or chicaners as indeed is he. What has he got by tenting, if not the people's derision and ridicule only? There has been no diminishing in the load-shedding nor has there been any alleviation of the people's lot. They are going through the gruelling times as tortuously and as groaningly as before his tenting ploy. The people need no tenting by anyone or joining their protest by anyone to bring home to the rulers their agony the cruel man-made adversity of power load-shedding has inflicted on them in mountains. They themselves are out in the street to this end. What they need as an end to this callous catastrophe. And had Shahbaz been any sincere and honest, he would have floated creative ideas and ingenious thoughts to finish off this disastrous painful calamity. The PPP-led federal hierarchs have demonstrated conclusively their incapability to tide over this power crisis. They appear even to know not what actually has precipitated this critical situation and are simply groping in the dark to cope with it, albeit failingly. Shahbaz could have marked even one-upmanship over them with innovative ideas to cut off the power outages. But with his tenting, he has established beyond a shred of doubt that he too is as incapable intellectually as well as administratively as are the federal hierarchs. Rather, with his tenting artifice, he has painted himself uglier than they. He has sought to make political mileage out of the pains and miseries of the people. This is decidedly despicable, to say the least. Still, not all is lost. He can still recoup somewhat his losses. He must wind up his tent, go back to his office and task his subordinate bureaucrats to think out ways and means for coping with outages and their aftermath. He has, of course, packed up the subordinate bureaucracy with his loyalists, lackeys and yes-men whose sole distinction is their fealty to him. But there are still talented people in his bureaucratic leviathan. They can think creatively and conceive of innovations. They can guide him. Nevertheless, the billion-dollar question is if he wants to be guided for the people's weal and welfare or wants to be driven solely by his political impulsions and designs. His tenting has, anyway, not stemmed the tide of the younger generation walking away as a whole block to the tent of the new rising political star. Even the grown-ups are leaving him, his elder brother and their party in battalions. And that's that.