Pakistan: Downcast, disheartened and hopeless

EDITORIAL

The common man's status of mental health is getting low increasingly - and greatly characterised by pessimism - and a growing sense of inadequacy. In other words, he's in a state of low spirits caused by loss of hope or courage. There is no gainsaying while the people in Pakistan strongly believe that democracy and rule of law are sine qua non for the country to make progress they fail to elect equal to the task leadership. Not too late after the elected representatives take seats in assemblies their real worth starts coming to light, with media and gossip exposing how blatantly they exploit the people's mandate for their personal gains. Almost on a day-to-day basis the scandals surrounding their murky deals make headlines in the media, and with that the people's enchantment with their democratic choice begins losing its luster. At the end of the day if and when the system is wrapped up on a note of 'dear countrymen' the people pour unto the streets and distribute sweets. Given the judiciary's repeated commitment to uphold the constitution and the waning interest of the 'guardians of state' for a 'patriotic' action this time we hope the pattern will undergo a change. The chances are that the coming electoral exercise would throw up better political leadership. Nonetheless, abundant caution has to be exercised to ensure that the pre-election ambience doesn't get nasty enough, a vulnerability to which as suggested by the recent PML (N)-PTI tit-for-tat sword rattling the parties can succumb. Having received quite a bit of negative flak over the alleged accumulation of Rs 50 billion worth of foreign assets owned by a son of Nawaz Sharif the PML (N) has launched a matching counterattack. At a press conference on Wednesday, one of its leaders, Khwaja Asif, accused Imran Khan of committing 'money-laundering and gambling on charity funds' meant for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital. Imran Khan hasn't taken it lying; he immediately called the media persons to tell them that there is no truth in what the PML (N) was saying. This is match of accusations and counter-accusations. Unless there is a professional probe there is no way to find the veracity in these personal attacks. However, the fact remains that in this crossfire helplessly caught is the cancer treatment hospital that is serving humanity with great dedication. We wish both sides had shunned the path of personal attacks, for these not only tend to cast political leadership in bad light they also cause a lot of collateral damage which hurts the public cause in many ways. If there is a case that a politician or his party feel should be investigated and culprit brought to justice in that case the courts should be approached and meanwhile wait for the court orders. Being public leaders they all live in glass houses as people know them through and through, accusations or no accusations by the opponents. What they can do and shall do for the betterment of people if elected that is of interest to the people. These are not the ordinary times in the life of an average Pakistani, caught as he is in the eye of a swirling storm of corruption, high inflation, deepening poverty and unrelenting fear of insecurity. In the larger context, he finds the country beset with serious existential threats stemming from terrorism, sectarianism and lawlessness. Rightly then his love-affair with political option is badly jilted given his experience that successive political governments could not deliver. Obviously, the man in the street would like to hear something positive, pragmatic on his problems instead of watching dirty linen of political opponents being washed in public. Since most of players in the political field are old hands and people are well aware of their capacity or otherwise to deliver it is all the more necessary for them to trying at inventing an entirely new culture for the national politics. Yes, the past political performance of elected governments was never up to the mark and it is also admitted that not many hands are clean either. But with a grim and uncertain future standing in front of us the past performance is no more an issue; the issue relevant to our times is what these contenders for national power can do to turn over this page and write a new paragraph that aptly rhymes with people's hopes and aspirations. They must not ignore the fact that people are increasingly feeling downcast, disheartened and hopeless.