Aasef
Usually
in the world dictionaries the meanings of one word are invariably common, may
that be English, Persian, French, German or Arabic and so is for the word
politics. Politics is about collective cause, shared values and common
ideologies enabling people to pursue their goals and deal with their conflicts
through direct method of negotiations or employing indirect strategies for the
purpose. In nutshell its about the political principles. Politics becomes blessed
and holy due to their unselfish nature, selfless deeds, visionary approach,
ideological mooring, higher ethical values and respect for social norms.
Politicians, driven by deeper sense of compassion, empathy and zeal to share collective
pain and pleasure of public, tend to generate ideas, build ideologies, develop
rationale and display leadership qualities to meet the demands of communities
they represent. However this all stands
good when we talk of politics vis-à-vis rest of the world. Its to be remembered
that in a democratic world, politics is played through political parties which
are created on definite ideologies and philosophical concepts to work for the
betterment of general public, whereas the politicians are just the characters
who implement the political ethics, ideologies and manifestoes. While in our
beloved Pakistan the things are on wandered.
Political parties set up the podiums and plinths where
people pin hopes to achieve their goals and look forward to realize their
aspirations. Switching parties is taken as a sin and politicians in most democratic
countries are labeled as disloyal, dishonest and selfish, lacking loyalty and commitment.
Generally their political careers end while they are associated with untrustworthiness
and elusive self-indulgence.
Unfortunately in Pakistan, word Politics has absolutely
different connotation. Here changing
sides to gain advantage has become a standard practice / political norm. People
change political sides to gain power, popularity and prestige, just like that
and without feeling any shame. Political ideology is dominated by patronage and
kinship resulting into public repression, victimization, selective application
of rules, jaundiced polity coupled with social injustice and rampant
corruption. In Pakistan the politics is more of a profession. Here a person
enters the parliament on a bicycle but on completion of his tenure exits on a
loaded Prado. Here so-called heavy weight politicians in Pakistan are either
the product of military dictatorship with shady past or opportunist feudal
lords who are filthy rich, highly influential and powerful. They consider
politics as their business and tend to invest with political parties from where
they can earn better profit. Hence, they quickly join the popular parties to
maximize their chances of getting elected. According to media and other
reliable sources reports the majority of the sitting members parliament are
corrupt and plunderers. It would be shocking if we start taking every second
person’s name, nevertheless, to mention few notable turncoats seem unavoidable.
One of the interesting characters among them is Arbab Khizer Hayat Khan, who since
entering the politics in 1996, has switched party allegiance at least for 14
times. Hayat’s huge mansion in Peshawar is adorned with his pictures with
former president Ghulam Ishaq, former PM Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif which
is enough to prove that how mature, steadfast and honest politician he is. He
is a landowner with a long history in politics. He has shifted loyalties from
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) of Imran Khan to Sharif’s PML (N) via Bhutto’s (no
more) PPP.
There is yet another
interesting character named Javed Hashmi, who has rightly
named himself a rebel as his politics solely revolve around shifting loyalties
and changing sides. He should have been aptly called ‘The Political Widow’. He
is a Jamat-e-Islami (JI) offspring but could not keep his commitment with his
mentors as JI lacked popular support and could not afford him the chance to realize
his power motives. He himself also was of the opinion that while in JI, he will
never get a chance to take-off to accomplish his political aspirations. Hence, seeing
popularity of Tehrik-e-Istaqlal (TI) of Asghar Khan he decided to join TI. Later
on, he joined Zia sponsored PML (N) and deserted Muhammad Khan Junejo. He remained
minister for Youth Affairs in Zia’s cabinet and took money from Younis Habib to
form IJI against PPP, however, he insists that it was a loan taken from one Yousaf
(front man of Younis Habib) which he returned subsequently. He went to jail for
reading out anti Army fake letter during Musharraf regime and expected a
worthwhile reward from Nawaz Sharif but was ignored. Subsequently when offered
the president-ship of emerging political force Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI),
he betrayed Nawaz Sharif on lame excuses and joined Imran Khan (PTI) to advance
his political motives. He felt alienated in PTI as his regional rival Shah
Mahmood Qureshi was encouraged by Imran Khan. So he decided to stab Imran Khan in
the back and leveled serious allegations against Imran Khan / PTI. He felt no
shame while insinuating against Army / ISI.
In fact these two gentlemen are
not the only one. There is yet another figure by the name of Marvi Memon. She is
a direct product of General Musharraf’s regime and was taken as an employee of ISPR
to learn politics and media handling, while her father Nisar Memon was Information
Minister of Musharraf cabinet. She joined PML (Q) as a Minister. After
Musharraf’s ouster and decline of PML (Q) she joined PML (N) to earn more
fortunes. PML (N) is the same party which is trying her past boss and her
father’s mentor General Musharraf on treason charges. As MNA in PML (N) she raises
her voice with loud shrill and harsh tones, showing all the guts to be a
politician of high morals, dignity and poise. Nabeel Gabol and Lashkari Raisani were two staunch PPP politicians
who switched to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and PMLN respectively,
shortly before parliament was dissolved in March. The trend shows that ‘LOTAs’ look
for green pastures for themselves having least concern for public ordeal. The
list of these shameless ‘Lotas’ goes on and on.
The most hilarious and interesting thing is that when
their characterless politics was questioned and challenged they felt threatened
and formed up an alliance against Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri and very
shamelessly gave it the name of protecting the “Jamhooriyat” (Democracy).
Almost sixty eight hundred thousand rupees daily were spent on a weeklong
national assembly’s clueless and aimless session. Its strongly felt now that
someone should put an end to this muck right here and right now. However, the
same is only possible if the public comes forward to snatch their rights from
these looters who change their loyalties with the ‘direction of the wind’. The
wrong elaboration of the democracy should be discouraged if we want to see
Pakistan prospering.
