The veteran bureaucrat, Roedad Khan, in one of his recent articles,

says that Prime Minister Imran Khan must succeed because in the
event of his failure, a political and social revolution in its most
extreme form is inevitable in Pakistan. If all goes well, Imran will
go down in history as the savior of Pakistan. The prognosis of
Roedad Khan must have been inspired by his deep introspection
about the political and economic conditions overwhelming the
country since decades now to which he has made a small reference
too. There is no denying the fact that the elite capture of the state
and its resources has left no space for the common people to live
with honour and dignity in the country or feel as genuine
stakeholders in the current political and the economic systems
which in anyway are blatantly anti masses, exploitative and rotten
to the core.
What other option the people of Pakistan have than a violent
revolution when the political system is occupied by the dynasties;
the state power and economic resources have been hijacked by the
elite including professional politicians; the posterity of the British-
promoted families; the landed gentry; the Sajadahnashins; the
senior civil and military bureaucrats and industrialists. The elite, as
elaborated above, have been arrogating all state facilities to
themselves. Their ambition for more power has no limit; their
hunger for more perks and privileges is insatiate even after taking
possession of all precious lands in cities and towns, having palatial
houses, big vehicles and separate expensive schools for their
children along with separate comfortable hospital wards for their
families. They swindle the wealth of the country and prefer to live
abroad.
The economy has been in the jaws of crocodiles – mafias, corrupt
leaders and swindlers. The common people have been kept on
crumbs thrown to them condescendingly. They have suffered
powerlessness, social asphyxia, poverty, hunger, misery and the
oppression of the shameless coercive state organs since the
inception of the country. Their children have been deprived of
education, jobs and opportunities for social advancement. Even
today 25 million children between 5-16 years are out of school.
These children belong to the underprivileged families – and not the
elite or middle class of semi urban centres. They are vulnerable to
all water born diseases because of their chronic deprivation of
clean drinking water. They have no option than sharing the muddy
and dirty water of a pond with their animals. Their children die of
snake bites, rabbis, hunger and malnutrition, HIV and Hepatitis c,
their women give birth in auto-rickshaws, donkey carts and in the
corridors of maternity homes or hospitals because they are denied
admission on one pretext or the other. They transport the dead
bodies of their loved ones on motorbikes or camel carts. Either the
hospitals do not have ambulances or doctors refuse to spare one.
The situation is grim. He is known for his diligence and resilience. As a cricketer, he used to fight to the
last ball. He is determined to repeat this feat
Interestingly, most of the ambulances remain in the use of these
saviors of humanity who are capable of selling medicines of their
hospitals to private drug stores or hiding them in the graveyards. I
am referring to the recent drug scandal in Larkana. Tons of drugs
of hospitals were recovered from the Qaim Shah Bukhari
graveyard. Am I resorting to any exaggeration? No gentlemen, this
has been happening in our dear country every day since decades
and decades. Honestly speaking, we – the so called elite, educated
and conscious class – all are responsible for their misery and their
social asphyxia. How can we have a sound sleep on our
comfortable beds when our people – the hewers of wood and
drawers of water; the operators of industrial machinery; the tillers
of land; the growers of grain; the providers of supplies for our city
and town markets; the most loyal citizens of this state, grapple with
the pangs of hunger, the pain of afflictions throughout the night
without hope for a better tomorrow.
The better tomorrow lies in the realization of their responsibility by
all segments of society, all organs of the state and political and
social leaders. They stop their race for space and power; they see
their steep degradation and realize the political, economic and
judicial chaos and anarchy they have created in the country. They
are not owner of this country; they are, at best, public servants to
serve the country and the real owners of it – the populace – as
called by Burke. They should fear the day when crowds of
distraught and hungry people march in fury and frenzy and encircle
citadels of power and privilege destroying every moving object
coming in their way. Perhaps for this reason, Mao Zedong had
advised his comrades in arm to prioritize the wellbeing of villages
and small towns to save their cities from the wrath of desperate,
despondent and hungry mobs.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, notwithstanding his personal honesty,
commitment and sincerity, has been facing a formidable uphill task
in putting the country on the right track. He is strenuously working
within a corrupt polity. Working with a corrupt and dysfunctional
administration and in a rotten political system, he has challenged
the demigods of the status quo. He finds it difficult to control and
weigh frogs in a straight and flat scale. His difficulties as agent of
change are enormous and the crowds milking this corrupt system
are out with long knives to bludgeon him. Police, health,
education, judicial reforms are resisted; the agrarian and land
reforms remain out of question as the legislative assemblies are
filled with the landlords; the grip of mafia-like groups on the
economic and market levers is strong; the political leadership is
wary of any accountability. Prime Minister Imran Khan is clearly
losing the war of publicity and projection in our gullible political
and social milieu.
The situation is grim. He is known for his diligence and resilience.
As a cricketer, he used to fight to the last ball. He is determined to
repeat this feat. This is what holds out a hope for octogenarian
Roedad Khan.
The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and
he has authored two books