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A Voice in the Wilderness

M Alam Brohi 0
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JULY 23, 2023

We own a country of 230 million people. We have a strong and

large army; possess nuclear weapons, rich resources including
vast agricultural lands and a reasonably large industrial base; a
well-recruited and well-trained civil service; and a large network
of higher educational institutions. We produce hundreds of
PhDs, professors, economists, engineers, and technology
experts, doctors every year who do wonders in their adopted
foreign countries earning fame, and treasures of wealth. We
have millions of compatriots working in foreign countries
sending remittances to their families, thereby contributing to the
foreign exchange reserves of the country.

Even then, mainly because of the dearth of leaders, the country

is poor and has been dependent on foreign assistance and
foreign loans since inception; its populace faces poverty; its

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national institutions perform poorly and have not gone beyond

mediocrity; its policing is a shame; the justice is too expensive
for over 80% of its population; social and economic equity has
remained a distant dream despite 75 years of independence.
Society has not been able to break the shackles of feudalism
and tribalism. We have patiently put up with autocracy, military
dictatorships and shameful democracy. We flocked to polling
booths to mechanically vote into power political dynasties, their
heirs, tribal chiefs and sardars believing in their repeated false
promises.

”
Society has not been able to break the
shackles of feudalism and tribalism.

We are rated very poorly in the international indexes in every

aspect of national life – fundamental human rights, gender
equality, education and healthcare, rule of law, equality before
the law, justice and honesty. We have a poor record of making
policies and implementing them. We have two separate criteria
for the application of criminal and civil laws to the elite and the
rest of the population. The rich buy justice leaving the less
affluent face the long arm of law and justice. The state has
always been a doting mother to the rich while treating its poor
with the cruelty and callousness of the worst kind. Ironically, the
state’s legal system helps the rich to escape the wrath of the
law – even allowing the convicts to sneak out of the country.

The elite display affiliation with the country as long as they are
in power. They have made heavy investments in properties and
businesses abroad; their wealth is parked in foreign banks and
their children have comfortable homes in foreign capitals. The
majority of the country’s former civil and military bureaucrats,
after retirement, have settled abroad in North America, Europe
and Australia. They have the right to do so legally. But the
treasures of wealth they amassed and laundered to these
countries during their active service would not have escaped
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the attention of the law enforcers in any law-abiding country.

Hordes of former officers from all the lucrative groups of service
and army, and fugitives of law live affluent lives abroad. We
beg for aid but never think of eradicating corruption and
extravagance in the corridors of power reducing the battalions
of Ministers and bureaucrats in the federation and provinces
and retrenching the redundant governmental structures.

We have been alternating between autocracies, martial laws,

and democracy. Our democracy is nothing short of plutocracy.
Every regime has left the country economically battered, and
politically and socially divided. Whether it is autocracy or
shame democracy, the final arbiter of power has been the most
powerful establishment of the country. It initiates political
engineering and oversees the general elections and formation
of political regimes. A strong and popular leader has never
been able to survive their displeasure. No elected Prime
Minister has ever completed his tenure. Overnight, the political
parties are dismantled notwithstanding their popular strength,
and new political outfits comprising the turncoats and
carpetbaggers created to influence the elections. The outcome
of all the elections since 1970 has been frowned upon by
politicians. We still boast of a great nation and great people.

We are preparing to have general elections soon. What has

preceded the holding of the elections could only happen in our
beloved land or any underdeveloped African nation. The entire
nation has been lurking between a strong sense of fear or
excitement over the dismantlement of the PTI and the
banishment of its chairman despite his huge public following
ever witnessed since the emergence of Z.A. Bhutto. The party’s
second-tier leadership has joined the baptized IPP of Jehangir
Tareen Khan under mysterious conditions. Reportedly, some
senior leaders are being induced to take over the leadership of
the party sidelining their chairman or carve out a new political
outfit. This is the most audacious political engineering ever
indulged in by any regime or establishment. The

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constitutionally mandatory consultations with the opposition for

the selection of the Interim setups in the federation and
provinces are being brazenly ignored. The leaders of PMLn
and PPP have already reportedly finalized the names of Interim
Prime Minister with the PPP supremo saying there is no need
to consult any PTI leader on the subject. For them, Raja Riaz is
the genuine opposition leader.

Here in Sindh, the government has de-notified the PTI’s

Haleem Adil Shaikh as opposition leader and replaced him with
an MQM-P woman so that they could have an interim set-up of
their choice. They will reignite the play of the ‘Sindh Card’ as
usual to hoodwink gullible Sindhi voters. With all this political
gerrymandering going on, the outcome of the general elections
will carry no credibility at all in the eyes of the public. These
results, I am afraid, will trigger a new political tug of war
deepening the economic crisis the country has been facing
since the ascendancy to power by the PDM leadership. The
Standby Agreement with the IMF is simply an interim relief. The
rehabilitation of the economy depends on structural reforms
that only a popularly mandated strong government can initiate.
No such government will surely emerge from these elections.

We need no outside enemy. We are very much capable of

undoing our country. We have been doing this unabashedly
since its inception without an iota of remorse.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan

and he has authored two books.

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Nisar Abro
Unfortunately, there has
never been a Rule of law
in our Country. Besides,
the Political Leadership is
also Corrupted and
Disloyal and only
interested to work for the
Personal Gains/ Vested
interests. The General
Population is also divided
into several Segments
based on Ethnicity and
Sectarianism giving rise to
Anarchy and Disorder.
Owing to prevailing
conditions, the Economy
of the Country has
substantially weakened
and the Country is
surviving on the basis of
Foreign Loans and is
subsequently dictated by
the Donner Countries.
Under the circumstances,
we are never in a Position
to Frame a Fair/Neutral
Foreign Policy.
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