Another New Beginning

Lahore
May 16, 2007

As Karachi comes to a grinding halt amidst bloodshed, riots, and strikes, an interesting civil and political situation has turned tragic. It was surreal to see live coverage of the deadly events in Karachi juxtaposed with vulgar speeches and music orchestrated by the ruling party in Islamabad. There is little disagreement among Pakistanis that Saturday marked a new low for the military regime. Until this fateful weekend, I had found myself strangely elated by the clash between the legal community and our uniformed custodians. The weekend before, I stayed up late following news coverage of the Chief Justice’s caravan from Islamabad to Lahore. Now all that is gone – Karachi brought us back down to Earth, back to reality.

The Lahore rally was a singularly uplifting event for me and for countless others, first because it seemed to suggest that Pakistanis are capable of peaceful political activism and that the “common man” is finally protesting against one-man rule. Second, Pakistanis are so starved of good news of any sort that they are willing to work towards change, any change. The optimism that grips the nation at times of such turmoil is more a testimony to the human spirit of resilience than to actual reasons for expecting things to improve. And third, Pakistan appears to have a “natural” political cycle of about a decade after which they want a change of guard. The psyche of the nation is such that long tenures at the top are somehow unacceptable. Maybe, we are inherently a “democratic” nation – again I imagine light at the end of the tunnel.

However events play out in the next few months (and there are a couple of interesting permutations on the table), it is unlikely that the next regime will in any way be better than the outgoing one. The country will remain in the firm grip of the feudal aristocracy, with the active support and help of  the military. The common man will still be denied dignity, justice and the opportunity to seek a brighter future for his children. But, let’s get on with it; Musharraf has had his chance.