Farrukh Khan Pitafi’s Official Website

It seems that we the citizens and the voters of the country are more concerned with saving the country than the coalition partners. Why should we not be for they are sitting in the parliament with our votes. But before I get to the details of the issue let me reproduce here a small anecdote from my personal life. This small example will essentially manifest my views on future of democracy in the country.
As you all know I am a journalist/ columnist. It was about ten years ago that I joined Pakistan Television as a producer/ reporter. PTV being one of the country’s most inertia ridden organization in those days was really a taxng experience. Since it was quite an early stage in my career and the atmosphere was really frustrating I got chickened out and left within an year. In those days no private channel had starting functioning. While my decision was justifiable I had some great benefactors who had developed disliking for me, in the long run it was proven wrong. While I did indeed quit and had to change profession for a while, some of my batch fellows just in resisting the temptation to quit have progressed really steadily. Asma Sherazi of ARY One World, Mateen Haider of Dawn News, Syed Anwar Hussain of PTV and Waheed Hussain of Waqt TV are all personal friends and batch fellows who are enjoying an advanced stage in their careers. Just because I managed to re-enter the TV arena quite late I am now posted in Multan not in Islamabad where I started my television career and spent more than ten years of it. The project that I am working for namely Geo English is failing to launch thanks to the successive governments’ censure. Queer how trigger happy attitude can take you years back in career. Had I not quit then I would have at least been working in a city of my choice.
Why did I quote this lengthy story here? Well just to emphasize the virtue of patience. My career issues are not such grave or irreversible problems as they hardly have any substantial impact on the lives of millions. That is not the case with democracy. When democracy is derailed you are thrown light years back from where you hardly ever recover. Nawaz Sharif and his peers towards the end of their last rule made some controversial decisions which brought the country to the current dictatorial rule that doesn’t seem to end easily. I have one point to make. Impatience is never rewarded and usually it brings an end to the otherwise durable future possibilities. While I have criticized Mushahid Hussain for his strange somersaults I have to grudgingly concede one of his recent points. He has said that in politics you don’t give deadlines. Deadlines were a mistake. When you give deadlines you rule out the possibility of any unforeseen developments. Same kind of mistakes took place in the past and it is owing to a similar mistake that the political/democratic class finds itself stranded today.
What the political class chooses to do is its prerogative. However it is important to understand that the circumstances for the political class are too taxing. If the politicians want the current set up to fail it is quite their own choice but remember this. The window of opportunity granted to the democratic class might be present today but it may not reappear again. It is also clear that the government is under enormous foreign pressure. How many times US Deputy Secretary of State travels to the UK to meet two politicians discussing Pakistan’s national issues? Hardly ever. You have to understand that the current government in view of those pressures is doing quite good. And when I say this there is already proof that the democratic government has accelerated its pace. As for the answer to the problem I have this to say. You don’t need to panic. The US establishment is going to be reformed thoroughly in November. The pressures we are facing will not be there in a few months. Barack Obama has said that the US committed a mistake in supporting a dictator. Hilary has blamed Musharraf for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. McCain also is a pro democracy sober man. The days of the neo-cons are numbered. So are the days of their foreign lackeys. So any democratic group needs not to panic. If our reforms are delayed they will only be implemented more thoroughly. If I were the head of the PML-N I would have made sure that I didn’t play the establishment’s game. The establishment wants the two parties to part ways. If the PML-N thinks that after the end to the present order it will be given a chance to win in the elections it should think again. The establishment has a grudge against this party too. Within no time both the parties would be projected as immature and opportunistic. The establishment would claim that the PML-N decided to quit the federal cabinet because it did not want to present the budget. The establishment would persecute all the parties that want democracy in the country. It is true that if the PML-N does not quit the federal cabinet it will face criticism at the hands of the lawyers’ movement and the politically immature elements like Imran Khan and the Maulvis. But remember this. It was the same Imran Khan who had misbehaved with the Nawaz Sharif when he in consultation with Benazir Bhutto refused to boycott the elections. Since the forces actually talking directly of the judges restoration called for a boycott and Nawaz Sharif did not it is wrong to say that its only mandate was to restore the judges. A little bit of patience would restore judges and also bring democratic forces to the fore.  A little bit of loss of face with long term investment in democratic future will help a lot and is not a very bad option. Perhaps it is time to test our idol also. CJ Chaudhry Iftikhar, is he is any different from the sitting judges should call for patience and support of the democratic government. If he doesn’t do that he will be held responsible for the future of the country too. But PML-N would do best to stay the course. Both the parties can always apologize to the nation for giving unrealistic deadlines. That for the future of our children is not a huge sacrifice. Please trust me you will not repent once the results start showing.

Posted on May 12th, 2008 under Important, Main •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback