It was good to see the chairman senate travelling in train from Rawalpindi to Lahore a few days back. Time was when President Ayub Khan fancied travelling though railway with the result that there was an overall improvement in the functioning of railways during his stint in office. Not only did they run on time, their dining service was excellent.
All is not lost yet. Even now if our rulers and bureaucrats start travelling in railways, things can improve a lot and the railway can regain its lost glory. In the same manner, if our elite stop visiting abroad for medical treatment and instead make use of medical facilities inside the country, the conditions in our hospitals can improve a lot which are at the moment in a deplorable state despite high-falutin claims of our rulers. And now a word or two about the inner wrangling of the MQM. Time was when no body could raise a tiny figure against Altaf Hussain. Reverse is the case now. Not one but more than one factions have come up in this party. Till recently no body by any stretch of the imagination could ever think that this party would split into various groups and the control of Altaf Bhai would come to a nought. The MQM today is a house divided against itself.
In the forthcoming elections the potential MQM vote bank would split. Only a miracle can reunite the various factions of the MQM and miracles seldom happen. The PPP and regional political parties of Sindh must be laughing up their sleeve over the present discomfiture of the MQM which used to be a potent political group in the not-too-distant past.