You have to be either a parasite or a privileged son of a privileged father to fit into the boots of an elected representative or (more appropriately) a politician.
You were not good enough to pass successfully the tests that can’t be avoided for ending up as an Army Officer.
You couldn’t get enough marks in the Intermediate to get admitted in either a Medical or an Engineering college.
You were not either bright or hard-working enough to compete successfully for a coreer in any civil service, or judiciary.
You still have an opportunity to become an ‘honoured’ and distinguished member of the ruling class of this country. You have this opportunity because you are born in a privileged family. You are electable. You can buy your way into a political party, and thereafter into the parliament.
And if you were not lucky enough to have been born in a privileged family, you are still eligible for a career in politics, because your father (or perhaps you yourself) happened to find some key to the doors of a huge fortune. And if you can’t buy your way into power, who else can ?
That in nutshell is the story of democracy in Pakistan.
The reason I have narrated this story is that I happened to listen to the ‘rants’ of a hysterical PML (N) lady named Tahmina Daultana who in a Kashif Abbasi programme, sitting beside her more composed PPP counterpart Ms Fanzia Wahab launched a vicious attack on the Armed Forces of Pakistan who in her opinion were primarily responsible for all the woes of this country.
The lady unfortunately didn’t seem to know that in Islamic tradition, one can’t be a complete Muslim, if one is not a soldier. Who doesn’t know that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had “soldiered” his way from Badar to the last battle he fought in the cause of establishing the City State of Madina.
In his incomparable ‘person’ the roles of a Prophet, a Soldier and a Statesman merged in a way that a great Umma was born out of this merger.
(First publish on 23-09-2010)
