Pakistan has the unique distinction of harbouring, at the same period or point of time, two most corrupt leaderships in the history of the world. The two leaderships collectively are presiding over at least 50 percent of the vote bank in the country. This may lead some to believe that the people of Pakistan in general have a very high degree of acceptance for corruption. Logic supports this belief. But the fact is that, because of ‘rampant-polarisation’, there has developed a tendency on the part of the voters to find fault in the rival camp. Till about the dawn of this century, rivalry between the two most corrupt leaderships mentioned above had remained high to the level of obscenity. Then the two leaderships realized that their wars could finish them both, and result in the emergence of new leaders. Hence an understanding was developed between the two to make co-existence possible by subscribing to a decent-sounding philosophy of re-conciliation.
This understanding has helped them both not only to survive but also to transform the country into a kingdom of two mutually compatible dynasties.
The 18th amendment was structured to ensure that power was shared between the two ‘outwardly adversarial’ dynasties both vertically as well as horizontally. Punjab would atways belong to one dynasty and Sindh always to the other. The federal capital could be controlled by either of the two rotationally or both collectively. Resultantly we have witnessed the emergence of the concept of friendly opposition.
But for the emergence of Imran Khan, and the formidable ‘Rawalpindi’ factor Pakistan could forever have been regarded as the Home Country of Corruption.
But there is no permanence in politics. Even the Pharoahs had to get buried. 2016 could turn out to be the year of conceptual change in the power structure of Pakistan. The fall of the two dynasties simultaneously could head to a paradigm shift in the manner this country has been governed so far.
There is lingering despair in an overwhelming number of homes in the country that the two dynasties could somehow manage to overcome the odds against them, but the law of history is against this fear becoming a reality.
