Vote for change?

As Pakistan’s political rivals sharpen their proverbial knives ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections, their ability to lead the country meaningfully towards change remains in doubt.

Barring the PTI and its leader Imran Khan – both out of action for now – other mainstream political parties racing ahead to the polls are doing so merely to grab power.

In contrast to the huge and rapidly mounting challenges surrounding Pakistan’s future, the main contenders are geared up effectively more towards preserving the status quo. Promises of turning a new leaf for Pakistan through a series of reforms at best sound too hollow to be taken seriously unless they are backed by powerful changes to the structure of power.

The vested interests in place have little to gain by embracing unprecedented change through unprecedented reforms, given their interests in place. As in the past, the upcoming scenes around the federal and provincial parliaments are set to be no different. While the new powerful overlords of Pakistan prepare to seize political power, the opulence surrounding them will speak volumes about their wealth and interests.

In a widely celebrated letter written by Hazrat Ali (a.s) to Hazrat Maalik Ashtar upon the latter’s appointment as the governor of Egypt, then a province of the Muslim empire, the rules of governance were spelled out for all times to come. Writing from his pulpit in Kufa, Hazrat Ali warned the designated governor to avoid considering himself as: “I am your overlord and dictator, and that you should, therefore, bow to my commands, as that will corrupt your heart, weaken your faith in religion and create disorder in the state”.

Hazrat Ali (a.s) further wrote: “Should you be elated by power, ever feel in your mind the slightest symptoms of pride and arrogance, then look at the power and majesty of the Divine governance of the Universe over which you have absolutely no control”.

In Pakistan’s emerging power structure following next month’s elections, there is virtually no individual or entity that fits the standards so vividly laid down in this commandment by Hazrat Ali.

For Pakistan, the powerful challenges are fundamentally twofold. On the one hand, the country’s low and middle-income families have never suffered similarly under the increasingly heavy weight of inflation, unemployment and loss of opportunities. This in brief will inevitably define popular behavior in the coming times. The two main political parties – the PPP and the PML-N – have entered the race with bold promises of showering prosperity on the people of Pakistan once they are elected. And yet neither has spelt out exactly how that will be done unless accompanied by large-scale more revenue in the official coffers.

In past decades, Pakistan has been the beneficiary of generous US-led Western economic aid. But today, the foreign aid pipeline is dry and empty. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s vast population of almost 240 million includes less than two per cent of those who are already in the tax net. And past record well demonstrates that tax non-payers or simply evaders have included many members of previous parliaments.

And then there is the case of the many powerful figures in the ruling structure who conveniently venture outside Pakistan ostensibly for medical treatment. It is hard to imagine how any such figures would have enough faith in Pakistan’s healthcare system to lead towards comprehensive change.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s continuing insecurity has both domestic and external dimensions. Within the country, the breakdown of the law and order system has emerged from multiple trends. They include the increasingly dysfunctional legal system, known to have given relief to those who did not deserve to gain space at all.

And then there is the breakdown of the policing system. Though often targeted for corruption, Pakistan’s police force has suffered badly from other elements too, such as a shortage of resources and insecurity of tenures for senior officers. Together, this has become a recipe for disaster as the police can not be expected to perform the required task.

Meanwhile, on the external front, the insecurity flowing from Afghanistan more than two years after the Taliban swept to power, deserves a comprehensive review of Pakistan’s Afghan policy. The pivotal question is just one: should the rulers of Kabul be considered friends or foes of Pakistan? Islamabad can just not afford to be overwhelmed by Afghanistan so that trends from that country increasingly seep into our land, and unleash the risk of provoking similar trends across Pakistan.

As the political battlelines are drawn ahead of next month’s elections, Pakistanis need to ask a fundamental question: is the country heading towards a long overdue change for the better? Tragically for now, the answer to that very compelling riddle for the future of Pakistan is simply ‘No’.

The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who writes on political and economic affairs. He can be reached at: farhanbokhari@gmail.com