‘The king is dead, long live the king!’ is not just a saying but a successful recipe for optimal governance/statecraft. Its philosophy is that whatever the crisis, the ongoing processes must not stop. The journey must continue. Unfortunately, in our part of the world, everything comes to a complete halt every now and then on one pretext or the other. And more unfortunately, such pretexts are circulating all the time in abundance leading to social fragmentation of the highest order. The things that the country is facing again and again, present the picture of a society divided into narrow compartments almost all of which stand in conflict with one another. This is a rarity even in the most uncivilized countries of the world. Now peaceful co-existence is the norm of the day, if not in international relations, then at least in the relations among different segments, sectors and institutions within a state. It is this norm that keeps the societies protected against bitter antagonism and fragmentation that have infested Pakistan in the garb of conflicting influences and currents which no one has bothered to address for the sake of national solidarity, let alone stability. What is happening inside Pakistan is a case of lack of tolerance. And civility is a remote possibility. Everyone seems to be at war with one another. And, although all is not all okay at other fronts, in the political realm in particular, the affairs have become so sordid that in order to see the defeat and humiliation of an opponent in the other camp, people of this realm are even ready to destroy the whole fabric of peace, progress and national cohesiveness. The inference that is usually drawn at first instance is that some people are even ready to go the extent of spreading fire throughout the country besides seeing the sharp decline in economy for achieving the target of downfall of political rivals. The recent occurrences are a clear-cut example of these destructive jealousies and callousness. The country was ablaze during the last few days. It should not have happened, wishes every concerned citizen. Those who were behind all this should not be spared particularly those who created the mess by design. Even those contributing to this chaos and social fragmentation by default, can’t be easily absolved, given the sensitivities involved. But the overall picture of apathy, drawn by certain parties, groups and individuals in politics, towards the nation and towards the citizenry proved to be appalling. Why it was demanded by the Opposition that the government should have approached them for ensuring relief, peace and tranquility in the society? Is prevalence of peace not the duty of every political force that leads a small or big segment of the society? Perhaps the people in Opposition were happy over the widely and rapidly spreading fire (strife, in fact) because it meant trouble for the government that stood straitjacketed for obvious reasons. For sure, the government and the forces under its command, could never forcefully apply the state might on protesters staging sit-ins and protests on such a delicate issue. The sitting government understood the delicacy of the situation for which it also earned bad titles like ‘surrender of state’, ‘weak government’ and so on and so forth. But the question arises that in case of such a scenario emerging in the future, what should be the role of the plethora of political parties and groups including religious-cum-political parties? Should they continue waiting for such situations to turn into a nationwide inferno, without taking any initiative by themselves? Or should they wait for the government to kneel down before them and seek their help? In the civilized world, everyone plays his role with sincerity and speedily without waiting for the government to solicit support because the country belongs to all, the Opposition as well as the government. The government of any party is just a temporary phase of governance entrusted to a certain group of politicians through public mandate. The parties come and go in power. Today it is PML-N government, tomorrow it may be that of PTI, PPP or for that matter that of PML-Q. What should be the underlying principle of dealing with sensitive issues? The only logical answer to the last question is: ‘Do not leave the government alone’ (Note: The government means any government elected by the people for a given, mandated timeframe).
