Pause the politics

It may be too much to expect politics and political actors to pause their self-serving rhetoric for just one minute and help a country drowning. But idealism demands that we remind our politicians to look around and see the chaos climate change has wrought on the people the political elite claims to love and wishes to rule over. Essentially, as people scramble for cover under debilitating weather events, the PTI and the PDM coalition continue their dance of vengeful politics. As PTI Chairman Imran Khan appears, per reports, before an ATC today to seek bail in the anti-terrorism case against him, legal experts say that he should be granted bail till the next hearing per precedent. There have also been questions over the terror charges framed against Imran and whether such charges can be applied on a political speech. Unfortunately, this is all part of the tit-for-tat politics we are growing uncomfortably used to. We are also reminded, not without irony, how Imran and his PTI had perfected such FIRs, cases, witch-hunts during their regime. The current government, try as it might, may not ever be able to best Imran’s efforts at political vendetta.

But none of this — the politics, the rallying, the cases, the protests — mean anything in the face of the sheer misery the country is drowning in. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that the situation in his province may be worse than the 2010 floods, and we have already seen what has happened in Balochistan and southern Punjab. But there’s a difference: back in 2010, the national and international media was covering the floods like no other news. But today’s news cycle seems to thrive on the political inanities being unleashed on an unsuspecting, miserable people. Some may also point to the ever-present class divides that determine the hierarchy of misery and which areas get movere coverage, more media attention and more state support.

If every political party is so concerned about the people, why has none announced a ‘political ceasefire’ for a few weeks to instead focus on flood relief efforts? There is a humanitarian crisis taking place right in front of our faces. But true to their tone-deaf form our political actors are happily indulging in the basest of politics — Imran focusing on trying to bizarrely contest by-elections on nine seats, without a care in the world about wasting state resources, while the coalition government plots its own cases to exact revenge. The images on social media are screaming out at all the political actors in the country: your politics won’t mean much if the people you wish to rule over have lost homes, loved ones and livelihoods as you squabble over who said what at which meeting. As the young would say: drop everything and rush to the aid of your people before it’s too late. The anger and the hurt is palpable. No politicking will be able to heal that.