Random Chusses…

My annual visit to Pakistan every year is full of surprises. What change
will I find this time? I asked myself as I landed at Karachi airport a
few weeks ago.

The situation in Pakistan is more complex than
I’ve ever seen. The economy is in crisis with basic food costs so high
that one wonders how the ordinary person feeds a family. The elite
don’t care because most of them have taken dual nationality and
siphoned their money out of Pakistan. The poor keep getting poorer and
complain that no one in power has ever cared about them, so why should
they care this time?

What bothered me most of all was the attitude of educated middle-class Pakistanis.

In the past few years I had noticed the rise of religious fervor among previously moderate
Pakistanis. This time I was engulfed and bombarded by conspiracy
theories everywhere I turned. At times I felt I was an alien in my own
land.

From media to mullahs, everyone seems to thrive on their version of
who the enemy is. A friend (who by the way is a Canadian citizen and
extremely well educated) proceeded to inform me “this is the sixth part
of the Zionist conspiracy to wipe out Pakistan.”

She was keen to educate me on the “other five,” but I excused myself and left — only
to find myself at dinner with a group who were convinced that it’s all
an Indian plot. The third visit was just as trying because these were
my cousins who told me that Pakistan is victim of a triad — the U.S.,
India and Israel — that was conniving to wipe Pakistan off the map.
Everyone is to blame except themselves.

By this time I stopped going out and decided to stay home and see what’s happening on TV.

Well, that was a wrong move.

On mainstream television, a well-educated, smart and eloquent young
scholar speaks every evening at prime time about U.S. plans to invade
Pakistan, and everyone is glued to their sets, absorbing this garbage.
It’s on this mainstream network a panel of scholars announced that the
killing of Ahmadiyya Muslims is justified.

The alternative, progressive, moderate Muslim voice is relegated to midnight and I was
told chillingly that he’s a western mole and the TV station that airs
his program has been bought by the United States.

It’s no surprise then, that a few days later in the midst of this chaos,
Pakistanis chose Mr. Ten Per Cent as their president. Asif Ali Zardari,
widower of the slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, now sits
smilingly, with a complete makeover, as president of Pakistan.

It’s an astounding comeback for a man who spent 11 years in jail on
corruption and murder charges as one of Pakistan’s most disliked
figures.

More surprising, the corruption charges against Zardari
that were dismissed ranged from allegations that he took $10 million in
kickbacks from a gold importing company to allegations that he
improperly used government funds to build a polo ground at the prime
minister’s residence in Islamabad.

Having put this into perspective, let’s not discount this individual completely. Zardari is
the son of an astute landlord and politician, Hakim Ali Zardari. Like
Dennis Thatcher, Asif Ali Zardari has lived and learned from the most
vibrant and brilliant of politicians — Benazir Bhutto. Zardari has
cunningly aligned himself with the right people and is making carefully
crafted moves.

Furthermore, the alternative to Zardari is the army, which has
already ruled for half of Pakistan’s existence, destroying civilian and
public institutions. So, while Zardari may make diplomatic faux pas
like trying to flirt with U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin,
he may be the poison Pakistan needs to heal itself.

Painful as it may seem, Pakistan has to go through a process of democracy. Pakistanis
must pull themselves out of a deep dark hole of victimization to
realize what’s hit them, and then make a decision (without foreign
intervention, please and thanks) to keep or get rid of Zardari.

Only then will a cycle of true democracy begin, and will there be hope for the future.

Raheel Raza is an intercultural and interfaith diversity consultant and author of Their Jihad … Not My Jihad.

In case you haven’t noticed or you’re not living in Pakistan the power outages or load shedding as its popularly called have reached new levels. Even in big cities there’s no power for at least 12 hours per day. Basically its off and on every hour. In small cities the situation is of course, much worse. At night Pakistan is in total darkness. So the Awam have started some rioting and protests all over the country. The energy crisis seems to have gone from bad to worse this year. They say that most of Pakistan’s power is hydroelectric and fossil. This fossil stuff is the local and imported gas and oil. Apparently the hydel power has gone down because in winter the river water flows are not what they are supposed to be. The president and the prime minister have ‘instructed’ the authorities to get a grip on this crisis. Businesses are losing money. People are losing patience. If you ask me we should get used to the current state of affairs or get one of those UPS’s. Those things are selling like hot cakes…