THAT a nation of 180 million people should sleepwalk towards the brink, as if under some kind of hypnosis, is frightening.

The nature and variety of challenges that we face today beggars the imagination, but the self-imposed paralysis persists to make the body politic a feast for predators. Pakistan, unclaimed and unattended, is up for grabs, and beset with all sorts of social, political and economic destabilisers one can think of.

No country in the world has done so much for so long to destroy and deface itself as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. For starters, it is neither Islamic, nor a republic, nor even Pakistan in the original sense of the word. It is fast becoming a conglomerate of fiefdoms seeking recognition on the basis of tribal, linguistic, regional or historical claims. This explains the sudden discovery of the virtues of creating more provinces, ostensibly for the benefit of the people but, in fact, for the benefit of the regional influentials.

Though conscious that a long list of any kind in an Op-Ed piece is a sure way to part company with the readers, I would, nonetheless, seek the indulgence of the readers to enumerate the major social, political and economic destabilisers to show what the big picture looks like.

Those destablisers are as follows: incredible level of corruption at high places; increasing spread and intensity of mass poverty; rising unemployment; widespread lawlessness; ineffective and inept governance; alarming shortfall in energy supply; sectarian violence as an expression of faith; ethnic violence as an assertion identity; bankrupt major state enterprises; mounting external and internal debt; tense civil and military relations; fear of confrontation between the executive and the judiciary; parochialisation of the political parties; and intermittent confrontation with the US. Each of these 14 destablisers can, by itself, bring about a national crisis. This is what the big picture looks like.

One should have thought that there could be nothing worse than this, but there is. Incredibly, there is no apparent effort to deal with these existential threats, despite almost daily appeals to those who matter. The reason for the absence of collective national effort to face these challenges is that those who can make a difference are preoccupied with their own personal or institutional battle for survival or for supremacy.

The ruling political parties are too busy with matters relating to their survival in office and fresh mandate for the next five years, to pay attention to other matters. The political parties not in office are dedicated only to ousting those in office. The military spends considerable time and energy on maintaining its pre-eminence in state affairs. The judiciary has been persuaded to set everything right, from treason to trifles, even at the risk of constitutional impasse and loss of focus.

Consequently, the armed forces, the political parties and the only independent and pro-people judiciary in our history, are being subjected to ridicule almost on a daily basis. The most disturbing among these suicidal tendencies is the ridicule that is being heaped upon the judiciary, and that too by lawyers and politicians who need it most.

Media, the fourth state, that could in some measure play a stabilising role, often manages to achieve the opposite. This is particularly true of the electronic media which is an ever-present observer of events and the most powerful influence on public opinion. Because of some operational compulsions it remains obsessed with ‘rating’ and tends to improve it even at the cost of truth, fairness and caution.

Saturation reporting of an event that may continue for hours is one weapon in the arsenal of the electronic media to benumb the critical faculties of the viewers. Even worse, encouraging and inviting the more vociferous, ill-mannered politicians (the telegladiators expected to tear each other apart) to talk shows, can only bring the politicians into disrepute. This is a great disservice to a nascent democracy.

There is, thus, no dedicated institution or group of individuals that can bring about harmony and stability, through constitutional means, in the situation that is as close to anarchy as it can be, short of complete collapse of the state apparatus. We cannot guess when the destablisers could attain a critical mass or when would the tipping point be reached to unleash the destructive forces generated by 180 million angry and vengeful people. We can, however, be certain that it would happen sooner rather than later.

Pakistan is a large country but its future is in the hands of no more than about half a dozen individuals who in their own different spheres matter most, and hold the key to a new beginning. Unfortunately, they cannot, for reasons that are an open secret, act together to lead the nation out of this monumental mess. This makes the solution simple but still in the hands of those half a dozen individuals who are not likely to step out of their different trenches that they have dug themselves into and join hands together for a common purpose.

This deadlock can be broken only if those individuals can be persuaded to make a little sacrifice and agree to resign from their respective offices voluntarily and simultaneously and let the succession take place in the manner provided in the constitution in respect of each of those offices. This will enable the installation of new incumbents who, not mired in the game of mutual recrimination, would get on with the business of governance.

But this can happen only if the present incumbents can agree to abandon their short-lived place in the present hierarchy, to ensure an abiding place in history.

iqjafar@gmail.com