PESHAWAR: Nero played the fiddle while Rome burnt. That was a one liner that described succinctly the whole history of that episode.

Fast forward a couple of thousand years. For Nero read Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, for fiddle read dance (with due apologies to the practitioners of this art), for Rome read Peshawar and for burnt read deaths in rain; and for people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; it explains the farce staged in Islamabad.

In Pashto folklore it is a common saying that to torture a Khattak, just tie him so that he cannot move and turn on the music. And here we had a pleasant evening of Islamabad, lights, an adulating audience, Pashto music with a good beat and CM Khattak on stage. How could he or his ministers remember the 18 dead and 82 injured (in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the same day) in such ambience? So Nero had to play the fiddle.

Many users of twitter confused the dance moves of CM Khattak with ‘Khattak dance’ which is a war dance performed in olden days before launching a war to warm up the warriors and raise their spirits. However, here was only dance, songs in between a few speeches. The moves of CM Khattak were nothing close to a Khattak dance and seemed to be well-rehearsed and his very own moves. One twitterati from Peshawar in a light vein writes that “all those who are criticising CM Khattak for dance never know what Cigratay is.” Perhaps the twitterati was referring to various media grabs of CM Khattak enjoying his smoke the same evening.

Some twitteratis loved “the endearing sweet dance moves” of the CM but those hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa particularly mentioned: “So CM Khattak can enjoy a merry dance on a stage in Islamabad. It is not likely his province is enduring any sort of hardship lately.”

The CM, who had been in Islamabad along with many of his cabinet members and stayed mostly in Frontier House, did not rush to provincial capital to oversee the relief activities as was expected of him being the chief executive of the province hit by storm and rain. It was neither a natural calamity nor the responsibility of internally displaced persons, which could keep his focus on better management of the situation in the province.

Asad Qaiser, the speaker of provincial assembly, who has administratively nothing to do with the province, was forced to visit the injured the next day when media highlighted the emergency situation. After a merry dance last night, it was only on Sunday that CM Khattak visited Peshawar’s hospital.

It is not the first time that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government under CM Khattak had been slow to respond to situation where its presence and support was expected.In September last year, when around 90 worshippers were killed and almost 150 sustained injuries in two suicide bombings at All Saints’ Church in Kohati Gate locality of Peshawar on a Sunday morning , CM Khattak and ministers perhaps in deep slumber did not come to console the crying and mourning relatives of the dead at Lady Reading Hospital.

It was in the evening that the entire PTI leadership headed by Imran Khan visited hospital, made a quick and short appearance on media and left. They were awaken by timely visit of the former information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain to the hospital despite threats to his life.

Instead of condemning the terrorists during his short visit, Imran Khan urged political leaders not to play politics over such tragic incidents and advocated talks with Taliban.

On another occasion, Imran Khan showed anger over CM Khattak’s apathy when he and provincial government failed to react to the killing of a brave schoolboy Aitzaz Hassan in January this year.

The brave student lost his life while stopping a suicide bomber from entering his school, yet in PTI chairman’s words “Chief Minister Pervez Khattak’s behaviour was disappointing” for he had not visited the house of Aitzaz to appreciate the act of valour.

Lives lost in a natural calamity or in terrorist bombing may have no meaning if it happens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the PTI-led government is focused more on what is happening in Islamabad. The neglect has never been so visible as these past few days when the chief executive of the province danced and seemed in high spirits while the provincial government machinery almost paralysed awaited what would happen next.

The chief minister, a seasoned politician known for wheeling-dealing, last night while dancing to tunes showed how much he could stoop to appease “Mughl-i-Azam” of his party, the PTI.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2014