AS the cliché goes, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Though it was not coined for or about Pakistanis, we would all be riding our way to the promised land in a world which, to use a modern-day cliché, stands Trumped.

The sentiment was led by Imran Khan who went public with this wonderful thought that Pakistan would be a direct beneficiary of anything and everything that the American president might end up doing against us. People would stop looking around for help and start looking inwards, the PTI supremo believed.

The words made a lot of sense, but, as it appears, only in the world of low-value political rhetoric. As far as the common man is concerned, he seems to have come of age. Dr Syed Shah Talha Iqbal, a physician running his own practice in a middle-class area, represents the voice of many when he points out that regardless of what Donald Trump does or doesn’t do, Pakistan (read, leadership) is not looking inwards, but eastwards ... to China. Self-reliance is not even a target, he insists.

“It was SEATO and CENTO back in the Cold War period; today it is CPEC. A change in nomenclature. A change in geographical proximity. But that’s it. The dependence is very much there. We need a messiah in almost all aspects of life — from personal to national. If there is none, we create one. China is just one.” Tough words.

But that is what many believe. In fact, some are even more sceptical. “Being out of the frying pan may well be a lovely thought, but the possibility of being into the fire is dreadful,” warns Mohammad Ismail, a small-time entrepreneur of sorts who wonders if China would buy, say, our textiles if the US refuses to.

Banker Haroon Ahmed takes the thought process forward by talking about the financial and human capital that the country might gain in the shape of remittances and expatriates feeling isolated or threatened in Trump’s America and deciding to move back at least for a while.

“This might actually happen, but what does the country stand to get out of it. The remittances will definitely boost the reserves but in turn the money will end up creating bubbles — in the real estate sector, for instance — which will help a few at the cost of many. Besides, there have always been people interested in returning to the country for one reason or the other, but almost all of them do take a return flight sooner or later.

“Our society has always struggled to absorb competence or commitment or any such thing. People with money have been returning for long without investing because the procedures are cumbersome and corrupt. Professionals and academicians have been returning disillusioned for lack of opportunities. Why will it be any different this time?”

There is no dearth of families in Pakistan that have someone based in the United States as part of the Pakistani diaspora, and that brings us to the level of uncertainty that families here are facing. As is true in most uncertain situations, there are some ideas doing the rounds that are laughable on the face of it.

Talking of the tussle between Trump and the courts, many believe that there might well be a “mini-9/11” on the way that might sweep the floor for the president. And if that doesn’t happen, “Trump may well be the next Kennedy”.

Perfectly preposterous, one might say. But that is how public perception stands in a world Trumped!

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2017