PRE-Musharraf military dictators like Ayub, Yahya and Zia acted against the constitution. But, they are reputed to be financially upright. They were contemptuous of ‘democracy’. So were Zulfikar Bhutto and Benazir, and so are Nawaz Sharif and others present day politicos of his ilk. Both Benazir and Nawaz Sharif lacked a real commitment to democracy (M. Asghar Khan, We have Learnt Nothing from History, p.196).

At the pinnacle of power, politicians tend to forget ‘you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Nawaz Sharif is jubilant at his party’s electoral victories. Good. But he should use his parliamentary clout to introduce, at least, a national healthcare, education and shelter policy. If possible, he should also try to implement Justice Dost Mohammad’s idea of mobile courts to provide justice at door steps. Before confronting ‘establishment’ head on, he should ask ‘will a million people be on streets and roads if he is imprisoned.

Roedad Khan in his book Pakistan: A Dream Gone Sour tells that the PPP could not get people on the roads though Bhutto’s trial was unfair. The PPP remained busy collecting mercy petitions while Bhutto was sent to the gallows.

Asghar Javed Malik

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018