WITH the government having successfully passed the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, it is perhaps time now for it to pay attention to the actual task of solving the problems faced by the people.

As such, the problems are multipronged: commodity prices, utility bills, transport fares, cost of medicines, medical treatment, fuel prices etc. Just bragging about the lowering of inflation and the bullish trend in the stock market will not bring any relief to common man’s life.

One piece of good news being heard these days is the rising price of gold. This is ‘good’ news because people, in order to make ends meet, are selling the gold they had kept for the marriage of their daughters.

The government has been celebrating the passage of the bill without realising what the people are going through. This reminds one of Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story Naya Qanoon, which revolves around a kochwan (coachman) named Mangoo, who was fed up with the atrocities committed by the British against the Indians on a daily basis.

One day, after hearing the news that a new constitutional Act had been passed giving freedom to the Indians from the British rule, which would come into practice on that very day, he was so overwhelmed with joy that he rubbed a British the wrong way.

As things escalated, Mangoo gave the British man a sound beating owing to which he found himself in police custody, where he kept on yelling naya qanoon (new law) without realising that the day happened to be the April Fool’s Day!

Malik ul Quddoos
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2024