A REPORT in our paper on spiritual advice sought by our prime minister on matters presumably political should come as no surprise. Not only is Raja Pervez Ashraf following in the footsteps of his predecessors and political contemporaries, the example of world leaders like Ronald Reagan, whose wife is known to have regularly consulted an astrologer on her husband’s public activities, is also before him. Indian politicians too are deeply influenced by the pronouncements of these gurus, and come election time, the whole country evolves into one huge crystal ball. In Pakistan, leaders from Benazir Bhutto to lesser political mortals like Imran Khan are reported to have consulted pirs and spiritual gurus on their life choices and strategies, the PTI chief talking of it at great length in his most recent book. Black goats, astrologers, numerologists, holy men have all figured in the lives of our leaders. But at the end, we are left with that niggling thought: how would Pakistan have fared without the occult intervening every now and then in our national life?

True, the realities of politics are harsh in Pakistan; the Machiavellian games of rivals, the ever-hovering shadow of an external player, etc don’t make matters easy for the wavering politicians. However, that uncertainty might be quelled if political leaders were to place their faith in the institutions of democracy as firmly as they do in their spiritual gurus. After all, over the years, it is institutions such as parliament and judiciary all over the world that have weathered the storm of wars, rivalries, dissent and external threats to emerge more powerful than any soothsayer. In Pakistan, these institutions are still at a nascent stage, but believing in them would not only strengthen the pillars of state, they would also impart some measure of confidence to an insecure public.