SHAKESPEARE may have come up with a line for all times when he wrote “to be or not to be”, but in Pakistan we have found a dilemma just as important and worthy of much debate. We have been wondering whether or not this past year and what it brought in politics was unprecedented. Is it simply more of the same aka 2018 main bhi yehi hua tha, or have the excesses against a political party touched new heights — or should it be lows?
At this rate, this discussion will continue as we enter 2024 because we Pakistanis believe in carrying our baggage with us, as we do our circular debts. But instead of a recap of the year that passed, let me try and offer a slightly different, or zara hat kai, version of what we have been experiencing for the past few years, and what really is ‘unprecedented’.
Pakistan has evolved as a country which has become used to living on international rents, thanks to our geostrategic position. From Ayub Khan’s decision to join the Western bloc to the two Afghan wars, we picked friends and allies who came bearing gifts in the form of aid and dollars, which were then used to make the economy grow — and ‘buy’ legitimacy for the unelectable leaders ruling us.
Elections — managed ones — were held, and state patronage, in the shape of development funds, were shared with politicians, which then trickled down to the people. The politicians, give or take a few, fell in line in that despite constant refrains of unfair and rigged elections, political parties generally opted........