The leadership of Pakistan’s two largest political herds have competed with each other in fields other than daylight plunder of the resources of the state. One of these fields is that of fulsome naked dripping sycophancy, from which anyone with even a shred of modesty will recoil in horror.
The current record of this is held by Mariam Aurangzeb when she so worshipfully declared that Nawaz Sharif was not the name of a person, but that of an intoxication.
I wondered then if this woman had any children. And that if she did, how she could ever look them in the eyes again. And if she had a husband, did he ever dare ask her where it was that she had tasted of this blissful “intoxication” to have become such an expert on the subject!
Be that as it may, the previous record of this ignominy was held by some PPP genius who gave Nelson Mandela’s name to Zardari for having spent time in jail.
Those who had never heard about Mandela would have been justified in concluding that he must be someone occupying pride of place in the international gallery of rogues, thieves. and blackguards.
Mandela spent 27 years in jail for having fought against one of the most oppressive and dehumanizing regimes in fairly recent history. And six days of every week of his incarceration were spent wielding a large hammer to break stones in a quarry.
Asif Zardari was put behind bars on charges of theft of the national treasury. He spent considerably less than half of Mandela’s time in jail where he had a whale of a time. He was separated from his wife who, apart from certain routine gestures or words that sit well with hypocrisy, had come to loathe him; his slavish courtiers kept him well supplied with alcoholic beverages of choice; his quarters provided him 5-star comfort; and pretty ladies having a PPP affiliation tripped over each other to feed him.
Unfortunately, one of them got impregnated in the process, which drew Benazir’s wrath. This could not be allowed to go unpunished. Being the very incarnation of justice, she held the woman guilty and as punishment, arranged for her to be gang raped on 27 Nov 1991. And then, amid the most copious stream of crocodile tears she began a “nationwide” campaign to bring “justice” to the ravaged woman!
And just in case anyone has forgotten, this is the actual tale of one part of our suppurating leadership, which has brought us to our present state of wretchedness and tears.
So, what happens now?
Quite fortuitously the sentencing of Gen Javed Iqbal and company has created space and flung open the doors of possibility for a thorough going accountability to be set in motion at the top reaches of the “Elites”. This will cause pain where it needs to be caused. And if this happens, Pakistan stands to retrieve much that was stolen from it.