Ever since I was aware of my life and living, I have been exposed to General Yahya’s thrasonical brag during the 1971 war, that every house would be turned into a fortress – we surrendered the next day and East Pakistan was lost. Then there was Bhutto, mesmerizing people with his rhetoric. We still have not recovered from his era of nationalizing property in the mistaken belief that wealth would be equally distributed, instead misery was measured out to all by him. This was followed by General Zia ul Haq, a deadly concoction of religion and politics – we never recovered from that either and pretended to be die-hard Muslims but forgot Islam in our enthusiasm to be even better Muslims as Islam was whipped into our homes and lives.
Then there was the wasted decade: Benazir-Nawaz-Benazir again and Nawaz again. The nation got poorer and the people more irrelevant. We witnessed President Musharraf and his enlightened moderation; all talk and no substance. Extremism grew and violence perpetuated. Then Zardari ended up in the presidency.
The nation was almost bankrupt and the people just vassals and victims of exploitation. But then back to Nawaz and corruption galore, the nation was gasping for its life and the people conned into living the consequences of an artificial democracy. Yet, at last there was a ray of hope when Imran Khan ascended the throne. It was short lived for he soon lost the crown he wore. He never anticipated how the system worked or how institutions were dysfunctional and instead preferred to live in a fool’s paradise. A Don Quixote charging windmills.
Later, he decided to right the wrong through a display of might and people’s power and announced a ‘Jihad’, only to turn back in the face of intimidation – something he has now made a habit of. The people who were finally stirred from their slumber and stood with Imran, were let down and abandoned, as our very own warrior decided to live to fight another day. The ray of hope now torn to shreds has brought us back to being what we always were – servile nobody’s who had dared to hope that their day had finally arrived.
So, this dog, for one, has still not got his day. That day had actually arrived, when there appeared a promise of being free on the distant horizon but it disappeared into nothing; lost in the very wind that carried the promise to all of us – a whisper in the breeze. But still, this dog has not had his day.
