What is happening in Pakistan? The military is fighting insurgents to save the heart and soul of Pakistan and making enormous sacrifices. The people are facing power and sugar shortages, bearing retaliatory bomb and armed attacks from the insurgents and living with the losses of dear ones in an incredibly strained human security and cost of living crises. The Judiciary is doing house cleaning to strengthen itself as an institution. The Interior and Foreign Ministries are coping with a media hell bent on exposing the alien covert operatives within Pakistan and the Intelligence Agencies are going bananas trying to develop a coherent picture from the fast moving events unfolding. The media is on a roll and now riding a tiger that they dare not dismount from after having gone far out on a limb.

The politicians and their hangers-on seem to be oblivious of this hullabaloo. They are bunkered in the trappings of officialdom, cocooned in bullet proof limos escorted by security personnel and involved in no-holds barred games of survival. If in the process they have to demolish others and jeopardize their country's national security then so be it. There are wise men—much like those of Gotham—who are egging them on by ridiculing what they call antiquated concepts of national security and threat perception---and giving them ideas of making up, compromising and surrendering to survive. They dredge up the past and parade it forgetting that in doing so they harm their own country---for them catharsis and exposure are the new buzzwords. A commercial media laps it up with their eyes on fat salaries and profits as they serve up the mess that they think is entertainment for the masses. The slimy trails being left are merging into a morass of slime.

Behind this shrill cacophony of ranting and railing politicians is a new awakening and a section of the media is courageously leading the charge. They are investigating facts and figures and exposing those to whom people have given their trust and those who have come in clutching their coat tails. They are asking why there is no governance. They are asking who is in charge and who is standing up for Pakistan? They do not want the military to be distracted by being forced to intervene---not that the military wants to. The prolonged uncertainty and self-centered dithering has brought in the realization that all is not well in the state and that there is something rotten within it. People are looking in awe and wonder at the shenanigans of the multitude of ministers and advisers and the trading activities of those favored by them. Lost in this mosaic are the few who are worried but powerless to do anything because they are afraid of being out in the cold. A regular salary, an all expenses paid residence, an official number plate and flagpole with a driver, a gunman and an assistant doing the errands---these are powerful motivators for zipping up your mouth and putting a lid on your conscience.

Our neighbors are laughing at us. They and others are taking full advantage of the situation to push their own agendas and national interests. The blatant intrusive exploitation is creating a hydra headed monster within us and a fire breathing dragon across from us. How long will this last? How long can it last without a catastrophe overtaking us? Will someone make the 'supreme sacrifice' or will someone take the 'supreme step' to get us off the roller coaster and on to a road leading somewhere? Time is running out.

by Ghalib Sultan

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