How sad that over 1,200 people died last week in the blistering heat in Karachi. Instead of taking responsibility our politicians were simply playing the blame game. It seems that blaming others is the easiest way for them to run away from taking ownership and responsibility. It’s evident that they are just tossing blame on others and not interested to make things right in the country. When will someone wake up?
It is not surprising that Pakistan confronts numerous challenges. What is important is to achieve sustainable economic growth in a way that ensures social stability. Adequately supporting the poor should be a key priority of all parties; however things are not looking positive on that score. There is one negative incident after another in the country. Unfortunately no lessons are learnt, and no efforts made to ease poverty and suffering. Most politicians are aloof and unresponsive, and wake up only very slowly after the crisis.
“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required” – Sir Winston Churchill
Our governments always have wrong priorities. I was quite surprised that the PML (N) government announced a rapid bus system that cost $400 million for the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In both metropolitan areas, more than five dozen air-conditioned buses are now running in dedicated lanes that use new bridges and tunnels to avoid traffic lights. Similarly in 2013 Shahbaz Sharif’s provincial government spent $300 million to open the 17-mile Lahore bus route.
My question is that should the government not have taken a more strategic view of the overall priorities (schools, colleges and hospitals and even power plants, or metro-bus projects). Money could have been better spent on education, health care, power generation, and social services. I believe these new systems are simply political and financial bets by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif. Both have staked their reputations on pledges to quickly deliver expensive new development projects such as highways and airport terminals.
As the party in power the onus is on PML (N) to take responsibility and demonstrate that it has a balanced vision. PML (N) cannot solve our deep-rooted problems and challenges by using the same kind of inflexible, ossified and ostrich-like thinking that they used to have to their detriment when they came to power twice in the past.
To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need real leadership who takes interest in solving our deep-seated problems. Right now all that these irresponsible official actions demonstrate the tremendous disconnect between the political leadership and the people they purport to lead. It reflects a lack of vision in the political leadership. It is a time that people wake up. The government should work for us and not vice versa.