The industrialists, traders and businessmen who called on Nawaz Sharif, in Lahore on Sunday, and apprised him of their mounting problems in the face of persisting electricity outages must be very good-natured, disciplined people. What they heard in return was essentially a political lecture, but they heard it quietly and returned to their shut-down businesses in Karachi.
Being leader of the 'friendly opposition', which is always ready to bail out the government in difficult situations, Nawaz Sharif could be more explicit on this crucial issue. But he did not - though Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the federal minister for water and power, did not hesitate in accusing the Karachi delegation of 'politicising the issue of power shortages'. What else is stone-heartedness? Nawaz Sharif may be right, albeit partially, that electricity shortage has roots in the Musharraf regime mismanagement.
What about the last two years, or so, that the present lot are in total control of things. In April 2008, the angry protestors in Multan, the hometown of Prime Minister Gilani, ransacked the Wapda offices, torched banks and violently clashed with police over the unscheduled load-shedding. Has the government done anything over the last two years to heal that anger?
The Karachi businessmen and industrialists may not respond to Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. But the man in the street will. A street protest is the last resort with the angry and hungry people to mount pressure on governments that they, themselves, bring to power. Only last week, we heard of the heroes of the Tulip Revolution, in Kyrgyzstan, being consigned to the dustbin of history. The very same people, who had brought Kurmanbek Bakiyev to power, threw him out of the presidential palace; they did not wait for his regime to complete its constitutional term.
Raja Pervaiz Ashraf may be, vicariously, helping the man in the street by undermining the credibility of his government by giving ever new dates - that are never met - for the demon of electricity outages to go away. No wonder, as the heat of summer piles up, the people's anger also notches up. Consider the elements that add to the discordance; as load-shedding increases, so do hikes in electricity tariffs, prices of petroleum products and joblessness. The fact is, that most of the industry is shut down, rendering hundreds of thousands of workers jobless.
The heat of the summer, joblessness, the forbiddingly high cost of living and mounting corruption and political uncertainty - all that can be added to prepare a deadly concoction for large-scale public unrest that is at hand already. And what is the antidote being offered by Raja Pervaiz Ashraf: the minimise use of electricity says he, as if outages, ranging from 8 hours on average in cities and 18 hours in the rural areas, are not enough.
To the extent that the Gilani government took two years to 'fix' the Constitution, one has no quarrel, even when it means cutting corners by promoting oligarchy and siring dynasty politics in the country. He has promised to devote the next three years of his government to public welfare. That's good but very difficult and in many cases, almost impossible, given the weak and faulty foundation on which the system has come to rest.
Frankly speaking, all that 'feel-good' air that tends to permeate the corridors of power, in the wake of passage of the 18th Amendment, may be deceptive. People are least concerned as to who rules in Islamabad, or other provincial capitals; they want their problems to be solved - which, at present, are not.
The first two years, spent for the people, would have made better political sense. The 18th Amendment essentially enforces the political elite's insulation from public sentiments, which is a patently dangerous development, for it leaves people with only one option and that is massive protests or an uprising. It is hoped that the situation would be remedied on a war footing and would not be allowed to deteriorate to that level.
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