Spotlight: Gap between the rulers and the ruled is a dangerous omen!: Is the summer of discontent upon us!

Are people getting dangerously close to open defiance of authority, such as it is? Increase in transport fares of public transport buses in a Rawalpindi-Islamabad locality appeared to be the immediate cause of unprecedented street demonstrations on Murree Road and adjoining areas on Thursday 18 March 10 when hundreds of students took to the streets and blocked roads in what they claimed was going to be a peaceful protest against the fare hike.
They were soon joined, perhaps, by thousands of others from the general public. Mishandling of the situation by the police, whose use of brute force and humiliating treatment towards protesting students, in a situation where tact was needed, appears to have worsened the matters and forced the demonstrators to turn violent.
Clashes between the people and the police (with the former throwing stones which were available aplenty and the latter exhausting their teargas shells in rapid fire and also firing rubber bullets) took place throughout the day and extended to the next day. Typically, there were contradictory statements about whether the fare increase was withdrawn or not! Good governance? Governance at all?
ONE-OFF PHENOMENON OR DEEP MALAISE The question now looms. Is this the beginning and end for now of another sorry episode in our every day life or are signs visible of a deep malaise, which could burst upon the scene with suddenness and cause havoc, heavens forbid, across the country.
The rise in the bus fares was said to be up to fifty percent (Rs 7 one way or Rs, 14 for a round trip, to give one example). Our rulers cannot understand the impact of expenditure rising by say Rs 500 per month in the lives of people earning Rs 6,000-10,000 per month or even less.
The rulers' own free spending ways at the cost of the country's wealth prevents them from feeling the pain of the people. They would otherwise have foreseen the impact of what they were about to do and desisted?
Flaunting designer suits, wearing shoes that often cost a multiple of the monthly minimum wage fixed (though not implemented) by them at Rs 6,000, and going about in limousines costing a crore or two, with police escort in front and police escort at the back, our rulers cannot imagine the devastating impact of yet another burden on a large section of the populace for whom the life is already made burdensome by the constant rise in prices of staples like atta, milk, sugar vegetables and such bare necessities of life while incomes are disappearing and unemployment is on the rise.
The stone throwing, the teargas shelling and the firing of rubber bullets were all covered in detail by TV cameras present on the scene throughout. They also showed how protesters and the police were chasing each other in turn. It was also clear that this was no political stand-off since political leaders or flags were not seen. Neither was there any political slogan-raising or flag waving. One could not blame foreign elements since both the provocation and the reaction were entirely local.
LOAD SHEDDING - RULERS ARE EXEMPT Among many other reasons, a major cause of unemployment and the deprivations that follow it, are the result of our rulers' inability to tackle the power shortage - a deplorable failure of governance - during the full two years of their rule. It continues to cause widespread misery.
Whether it is the rulers' inability to manage the circular debt issue or the fiasco of the rental power plants with open allegations of kickback, which echoed in the Parliament as well, or failure to take up with India and resolve, strongly and persistently, the issue of diversion of waters that should be flowing by right into our river system, the government has failed spectacularly!
In sweltering heat, without a fan, people can only have fitful sleep, not enough to recharge their energy to face yet another miserable day. Students, forced to perspire through most of the day and most nights, cannot very well study by candle light or kerosene lamps.
All this is adding up to a powder-keg-near-fire situation, which could burst into a conflagration at any time without warning to confront our non-seeing, non-hearing and non-caring ruling elite with stark reality! One wonders every time such protests occur in one part of the country, if this was it, and more protests would follow to engulf the country.
It is unlikely that our rulers can empathise with the people or even imagine their suffering. Their own cars, homes, offices are cool and comfortable 24/7 come what may. Had they felt the pain, they would not otherwise have fritted away the two years of rule they have had so far.
Businesses and industries are having a tough time coping with power outages, which have become the rule rather than the exception; the only open question is about their duration, which has no sign of diminishing. Shops must close early (in many shops lights must be kept on for better visibility during the day as well) unless they install standby power of their own.
The snag is that the price of power generators has skyrocketed in view of the sudden rise in demand by a power hungry country ruled by the unfeeling greats of the land. The additional cost involved in buying and running the generators will need to be passed on to the customers, further feeding inflation.
Industries are suffering in the same way, though on a larger scale. The cost push makes their products uncompetitive in the world market. Lower sales in shops and industries means lay offs adding further to the miseries suffered by the people who have no social security cover in Pakistan.
RULES ARE FOR THE BIRDS Have you noticed cars with dark window glasses plying on the roads without any risk of apprehension by police? You might have also noticed that these violations pertain to vehicles belonging to our ministers, MNAs, MPAs, high officials and the like. Woe betide the police officer, who dares to challan them! The least he could expect in punishment (how dare you?) would be transfer to an "undesirable" location and quite often much worse.
Next time before taking action, he would make sure that the errant car belonged to an ordinary citizen without any official "status". Police is seen as serving the rulers in a most servile manner while dealing with ordinary people in unduly harsh, even cruel ways. Stories of highhandedness of policemen with ordinary citizens, inflicting disabilities (turning ordinary people into "special" people) and even death on suspects in police stations during torture are regularly reported in the media.
Trust in the police is now at the same level as trust in the present government and its functionaries. In anger and frustration, people have started taking law into their own hands of which the extreme, horrific examples are incidents of dacoits being burnt alive on streets when caught in the act. Dacoits, in turn, have become more desperate and do not hesitate to kill their victims at the slightest sign of resistance. The thought of another three years to be suffered under the same set of rulers is enough to send shudders down the spine of most Pakistanis.
MURDERERS ON THE LOOSE While the protest against fare increase was assuming alarming proportions on the streets of Rawalpindi-Islamabad, another nerve-shattering incident took place in Karachi, 1,000 miles to the south! On Wednesday 17 March 10, three activists of MQM-H, including their secretary of information, and advocate Sohail Ajum, pleading the years-old case of Afaq Ahmed, the party chief, were gunned down in broad day light as they were returning in a taxi from a hearing of the case.
According to press reports, party vice chairman Akhtar Hussain accused Muttahida Qaumi Movement of assassinating advocate Sohail Anjum and the others. Reminds you of something as horrifying? You would be right. This appears to be a repeat of a similar gruesome incident when another advocate, representing Afaq Ahmed, was gunned down by killers who burst into his house and killed both the advocate and his wife.
The "case" remains unsolved, with the murderers presumably free to carry out more assassinations while the case against Afaq Ahmed has continued with one hearing following another, ad infinitum and now appeared to be drawing to a finale. Akhtar Hussain threatened to "repay the terrorists in a befitting manner" and followed it up with a 72-hour ultimatum for arresting the assassins.
On Thursday, several vehicles were torched and shops remained closed in several parts of the city which braced for more killings. Lawyers, who had their own legitimate grouse to air, boycotted courts on Thursday and took out a procession to register their strong protest against this fresh killing of another member of Karachi Bar Association, and announced financial support of Rs 100,000 for the family of the assassinated advocate. Will the assassins be ever caught?
INDIAN PRESIDENT'S HUSBAND ORDERED TO RETURN LAND A recent News report reads: The husband of Indian President Pratibha Patil's has been ordered to return a plot of land he allegedly appropriated from a farmer. Authorities in the western state of Maharashtra ordered that Devi Singh Shekhawat return the disputed 0.9 hectares (or nearly 1,600 sq. yards) in the eastern Amravati district to its rightful owner, farmer Kishore Bansod, a private TV channel reported.
A local administration official in the district's Daryapur area issued an order, following a complaint filed by the farmer in June. In his petition, Bansod, who belongs to the oppressed Dalit community, alleged that Shekhawat and five relatives took possession of the land, situated in a prime location, and had it transferred to their names. Bansod complained after finding that the land's ownership title in the government records had changed. How is this for putting us to shame?
(owajid@yahoo.com)