Imprudence peaking?

While it is unpredictable how much more will the ongoing politicking damage Pakistan and its image abroad, last week was a historic milestone in that almost lunacy, and the Prime Minister must be credited with touching a new height therein that will remain unparalleled for a while.
His reference to a 'state within the state' against which he found himself helpless, was interpreted by all and sundry as a more than obvious reference to the superior judiciary and the country's armed forces because the regime's political opponents as well as the vast majority of the frustrated Pakistanis weren't his target.
The irony though is, that neither the people nor the political opponents of the in-power regime consider either the judiciary or the armed forces a 'state within the state'; people find both these pillars of the state on the saner side of the current political divide and are trying to save the state from total collapse.
The most sensational and Pakistan-damaging revelation by the Prime Minister was, that the fellow killed by the Americans in Abbottabad on the night of May 2, was actually Osama Bin Laden (OBL) and that he was living in Pakistan for the past six years, including four under the regime headed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
No one knows who that resident of Abbottabad was, because the jet-speed with which his body was sunk into the Arabian Sea, left everyone guessing who he really was. After raiding Abbottabad, the US military high command had claimed having taken 52 photos of OBL while alive and after being killed by the US troops.
Now, however, the US military high command has announced that it has no photographs of OBL. Given the mystery that surrounds the US raid to kill the supposed OBL, should the Pakistani Prime Minister go as far as admitting that the real OBL was living in Abbottabad for the past six years, and that too without a visa?
It seems that the inspiration for this revelation came from a desire to embarrass the armed forces, judiciary, and the Foreign Office, after the 'memo-gate' affair took an apparently decisive turn. While the Prime Minister may be thinking that he struck back with equal force, he has hurt Pakistan's image very badly.
What the Prime Minister unwittingly ended up doing was to admit that, at the highest official level, Pakistan is following a policy of harbouring the most sought-after terrorists. How much more will this admission hurt Pakistan's image globally, will gradually become visible.
What is amazing is the fact that the Prime Minister could not foresee that this attempt to project his regime as 'clean' would bounce back because, of the six years during which the alleged OBL was living in Pakistan, in the last four years the Gilani was administering 'all the institutions of the state' as the Prime Minister.
The oddest part of his revelation was that the alleged OBL was in Pakistan without a visa. Was this a retort for the allegation that Pakistan's embassy in Washington had issued hundreds of unauthorised visas to people of various nationalities? Would it be fair to issue visas to terrorists, be they the likes of OBL or Raymond Davis?
The fact that General James Jones has admitted carrying the memo (allegedly drafted by Mansoor Ijaz based on facts provided by former Pakistani ambassador Hussain Haqqani) to the then US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, is not something that can be brushed aside as a mere story without any basis whatsoever.
While this issue (that clearly divides the country's armed forces and the government in office) is being debated in the Supreme Court, it was imprudent for the Prime Minister to say things that amount to casting aspersions on the armed forces; if anything, it confirms the lethal divide that threatens the very existence of the state.
What the Prime Minister also overlooked was the fact that the unabated mismanagement of the state by his government has already created the largest-ever variety of issues that put the credibility of his government in serious doubt, and has alienated everyone, including senior members of his own party.
This was the time to build bridges by taking credible and visible action in parting company with those that had advised the Prime Minister wrongly and carried on mismanagement of the state affairs as well its relations with the rest of the world. Sadly, the Prime Minister chose the opposite course of action.
There is precious little, in fact nothing that the Prime Minister can defend in the context of management of the affairs of the state by his government. What the regime confronts are serious charges of nepotism, corruption, resource waste, and a refusal to fulfil the regime's obligations to the electorate.
The Prime Minister's repeated demand that the regime be allowed to complete its term inspires none given its track record of the past four years. What people now believe is that giving another year to this regime means making things worse than what they are - a perception that can't be labelled as sheer negativism.
Intentions to privatise loss-making state-owned enterprises (PSEs) in 2012 no longer carry any weight; they are viewed as part of a strategy whereby, right up to the end, the regime used these outfits for employing its cronies and for corruption, and after rendering them bankrupt, will sell them for pennies to its favourites.
Already there are rumours that, while PIA - the airline that was once rated among the top ten in the world - is virtually being made to pack-up, a private airline is in the making. Rumours about the Karachi Electric Supply Corp. and Pakistan Steel Mills and some other PSEs meeting the same fate, are also making the rounds.
The regime also has a hard time explaining an amazing dichotomy - mounting losses of the PSEs and the fastest-ever pace of rise in government debt. People keep asking about where all that money (borrowed by the government from banks) is going, because nothing in terms of positive results shows up.
Given the expanded abilities of the media for uncovering the truth, answers to this question are given virtually every-day and, tragically, most of them expose nepotism, corruption, mismanagement, waste and frauds in state offices. This is not the outcome for which the electorate had elevated the regime to the corridors of power.
It is too late to defend the regime in the name of democracy, sanctity of the parliament, and the constitution. If this rhetoric doesn't stop, people will develop an insatiable desire to undo all these institutional arrangements. For the sake of democracy that it wants to prevail in Pakistan, the regime must make an exit.