Two debates are raging through the town these days. Should we vote at the next general elections? Should we sacrifice a goat or give the money to charity instead? The same thing is expressed in another way: Should we go to the polls as lambs to the slaughter, or should we take it out on the animals and slaughter them on Eid day?
What do you think? As for my pea-size brain, I do not think what it is doing can be called reasoning. What it is can be called a sort of "bhel-puri mix", a bit of rational thought, a bit of emotionalism, some religious sentiments, some philosophic ideals, some bitterness and some optimism. In short, I am confused. But the fault is the government's, it should not have scheduled the general elections in the month of ZilHijj.
Handling two debates on topics so personally involving is too much for a person of Pathan descent. You have heard the joke about why brain transplant using a Pathan's brain is costly? That is because it is so rare. My skull is not totally an empty vessel, there is a small pea-size brain rattling around inside. But why am I being apologetic? After all, brains are a rarity among all people in Pakistan.
The poll issue this time is not who to vote for, it is whether to boycott the polls or not. Boycott never coloured previous general elections. Previously, when anybody asked whether we should vote, or said: what is the use of voting when democracy is under the shadow of guns? I used to urge people to vote. My reasoning was that we have to get the democratic wheels moving so that gradually dictatorship can be wiped out. We ought to realise it cannot be done in one fell swuop, first we have to sweep it under the carpet. So guns or no guns, vote!
That line of reasoning sounds hollow under the prevailing circumstances. Previous general elections were, no doubt, a farce but the January 2008 exercise is in the category of a fraud. It reminds me of the ancient practices of usury which was not a legitimate trade since it had no laws governing it. The moneylender arbitrary decided the rate of interest, which was usually hundred percent.
It was an exploitation of those in need of money by those who had it and the power to decide the fate of the borrower. The voters are literally being thought of as lambs to the slaughter, just like the usurers used to think of their clients: squeeze them till it kills them and then take the dead person's assets and leave the orphans on the road to fend for themselves. Modern banking is not usury since it is governed by laws, while usury was a fraud called "money lending".
That is the feeling about the January 2008 elections. It is not democracy because real laws, such as the juridical laws and ethical laws which prevent exploitation of people, such as human rights, which include the freedom of speech are absent. It is being said that the elections will be transparent. The only thing transparent will be the ballot boxes, a new lot of transparent, see-through boxes imported early this month.
Do transparent ballot boxes make a transparent election process? Ballot stuffing is an art, especially in Karachi. A voter arrives at his polling station, he is told by workers of a party he may or may not have voted for: Thank you very much, your vote has already been cast for you by us. Thank you. The workers are so menacing despite their "thank you" that the poor voter, goes away to mull over his humiliation in the privacy of his home.
Those political parties which are boycotting the election are frustrated and already there is report of trouble in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Super Highway area of clashes and loss of life between MQM and ANP loyalists.
The boycott issue has affected politics. The PPP is not boycotting the polls but Aitzaz Ahsan, the party's stalwart in the Punjab, who emerged as public hero for all Pakistanis because of his defence of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry who was summarily dismissed by Musharraf, at first filed his nomination papers. Then when the lawyers urged him to join their boycott of the general election, he took back his papers.
The party has criticised him for not towing the partyline. But is this a case of party indiscipline or a case of a man standing up for his personal principles? A similar question must be asked about Fazalur Rehman's defection from the MMA which is boycotting the elections while he is not (along with his party). If you have sane explanations for all that is happening with reference to the January 2008 general election scenario, do let me know. I badly need sanity.
Karachi is the greatest sacrificial-animal market in the country. Young bulls and goats are bred in the Punjab and in parts of NWFP for sale exclusively in Karachi. Huge temporary markets are set up all over the city. Trucks loaded with bulls and goats keep rolling into Karachi right up to the eve of Eid. Despite the cost of transportation, one is told the sellers make a fortune by the sale of their animals in the metropolis.
The two authorities which govern our city also make a fortune from the rent they charge for the use of their land for the temporary animal markets. Its big business. One cattle trader said he paid Rs 20,000 to bring his 36 animals here.
He is also being charged for car parking, either Rs 25 each time his vehicle enters the market area or a flat fee of Rs 1,700 for 20 days. The entry fee has increased from last year's Rs 50 to Rs 500. In the posh areas (called VIP blocks) the traders who paid Rs 15,000 last year paid Rs 35,000 this year.
A trader who brought 360 animals to the Karachi market paid Rs 200,000 because he needed more space for his large herd. They complained, but they paid. Which means there were still high profits to be made from the sale of bulls and goats. Otherwise, the CDGK and cantonment boards would not be charging so much.
No buyer of a sacrificial animal thinks the exorbitant price he pays for a goat or a bull is an exploitation. At least voters have become aware they are being exploited while the people who buy high-priced sacrificial animals do not think they are promoting an exploitation nor do they feel they have been robbed. Religious sentiments have made them blind to the reality and to real values and principles that the act of sacrifice is supposed to inculcate. Here is proof that Pakistanis no longer think. They do not have the excuse of us of Pathan descent who lack a brain. They have brains but the thinking faculty is petrified, it seems to me.