fatman17
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Power play
Dr Farrukh Saleem
Sunday, October 09, 2011
All power corrupts, they say, but we need electricity. Mian Nawaz Sharif is in a power play of his own aching to take advantage of power riots in order to achieve an end of his liking with little or no regard for consequences. Thats opportunism at its meanest. Outside GHQ, President Asif Ali Zardari is the only man with a plan and a goal. Pindi is actually the one that continues to command absolute power. And power, it is said, corrupts but absolute power is kind of neat.
President Zardari can actually end loadshedding with the stroke of his pen. My friend, one of the best economists I know, suggests taking out Rs150 billion from PSDP and throwing it at Pepco. Let Rasul Khan Mahsud, MD Pepco, pump billions into power producers and let power producers pay off oil companies. Lo and behold, there will be no loadshedding till the PPP wins at least a simple majority in the senate election in March. Wasnt it Henry Kissinger who said, ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation?
Talking of politicians why do we have so few female politicians? Answer: It is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. And then we have others who believe that a life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
Who says the PPP government doesnt listen? All that you have to do is to come out, block roads, destroy government property and burn old tyres. Pakistanis are frustrated and depressed. The PPP ought to know that there is only a short bridge between individual frustration and collective aggression. One thing this PPP government has learned is which bridge to cross and which to burn. Some forty years ago I was told that anybody could become president. It has taken me forty long years to believe what I was told when I was younger. Thats just being slow, not stupid.
Collective aggression means chaos and anarchy. And thats exactly what the Taliban are looking for. Hopefully our state has a plan because our society does not. Can power riots become a trigger converting individual frustration to collective aggression?
Paisa is important, how one earns it is not. Thats the failure of society. Everyone in and around the president house is neither poor nor hungry. But Pakistanis away from the Constitution Avenue are getting poorer and going hungry. Poverty and hunger are said to be parents of revolution. We are a country with too many bombs and no ideas. Remember; there is more dynamite in an idea than in many bombs.
What is our democracys future? Somalia or Turkey? A revolution, I am told, is a struggle between the past and the future. Democracy, once again, means that anyone can grow up to be president. And anyone who doesnt grow up can be the prime minister.
Yes, we have a president and, yes, he has a plan. But, according to John Lennon, life is what happens to you while youre busy making other plans.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com
Dr Farrukh Saleem
Sunday, October 09, 2011
All power corrupts, they say, but we need electricity. Mian Nawaz Sharif is in a power play of his own aching to take advantage of power riots in order to achieve an end of his liking with little or no regard for consequences. Thats opportunism at its meanest. Outside GHQ, President Asif Ali Zardari is the only man with a plan and a goal. Pindi is actually the one that continues to command absolute power. And power, it is said, corrupts but absolute power is kind of neat.
President Zardari can actually end loadshedding with the stroke of his pen. My friend, one of the best economists I know, suggests taking out Rs150 billion from PSDP and throwing it at Pepco. Let Rasul Khan Mahsud, MD Pepco, pump billions into power producers and let power producers pay off oil companies. Lo and behold, there will be no loadshedding till the PPP wins at least a simple majority in the senate election in March. Wasnt it Henry Kissinger who said, ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation?
Talking of politicians why do we have so few female politicians? Answer: It is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. And then we have others who believe that a life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
Who says the PPP government doesnt listen? All that you have to do is to come out, block roads, destroy government property and burn old tyres. Pakistanis are frustrated and depressed. The PPP ought to know that there is only a short bridge between individual frustration and collective aggression. One thing this PPP government has learned is which bridge to cross and which to burn. Some forty years ago I was told that anybody could become president. It has taken me forty long years to believe what I was told when I was younger. Thats just being slow, not stupid.
Collective aggression means chaos and anarchy. And thats exactly what the Taliban are looking for. Hopefully our state has a plan because our society does not. Can power riots become a trigger converting individual frustration to collective aggression?
Paisa is important, how one earns it is not. Thats the failure of society. Everyone in and around the president house is neither poor nor hungry. But Pakistanis away from the Constitution Avenue are getting poorer and going hungry. Poverty and hunger are said to be parents of revolution. We are a country with too many bombs and no ideas. Remember; there is more dynamite in an idea than in many bombs.
What is our democracys future? Somalia or Turkey? A revolution, I am told, is a struggle between the past and the future. Democracy, once again, means that anyone can grow up to be president. And anyone who doesnt grow up can be the prime minister.
Yes, we have a president and, yes, he has a plan. But, according to John Lennon, life is what happens to you while youre busy making other plans.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com
