September 05, 2016
Back on the streets
The team of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri returned to the streets on Saturday to add uncertainly to the political atmosphere. Not satisfied with what became of his allegations of systematic rigging in the May 2013 elections, the PTI chairman told his supporters outside the Punjab Assembly that Nawaz Sharif would steal the next election in 2018 by using illegitimately earned money to buy people over. This was an ironic and twisted acknowledgement of the fact that, after all that has been said and done, and as things stand at the moment, the PML-N will still win the elections. Destabilising the whole order then seems to be the only way out for Imran. If he were a simpleton he would need to be told how the electoral system works. Sharif has of course been among the wealthiest figures in the country for many years. He has, however, not won every election because he possesses wealth, and he has not won all of them. Wealth – illegal or legal – matters for him and his party as much as it does for the Imrans and Tareens and their party in the system we live in and which also produced Imran and his party. The Panama Papers and arcane fights over the terms of reference for a judicial commission have, thanks to the mindlessly unprincipled politics over them, failed to capture the imagination of the public and left Imran with a fraction of the people he would normally pull in for a major rally. Imran went after not only Nawaz Sharif but just about every political institution in the country – from the National Accountability Bureau to the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Federal Investigation Agency – for not taking action over the Panama Papers. The ECP has only recently been reconstituted and the PTI and others have filed petitions there as part of their strategy to pressure their rivals.
What has been glaringly clear from the outset is that Imran is not interested in justice or fighting corruption. Rather he wants Nawaz’s head handed to him on a plate so Imran can be installed, by hook or by crook, where he thinks he belongs more than anybody else. Tahirul Qadri took to the streets of Rawalpindi and, true to his chosen calling, issued a call to the army chief to intervene to provide justice to those who were killed in the Model Town incident. Again, what has been clear from the outset in this case is Qadri’s intention not to seek justice but to exploit lives and deaths in order for him to be installed where he thinks he belongs. Both men are ready to propagate the ugliest stories about the government because the only aim is to achieve power, no matter what the cost. With their messianic complexes both have almost descended into parody. But the capacity of parodies to do real damage to the polity is well-known and the government should not react in a manner that gives more importance to the whole affair than is necessary. With containers set up across the length and breadth of both Lahore and Rawalpindi on the day, the government succeeded in angering even those who are now tired of the gimmicks of the Khan-Qadri nexus. Many wonder if lessons have been learnt from the four-month long standoff at D Chowk in 2014. Nothing new has been brought to the table with the rallies and, consequently, the question remains what it was when it all began. If the protests are taken up a notch higher – and it appears that the PTI and PAT cannot do so unless violence and tragedy are introduced into the mix – what strategy does the government have? It could be the ability or inability to deal with this in a rational and wise manner that might define what direction the situation takes.
Clear choice
South Asia faces a water crisis and it may not be simply about water scarcity. Some reports have claimed that South Asia is water-scarce amidst abundance – as is evident in the frequency of major floods that continue to hit the region. However, flood water here cannot be harnessed for either drinking or for agricultural use. This can be managed if the right kind of water infrastructure is put in place. It is this problem that poses the greatest challenge. According to a report by academic journal ‘Nature Geoscience’, 60 percent of the groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic Basin is contaminated. The report challenges the commonly held idea that depletion of water resources is the biggest challenge facing the region. Instead, it says, the attention of authorities needs to turn to the severe contamination of the region’s water supplies. Hundreds of millions of people in the region continue to consume water that can cause serious short- and long-term diseases. The two major concerns are salinity and the presence of arsenic, which can cause cancer. We would do well to remember that last year authorities in Lahore reported that over 50 percent of the city’s water tube wells produced water high in arsenic.
So while people continue to consume water as a life force, the same water is acting as poison in the long term. The problem has emerged from the severe contamination of the regions’ rivers – the major source for replenishing the ground water supplies. The pollution of our waters is a problem of collective responsibility. Governments can lead the way but citizens will have to share in the responsibility. For its part, there are simple things that can be done by the government. First, there should be strong and effective attempts to tell people about the risks of drinking unsafe water. Second, water treatment plants must be installed to make sure that water is cleaned up and tested at regular intervals. Clean water is a right. Not getting it is a serious menace. This issue needs to be taken up on an emergency basis.