The betrayed BY Amar Jaleel

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Blind are your eyes, your heart is unfeeling,

Your mind devoid of understanding,

For lust, anger and burning desires,

You are drowning without water. (Kabeer)



It was a massive gathering of the vote bank for the rich. The ones who constituted the vote bank consisted of the ignoble and the wretched of the earth. They were half-starved, forlorn, penniless, diseased, and without a shelter. Barefoot, they were attired in tatters. It was a rare spectacle. The purpose of their getting together was not to cast their vote in favour of a feudal lord or an industrial tycoon. They had assembled to discuss the refurbished Constitution. They were not interested in the immunity the Constitution guarantees to a president of Pakistan and a governor of a province. They were interested to know what kind of rights were guaranteed to the voters in the refurbished Constitution. All along their miserable life they had lamented the absence of the rights of the voters in the Constitution. They wondered if their basic rights, hitherto ignored, were inducted in the reconditioned Constitution! Once a bald politician had told them, "The conscientious voters provide formidable foundation to democracy."

Conscientious was an alien word for the perplexed members of the vote bank. They on their own tried to comprehend it, but to no avail. Some of them contacted the retired post master of a now extinct post office in the locality. He was considered a wise man for he magnanimously wrote letters for the less learned members of the vote bank. He had often read out scandalous and interesting stories to them from the newspapers. They had every reason to believe that the retired post master genuinely was a scholarly man. They contacted him, and asked, "Master Aaqil Khan, how would you describe the word conscientious?"

Master Aaqil Khan smiled, and said, "If I slap you on one cheek, and you promptly turn your other cheek to me, then you are a conscientious person."

Thereafter, for months they had wondered if they were conscientious people of Pakistan! They had no idea if ignominious death, humiliation, and contemptuous attitude of the ones they had always voted for had anything to do with their conscientiousness! What they knew was a never ending enigma that had been perpetuated for the last sixty three years. During the electioneering seasons they are fired upon. Some of them die with a few bullets pumped into their head and heart. Some of them end up at the hospitals. And, when they leave they leave the hospitals crippled. In order to cast their valuable vote in favour of Waderas, Sardars or Jagirdars they stand in the long queues from dawn to dusk. While sustaining the blazing sun for tortuous hours they very often collapse with exhaustion and dehydration. Being conscientious subscribers to the vote bank they voluntarily absorb the unbearable ordeal with the forbearance of the prophets.

Their wise man, the retired post master had once informed them that the Constitution of Pakistan had nothing special to spell out for them except that a voter ought to be 18 years of age, and holder of a National Identity Card.

A senior voter who had lost one eye in the scuffle of the ruffians during an electioneering season, asked, "Master, can a lunatic cast his vote?"

The post master smiled, and said, "This is exactly what you have been doing all your life."

Stunned, one of the voters asked, "Master, how can you say we are lunatics?"

The post master looked at them, and asked, "Ever heard of a maxim, 'a man is known by the company he keeps'?"

Together they replied, "Yes Master, we have heard about it."

"Good." The retired post master said, "Similarly, the calibre of the voters is determined by the type of the person they vote for."

Head hung down, the perplexed voters dispersed without entering into any kind of argument with the post master. They went into hiding. Some of them contemplated if they were directly responsible for electing unworthy persons to sit in the assembly for running the affairs of the country! They realised it was not their fault in entirety. They were often betrayed by the persons they elected. When in the Assembly they refused to acknowledge the people who had supported them, and voted in their favour. Their elected representatives frequently changed loyalties, and shifted from one political party to other for personal gains. They muttered, "It is not entirely our fault that the incompetent and nincompoops sit in the National and Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan. We feel betrayed."

With the help and assistance of the post master they submitted their recommendations to the authorities for induction in the Constitution that was being cleansed of impurities:

"We are very often betrayed by our elected representatives. They change political loyalties. They refuse to honour promises, and do nothing for their constituency. As we cast our votes in their favour, similarly we may be given the right to cast our vote of no confidence against a MNA or MPA who betrays his vote bank, and topple him or her."

Waiting impatiently for the arrival of the retired post master the massive gathering of the wretched voters became restive. Finally the post master arrived. He ascended a rock, looked at the great gathering, and announced, "As usual the cleansed Constitution guarantees nothing to you. It is a Constitution of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich."



The writer is a creative columnist and short story writer.