my  block

where uzairs roam

Shaukat Aziz’s latest is my nomination. Some highlights of Mr. Aziz’s comments:

• the Constitution allows for the option of imposing a state of national emergency ‘but its use depended on conditions and circumstances as laid down in the book’ [as reported by Dawn].
• “the May 12 rally in Islamabad would be in support of the presidential reference because the opposition was bringing out processions against it” [reported by Dawn].
• “We trust and value writings of our own media more than foreigners’ because they are expected to keep their analysis within the limit of national interest” [PM's own words, when asked about the cost of said rally].
• “To us the reference was a legal and constitutional matter”. He said using the presidential reference for meeting political ends or hurting the public interest was not in the interest of anyone and the Supreme Judicial Council should be allowed to work in a free atmosphere to adjudicate.
• Dawn reports that Mr. Aziz, while responding to a question, said the government had given freedom to the media which needed to use it judiciously and without hurting national interests.
• Indicating the common man’s living conditions have improved (reference), Dawn also reports that he said the sale of electric fans had jumped to five million units this year as against 3.5 million last year.

So basically, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, champion of the future of our nation, has actively considered imposing a state of national emergency to make protesting citizens shut up. And since he can’t do that (or perhaps just doesn’t want to) without consulting ‘the book’, he’s decided to engage in a little tit-for-tat, blowing government money to promote his regime. He has the gall to say he considers the charges against the Chief Justice of Pakistan to be a ‘legal and constitutional matter’ while at the same time implying the superiority of the Supreme Judicial Council over the country’s ultimate judicial authority, the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

There’s more, of course: while his government is encouraging freedom of the press (and claiming praise for it internationally), he does wish to remind the press to toe the official line. And apparently, the fact that more electric fans are being sold negates double-digit spikes of the Consumer Price Index.

Don’t tell me these are everyday transgressions for Pakistani politicians, or that the problem is systemic. Those are simply ways of saying the problem cannot easily be addressed, and that we must compromise and learn to deal with it. If you take pride in the fact that you are a first-class citizen of Pakistan, understand that when Mr. Aziz unabashedly utters these words, his message is unambiguously that government is his business and he will not tolerate you meddling in it. You are a second-class citizen here, as you are everywhere else.