The Obama Administration wishes to see a certain brand of Democracy flourish in Pakistan. Former Ambassador Haqqani claims he resigned for the sake of Democracy in Pakistan. While President Zardari has time and again repeated the Late Benazir Bhutto’s saying ‘Democracy is the best Revenge’. All well and good but the question a common Pakistani is posing against this brand of ‘Democracy for Revenge’ is its inability to rectify the economic and security conditions of the masses.
While the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lead Federal Government has time and again demanded that its term in government be ensured to complete it has consistently failed on its promises to provide for the basic necessities of the common Pakistani: The sole rationale that justifies the continuity of a government. The sitting government of PPP has twice defaulted on its commitment to resolve the severe electricity shortfall which is equated at 1 watt supplied for every 2 watts demanded. Come winters in 2011 the energy shortfall got even severe with the practical stoppage of natural gas to homes and CNG fuel stations. Where the common Pakistani has suffered the most, critical damage has been sustained by the commercial sector with the massive closure of textile industry, a major export contributor, that provides jobs to hundreds of thousands. The textile sector is not the only sufferer though. The 8-14 hour electricity outage every single day of the week has significantly reduced the efficiency and productivity levels of the economy as a whole. Economic analysts have estimate a year on year loss of 3-4% GDP due to bad energy management by the current Government. Electricity and gas being the primary sources of energy to any country’s commercial engine are simply out of supply making Pakistan barely crawl into the year 2012.
With all this havoc being faced by the average Pakistani the PPP lead Government has been solely focusing on its political image and completion of its tenure in power that ends in early 2013. Is the PPP government gaining any political mileage out of its clinging with power? Seemingly not since PPP has suffered serious political setback with the continuing resignations or dis-association by top PPP veteran leaders. Even the common masses including the PPP voters have publicly and on-media started to criticize the PPP Government. In-short the PPP’s brand of Democracy has indeed been the best Revenge but wrongly directed at the common man instead of undemocratic forces.
With 2012 being the election preparations year it seems highly unlikely that the public would be in the mood to hear any more promises from the PPP leadership. Surely enough the PPP leaders would avoid repeating their favorite political slogan thus far ‘Democracy is the best Revenge’. One cartoonist has his own way of visualizing how he interprets this now unpopular political slogan:
Democracy is the Best Revenge_Late Benazir Bhutto
