Saad Rasool<\/p>\n
We live in a time of subjective truths. A time when strategic and personal interests trump human values. A time in which chil\u00addren die of starvation, a stone\u2019s throw away from palaces of opulence. A time in which a young boy with a stone is a \u2018threat\u2019, and missile defence systems are \u2018freedom\u2019. We live in a time when Goliaths aggression is justified; David\u2019s fighting back is terrorism.
\nWe live in a time when the hypocrisy and deceit of proclaimed Western dem\u00adocratic values is impossible to hide, even though the most effective elec\u00adtronic and print communication em\u00adpire in the history of the world. And yet, this is a time in which all the hue and cry, the amputated bodies, the wailing mothers and wounded hearts, across the world, has been unable to embar\u00adrass those in power, or prevent a sin\u00adgle bomb from falling over Gaza. And the children, buried under the rubble, have been lost to the hope of an eter\u00adnal prayer: \u201cAnd when the girl child that was buried alive will be asked, for what sin she was killed\u201d (Quran 81:8-9).
\nWe live in a time of collective im\u00adpotence. A time where brute power is the only currency of legitimacy. Be it the killing fields of Kashmir, or the hospitals in Palestine, or throughout sub-Sahara Africa and the Shia-Cres\u00adcent \u2013 from the banks of river Karun to the coasts of Beirut. We have seen cultures, dating back several millen\u00adnia, incinerated by the horror of merci\u00adless weapons. We live in a time where hubris has wiped out entire people. A time when greed of the few, consumes dreams of the many. And all the while, throughout this time, the callous world has rolled at the feet of the tyrant and pleaded for his approval.
\nWe live in a time that seems bereft of courage; the courage to speak truth to power. A time in which leaders repre\u00adsenting 2 billion people (1\/3rd of the world\u2019s total population), with over 20 trillion (with a T) dollars in wealth, fighter jets, tanks, and nuclear capabil\u00adity, got together, last week, held a mini debating moot competition in Riyadh, got onto their private jets, flew home, and went to sleep. This, in a time when each one of those leaders knew, unam\u00adbiguously, in real time technology, that predominant majority of their constit\u00aduents oppose tyranny of the Pharoah. And yet, we live in a time when not one of those leaders see public discontent as a threat to their claim to power.
\nAt home, the times are no different. For decades \u2013 at least since the 1985 political project \u2013 Pakistan\u2019s construct of political power has hid behind a fa\u00ad\u00e7ade of democracy and charlatan lead\u00aders. Over the past forty years, we had been convinced that our political lead\u00aders (no matter how corrupt they may be) will respond to \u2018public will\u2019 and be corrected through it. We were told that State institutions, and bastions of the democratic electoral process (e.g. Elec\u00adtion Commission) will stand guard to the protection and promotion of public will. And yet, we live in a time where the proclaimed \u2018democratic\u2019 parties were the first to oppose the holding of elec\u00adtions on time, their Attorney General argued vociferously for delaying of the electoral process, and the honourable Courts allowed (facilitated?) this delay \u2013 even as every independent measure of public will demonstrated, unequivocal\u00adly, that (an overwhelming) majority of the people opposed it. And so, even as \u2018public will\u2019 was suffocated, democracy prospered in our land.
\nWe live in a time of recurring night\u00admares. A time in which the democrat\u00adic \u2018revenge\u2019 of the 1985 political project has once again welcomed its prodigal son, with open arms, while ignoring ev\u00adery principle of constitutional and crim\u00adinal law that our jurisprudence held dear. The fact that he did not enjoy the support of \u2018public will\u2019 was fixable; it was \u2018buyable\u2019. And so, we discovered that we live in a time where a hapless people, looted of their resources and energies, are made to drop rose petals from the air, on public expenditure, to welcome a man who was travelling from his humble abode in central London, to a small locality on the outskirts of La\u00adhore, in service of the people.
\nIn the Divine Scripture, the Almighty swears by the \u2018time\u2019 (Quran 103:1). Be\u00adcause the time is always changing. And the great thing about the changing of times is that it happens silently, yet ir\u00adreversibly. A changing of the time is not announced by the bang of a bomb. It is not celebrated through showering gar\u00adlands from the air. It is not marked by any debating convention. Time is far too dignified for it. It changes silently; in rooms and corners, in tea-stalls and res\u00adtaurants, in schools and playgrounds. The moment that history turns a page is only evident in hindsight. Like Rosa Parks in that bus in Alabama. Or a street vendor setting himself on fire in Tuni\u00adsia. Or a man incarcerated, against racial oppression, on Robben Island.
\nThe future of the 1985 political proj\u00adect in Pakistan rests on one fundamen\u00adtal assumption: that the times will for\u00adever remain like this. That we will forever serve at the feet of two dynas\u00adtic families; that the scales of justice will always be judged by standards deter\u00admined by the rick and the powerful; that the meek will forever remain disinherit\u00aded from this earth; and the worldly cus\u00adtodians of divine decree will continue to serve the emperor that has no clothes.
\nThis assumption, that Pakistan and her people are hostage to the interests of the few, is no longer true. And the house of cards, built around it, is about to collapse. We are living through that fleeting moment in time when the water balloon has burst, but the water has not yet fallen to the ground, held together by nothing but the memory of the bal\u00adloon. This is not because of any particu\u00adlar political party, or leader. It is not be\u00adcause of any one judgment of law, or any one judge in chambers. It is not because of any one institution, or any one event. It is just the time \u2013 which has changed, incontestably, even as all currency of power denies it.
\nThe future of this country no longer belongs to two families. It no longer be\u00adlongs to any institution or interest. All that is left, in this regard, is for historical myths to crumble, and the legacy of the 1985 political project to finally be over.
\nPablo Neruda once famously said, \u201cYou can cut all the flowers but you can\u00adnot keep spring from coming.\u201d In Paki\u00adstan, the spring is upon us. A new gener\u00adation, unjaded by the weight of history, has moved on from the political relics of the past. It has learned that power is not a thing of inheritance for just a few. That we all have a stake in our collective fu\u00adture, which cannot be trusted to closed door concessions.
\nA generation that has relearned from the legacy of Karbala that truth, when spo\u00adken honestly, has the power to lay asun\u00adder indomitable forces of worldly power. Welcome to this new and truthful time.
\nSaad Rasool The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore. He has an LL.M. in Constitutional Law from Harvard Law School. He can be reached at: saad@post.harvard.edu, or Twitter: @SaadRasooll<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saad Rasool We live in a time of subjective truths. A time when strategic and personal interests trump human values. A time in which chil\u00addren die of starvation, a stone\u2019s throw away from palaces of opulence. A time in which a young boy with a stone is a \u2018threat\u2019, and missile defence systems are \u2018freedom\u2019. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[13118],"class_list":{"0":"post-369012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-saad-rasool"},"yoast_head":"\n