Writings on the Wall

I am neither a political analyst nor am I political columnist. I have never been on camera, in camera or privy to the behind the camera activities. I am, like most of us, an ordinary person, who has a family to feed, a home to protect and has to pray at each traffic light that I do not get blown to smithereens. I have, again like most of us mortals, tried to maintain a disconnect between my life and that of my family and what goes around us on a daily basis. When my eight year old started having nightmares after watching the 12th of May massacre, I made it a point not to watch news, at least when the kids are around. But, then how long can you keep your head buried in the sand? Not too long! Reality, has this knack of gnawing at your conscience and no matter how many euthanasia’s you administer to your tenet, it will be resuscitated. That is exactly what happened to me this day as I sat down to pen these lines!

Like I said, I am no scholar and nor do I kid myself of having the credentials to tread the path to scholarly pursuits. What I am about to say comes straight from the heart. I have been in a state of stupor for the last couple of days, ever since Mr. Zardari’s got himself nominated for the position of the President of Pakistan. I am of a firm belief that let bygones be bygones and there is no point in living in the past, but that does not mean that we should become so impotent as to accept everything and anything that comes our way, or at least that is the way it should be. But then impotency ably supported by hypocrisy, sycophancy and bigotry has always been our national virtue, barring few idiots who are either dead, dying or will be killed if they do not listen to popular sentiment. This hapless lot of one hundred and sixty million who were clubbed together by the stroke of blue-blooded pen at midnight some sixty odd years back is incapable of reading the writing on the wall; those who can read that is! Zardari and company are the means to an end whose deadline has been brought back from year 2015 to ASAP. It would be not too long before United Nations would get yet another litter of ever-emerging Procter orates, say for instance Protectorate of Punjab, or Greater Baluchistan and my all time favorites Fargana and Jinnah Pur.. Aussies will have no reason to fear in playing as many One Day International cricket matches as these new found friends would want them to play. The few firecrackers safely tucked in the mountains shall find their new abode in Colorado and the world would be a safe place to play cricket once again!

This is not a prophecy and I am a fortune teller either. I am just stating what’s written on the wall; and I read it today much to my dismay. Writings such as these kept on mysteriously appearing on walls no matter where you looked but unfortunately no one was looking. Some of the famous writings that one can recall are as follows:

1. We required a Constitution. We got a Governor General instead

2. We needed a national language. Somehow we forgot our better half.

3. We had a shot at getting Kashmir. We stopped midway and declared a unilateral ceasefire.

4. We needed land reforms. We awarded more lands than ever before.

5. We needed infrastructures, education, health, etc. We got Prime Ministers instead

6. We thought we could tame the enemy. We started a futile war.

7. We basked in our assumed glory. The enemy engineered to tear us apart

8. We had a shot at democracy. The loser refused to abdicate

9. All was not well on the Eastern Front. We got the ram.

10. We needed national pride. We lost half of our country.

11. We needed redemption. The country was nationalized

12. We needed ideological progression. We opted for ideological repression.

13. We wanted political stability. We hanged our Primer Minister

14. We were on the verge of getting moon (read Kashmir). We went for F-16 and SAM’s

15. We needed economic growth. We went for strategic depth.

16. We wanted Cricket World Cup. We went for Kargil instead.

17. We wanted world’s respect. We deposed our Prime Minister instead.

18. We could have ridden ourselves of perpetual debt. We traded it for personal sovereignty

19. We needed a Mahatair or an Ataturk. We colluded with the Mullah instead

20. We needed to fill the power vacuum. We killed her instead!


The present day writing is more damning than any of its predecessors. It says “We need Pakistan. We went for self interests instead�