Our political parties have yet to unite for fighting the floods unitedly. If the floods have failed to unite the politicians, what can? Obviously, their individual political ideologies don’t permit them to unite. These ideologies have been ferociously fighting each other since Pakistan’s birth for selfish motives. Let alone the current national holocaust, even if the skies were to fall there is not even an iota of possibility that the professional politicians would absolutely honestly unite. We desperately need a mighty miracle. Earthquakes keep hitting us periodically. But we need a unique kind of earthquake which destroys our political ideologies. Let’s call it an ‘ideology-quake’.

For years, the country has been sinking deeper and deeper into an economic morass. The devastation is a creation of our politics. We can rescue the country only by burning our politics at the stake. We should no more be ruled by politics. But obviously, there must be an alternative.

Let’s pray: “O’ Almighty God! Please pity us! Our politics has been eating the very bones of the masses. Please, help us.” If our lamentation was accepted by God, we would be blessed with a unique breed of rulers. These rulers would be mortally allergic to politics. They would rule as great humanitarians but not at all as professional politicians. Let’s name such rulers Anti-politics Rulers.  Recently, two major political parties tried to unite. The leaders of the parties shook hands as an initial step towards a unification. But soon after, they dust-binned the handshaking and turned their backs towards each other. The backs were emitting fire.

Numerous residents of the flood-devastated areas have been experiencing sleepless nights and foodless days. The politicians have been expressing their sympathies for the sufferers. But can mere verbal sympathies lull the sufferers to sleep and fill their stomachs? A knowledge of someone’s misery and a personal experience of misery are two radically different entities. Had the sympathisers spent some sleepless nights and foodless days with the sufferers, the suffering of the sufferers would have lost a substantial part of its biting power.

Plato asserts that only philosophers as kings can guarantee all the citizen a peaceful and prosperous living. Had Plato been alive today and visited Pakistan, he would have burnt his philosopher-king dogma. Pakistan’s floods would have forced him to assert: “No politician who has not experienced sleepless nights and foodless days during the national floods should be eligible to become a ruler.”

Japan has declared to send 300 soldiers and six helicopters for the assistance of our flood-affectees. Japan’s sensitivity to our suffering is touching. Helping our sufferers in the mountainous regions is an extremely dangerous venture. Fortunately, we have the means to cope with the devastation but unfortunately, we don’t have the moral will. We are very rich beggars.

The floods have been horrifically disastrous. But luckily, they also have a positive aspect. They have given us an opportunity to undo the effects of our past blunders. In the past, as natural disasters played havoc with us, we played havoc with the aid-money of the foreign donors. Our misuse of the aid-money destroyed our reliability, once the aid-money flooded the country. Now, it is being doled out drop by drop. The little bit of the money which we are now getting we must spend so transparently that the transparency forces the donors to bury their suspicions about our reliability.

The current flood-devastation is not a unique phenomenon. Floods keep hitting our masses all the year through. What is inflation? It is only a flood but in a disguised form. What is extreme poverty? It is only a flood but in a disguised form. Just compare the devastation which the current floods have inflicted in a few days with the devastation which inflation and poverty have inflicted in one year. You would be shocked to discover that the short-lived floods are far less devastating than the ever-hitting inflation and poverty.

The current floods have killed a large number of citizens. But inflation and poverty kill far larger numbers during a year or so. And yet the devastation caused by the floods is more shocking than the devastation caused by inflation and poverty. There is a very simple reason for this. The floods kill wholesale, whereas inflation and poverty kill piecemeal. The Nation Newspaper

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