The phobia of the mandate

Ms. Benazir Bhutto has talked to an Indian journalist in BBC Hardtalk programme very untimely and very inopportunely. At this hour General Pervez Musharraf rather President Musharraf needs the full support of the nation in his mission to Agra. As a matter of fact the whole nation is behind him and prays to Allah Almighty to make the Generals mission starting from Data Darbar and ending at Ajmer Sharif a historic success.

It is a pity that Benazir Bhutto has taken the plea of a so-called mandate which has not only been misused by this lady of democracy and the daughter of the east, but also by the great champion of democracy and claimant of largest mandate, who not only attained mandate, they used mandate, they abused mandate and finally became a victim of the mandate. After all what is a mandate, which Benazir Bhutto has harped upon, broadly speaking mandate is only a desire of the people, elections or no elections, the whole nation is behind the General in his Agra mission and that is the mandate.

So far as the sanctity of the mandate is concerned Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the holders of the so-called mandate are an example, both of them in exile. She is avoiding court action on corruption charges for amassing wealth earned through corrupt practices during the period of her tenure of mandate and the other has bought his exile from the loot he perpetrated after he attained the largest mandate in the history of Pakistan, the blackest spot on the constitution is his amendments 13 and 14, which the claimant of the largest mandate has besmeared with.

Allama Iqbal has rightly defined mandate as ” Key Aaz Maghaze dow sud Khar, Fikre Inssanne Nammi Ayeed.”  Meaning thereby that the brains of two hundred donkeys can not produce the imagination of one man. Relying on the crutches of this so-called mandate Nawaz Sharif bulldozed the 13th and 14th amendments through the parliament to attain unbridled power for himself. No nation needs such a mandate on which Benazir Bhutto has harped after having lost the mandate in her own country. The mandate is not the be all and end all of good governance and neither it is a guarantee of good governance. It is the man who matters and who delivers the goods and not the Western theories and philosophies to rely on in which our so-called politicians profess so much when they are out of power, and when they are in power their only aim is to attain absolute power for self and self alone.

While India is trying for supremacy and the Indian leaders are very vocal about confederation between India, Pakistan and others. Our team visiting Agra has to be careful about trap of confederation, which may be laid before them to side track Kashmir issue in these talks. Leaders like Benazir Bhutto on one side have also favoured this idea of confederation and it is a pity that this is the mettle of our leaders, who are leaders because they are born in an affluent family with golden spoons in their mouth. The nation has to get rid of such leaders, they are a parasite. The so-called mandate in Pakistan has given to the champions of democracy, so much wealth that they can live in Royal Mogul Style outside their home country and play drawing room politics and reportedly setup steel mills abroad. What right such leaders who can not live in their own country to talk about Pakistan? Pakistan is only a matter of convenience for them; the sooner the country gets rid of them the better.

Pakistan has been achieved in the name of Allah, the slogan being Pakistan Ka Matlab Kiya é La illaha illallah. The nation now prays to get this Holy Land of Pakistan rid of politicians. Mandate or no mandate, politicians like Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif and the likes would be better advised ” For norms, for forms, let fools contend, whatever is best administered is best.” The mandate will follow.

This talk of Ms. Benazir Bhutto is more for self-projection rather for any political study and should be taken as such. The nation however treats this statement with contempt it deserves.

Mr. Ali Ashraf Khan is a Pakistani Businessman and Ex-Politician who bid good bye to politics in order to concentrate on more useful service benefit of the political intrigues prevalent in the National Political life of Pakistan. He frequently writes for English and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan.