Deception in the Name of Culture

PPP gov­ern­ment in Sindh led by its Chair­man Bilaw­al Bhut­to Zaradri is cel­e­brat­ing Sindh cul­tur­al fes­ti­val. Cel­e­brat­ing cul­ture is a good move but PPP gov­ern­ment is indeed using it to deceive the peo­ple. PPP gov­ern­ment has mis­er­ably failed in its last five years rule and this time in provin­cial gov­ern­ment it has not done any bet­ter. In a bid to cov­er their fail­ures, they have start­ed this cul­tur­al fes­ti­val which serves as an atten­tion divert­er for the mass­es.

Sindh has a rich cul­ture and it is a mat­ter of pride for the peo­ple of Sindh. It is the place where once Indus Val­ley civ­i­liza­tion flour­ished and there­fore there is trea­sure of cul­tur­al her­itage which must be pro­tect­ed as well as cel­e­brat­ed. But at the same time, first the basic prob­lems of the peo­ple need to be addressed, only then they can afford the lux­u­ries such as Sind Fes­ti­val. A poor Sind­hi who can­not be sure of dai­ly food for his fam­i­ly will get noth­ing from such fes­ti­vals. Just as PML‑N gov­ern­ment in Pun­jab keeps peo­ple busy in talk­ing about show­piece projects such as metro bus, lap­top scheme and Dan­ish school sys­tem etc. Same thing is being done by PPP in the name of cel­e­brat­ing the cul­tur­al of Sindh.

Last gov­ern­ment of PPP was the most cor­rupt one in the his­to­ry of Pak­istan. Accord­ing to Trans­paren­cy Inter­na­tion­al, the amount of cor­rup­tion was worth an aston­ish­ing Rs. 8,500 bil­lion. Sev­er­al cor­rup­tion cas­es are pend­ing against PPP lead­ers includ­ing Asif Zardari, Raja Per­vez Ashraf, Yousaf Raza Gillani, Khur­shid Shah and oth­ers. The issue of cor­rup­tion is also ram­pant in Sindh and PPP has failed to con­trol it by all means. One won­ders what will become of PPP lead­er­ship if NAB is let to work inde­pen­dent­ly while dis­re­gard­ing any polit­i­cal pres­sure. That is less like­ly to hap­pen owing to the so-called rec­on­cil­ia­to­ry pol­i­cy of Nawaz Sharif who can­not afford the dis­plea­sure of any of its polit­i­cal oppo­nents in present polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic tur­moil. Under such cir­cum­stances, Sindh Fes­ti­val is a well thought out plan not only to dis­tract atten­tion from the stained gov­er­nance of PPP but also to help in revamp­ing its polit­i­cal image.

Bilaw­al Bhut­to Zaradri, the born prince, is just 25 years old who took off his polit­i­cal career most­ly through twit­ter. This Fes­ti­val has worked as a per­fect launch­ing plat­form to kick start polit­i­cal career of the young Bhut­to. Sindh Fes­ti­val is por­tray­ing Bilaw­al as a cen­tral author­i­ty fig­ure that loves cul­ture and is lib­er­al in his polit­i­cal ori­en­ta­tion. This works well to gar­ner a much need­ed rep­u­ta­tion for Bilaw­al at the start of his polit­i­cal career. Many peo­ple have already start­ed believ­ing Bilaw­al as a lib­er­al and pro­gres­sive leader who can lead Pak­istan in future for bet­ter. But we must not for­get that he is just anoth­er mem­ber of the Bhut­to dynasty and like his grand­fa­ther and father, I sup­pose, he will not do any good to this coun­try. Nev­er­the­less, there are sev­er­al peo­ple who are always ready to be conned and this fes­ti­val serves that pur­pose of con­ning such peo­ple.

Present­ly, PPP has been vot­ed out of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and they are rul­ing in Sindh only. There are sev­er­al issues that come under the ambit of their gov­ern­ment which it has failed to deal with. Rur­al Sindh is the polit­i­cal base of PPP and its abysmal con­di­tions reflect how PPP has repaid the loy­al­ty of its vot­ers. Lit­er­a­cy rate in rur­al Sindh is just 41%, com­pared to 52% in rur­al Pun­jab. Rur­al Sindh is vir­tu­al­ly a safe haven for dacoits and peo­ple live at their mer­cy. A dis­play of the writ of dacoits in rur­al Sindh was seen when friends of Bilaw­al were robbed near Khair­pur when they were return­ing from Sindh Fes­ti­val in Moen-jo-Daro. Last month nine peo­ple in Kash­more jumped in Indus Riv­er to evade police arrest. Peo­ple are so ter­ri­fied from police in Sindh that they pre­ferred death over police tor­ture. These prob­lems are the real issues which Bilaw­al and PPP gov­ern­ment need to seri­ous­ly wor­ry about rather than hold­ing cul­tur­al fes­ti­vals.

Over the years PPP has been instru­men­tal in lur­ing the mass­es to get their votes, time and time again. Zul­fiqar Ali Bhut­to, a civil­ian dic­ta­tor and grand­fa­ther of Bilaw­al, fooled peo­ple with the slo­gan of Islam­ic social­ism in 1970s elec­tion and peo­ple vot­ed for him. Gov­ern­ment of Zul­fiqar Ali Bhut­to was a night­mare for his polit­i­cal oppo­nents who went through all sorts of ordeal for oppos­ing Bhut­to. PPP again made the gov­ern­ment in 1988, this time because peo­ple were tired of eleven years of Gen­er­al Zia. PPP gov­ern­ment again began to show its true col­ors and indulge in mas­sive cor­rup­tion. Since then every PPP gov­ern­ment has bro­ken the record of pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment but peo­ple still vote for them.

There are PPP Jiyalas who defend each and every act of PPP and its lead­er­ship irre­spec­tive of any log­ic. As long as such peo­ple are present, Bilaw­al and his fam­i­ly will keep on deceiv­ing the peo­ple in the name of Roti, Kapra aur Makan (Bread, Cloth­ing and Hous­ing) and will keep on win­ning elec­tions. They will lose one elec­tion then peo­ple will for­get every­thing because of events like Sindh Fes­ti­val and vote for them again next time. The pat­tern con­tin­ues and so does the destruc­tion of Pak­istan, unabat­ed. Those peo­ple who repeat­ed­ly vote for par­ties like PPP, PMLN (PTI is no dif­fer­ent) are not only respon­si­ble for their poor con­di­tion but also for the dev­as­ta­tion of Pak­istan.