Hell hath no fury...

WHO wouldn't be tempted to endorse an Imran Khan-like stance to burn the house down, in the face of the paralysis that our dysfunctional state and its rotten-to-the-core system has come to represent, as millions of Pakistanis struggle to put food on the table.

Look at the state of the economy and the dithering that has been the main characteristic of decision-makers; just look at how the government can't even appoint an attorney general because a 'rival' fiefdom has unspecified issues with the nominated candidate. The dispensation of justice takes a back seat, with politics in the forefront.

There is indeed yet another fiefdom, making up the third element of the power troika, whose leader put the country's future at stake because he wanted near-immortality in office. He wasn't even satisfied with two tenures, despite the disastrous consequences of his ambitions.

The visionary arbiters of our destiny can't even see what their petty power grabs have done/are doing to the Islamic Republic, the state of Pakistan. Their lust for more personal/institutional power and quest for narrow, selfish gains have brought the country to a pass where the most sympathetic of observers don't see it as viable anymore.

Burning the house down won't solve any issue on its own.

In the name of patriotism, we have banished terms such as 'failed state' from the lexicon. But, hand on heart, none of us can deny that is what we are or at least heading towards at breakneck speed, with no sign of anybody with the ability or desire to apply the brakes.

How else would you classify our beloved land where the bulk of the population works 10 to 12 hours a day and considers itself lucky if it can scrape together enough for one decent meal, let alone three? With large swathes of the population without proper healthcare or even potable water and, after the massive rain-triggered floods, shelter, the system has quite comprehensively failed to deliver.

Yes, the most vocal complainers are the chattering classes whose voices are the loudest and what we mostly hear. Ironically, many among the most audible moaners are part of the problem. They belong to the rentier class whose capture and exploitation of the economy has brought us to where we are.

This is indeed a rather bleak backdrop and something needs to be done for a better, less dismal, scenario. So, is the Imran Khan recipe of burning the house down the only way forward? Well, burning the house down won't solve any issue on its...

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