A riotous future?

AS our judges, generals and ruling class politicians continue to engage in myopic, factional battles for money and power, the teeming masses are increasingly restive. Every day there are new reports of dozens being injured - some even dying - in stampedes during distributions of free/subsidised flour. Suicide-murders of entire families who have lost hope of securing livelihoods are no longer exceptional events. Acute economic hardship has also reportedly led to a marked decrease in charitable donations during the month of Ramazan.

The continuing economic squeeze is only one of our immediate challenges. Irsa, the inter-provincial body which regulates water flows through the Indus Basin, has warned of 'massive water shortages' in the months ahead. Let us recall that the affectees of last summer's floods, forgotten by the mainstream, are still struggling to meet basic needs. The projected scarcity of water as the heat returns portends acute tension - and potential conflict - between Punjab and Sindh. One is scarcely able to imagine the human impact at a molecular scale.

Shortages of food, water and other basic needs primarily affect the toiling classes, and, as things stand, the latter are more likely to resort to violent reaction than cooperation. It is noteworthy that the mass of working people have not already come out in spontaneous reaction to the decline in basic living standards due to relentless inflation, which shows no signs of relenting.

Without triggering alarm, it is necessary to consider how the politics of hate at the highest echelons of power - within state institutions and across party lines - may signal an emergent trend in the nooks and crannies of society. Put differently, we face the prospect of a riotous future that engulfs large segments of the population. If this happens, it will at least partially be explained by the complete lack of leadership within the political mainstream, which remains exclusively interested in acquiring and keeping power rather than articulating a viable hegemonic project in times to come.

The current polarisations can be expected to intensify.

Commentary on these pages has noted that mainstream politics has more or less been reduced to whether one is pro or anti Imran Khan. I would add that the polarisations around Imran Khan's person are only like to intensify. We have been here before: recall the PNA movement whose singular raison d'etre by the time of the 1977 coup was the deposal of Zulfikar...