Very old normal.

Byline: Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

IT was a matter of when rather than if: Covid-19 was never going to remain breaking news forever, whatever its impact. Even aside from Pakistani officialdom's tragi-comic handling of the pandemic, no news in the ratings-driven business that is corporate media remains top of the charts forever.

The plane crash on the eve of Eid certainly turned attention away from the pandemic; the usual suspects, both within the government and all-powerful establishment, scrambling to cover their tracks, even as the media engaged in sensationalism of the worst kind and then promptly moved on.

Indeed, it appears increasingly as if the fleeting window of opportunity that was generated by the biggest global crisis in a generation for old 'normal' to be displaced permanently is already shut. Much has been said about the need for things to change, but words can only take us so far.

The resurfacing of Malik Riaz in the public consciousness via a sordid episode in which allegedly a woman relative with her lackeys participated in an assault under the pretext of an affair with the former's husband makes clear just how entrenched the 'old normal' is. Not only has the attack gone virtually unreported in the mainstream media perhaps on account of Malik Riaz's unparalleled connections in our militarised structure of power, it also confirms that simply calling out what is wrong in Pakistan does not lead to the creation of a 'new normal'.

Pakistan is amongst the world's most unequal societies.

The said episode went viral on social media, with most users expressing widespread revulsion at both the complete impunity of rich and powerful individuals as well as decrepit patriarchal norms that subject millions of women and girls to suffering, violence, death, and, in this case, public shaming and harassment for the infidelities of a man.

Pakistan is amongst the world's most unequal societies, mainstream politics largely at the service of class and gendered power, personal connections invoked wherever required. Yes ideologies are important to the system - a toxic mix of capitalism, militarism, religion and patriarchy - and the military is the one institution that maintains a remarkable degree of coherence to sustain its corporate interests above and beyond the din. But the 'old normal' is distinctive precisely because it is sustained by the everyday choices that most of us make, by the common sense that binds us into personalised networks so as to...