A tale of two extremities…Ali Hassan Bangwar
Last week, I received a call from a friend who told me an agonising story that still haunts my mind. He told me that a sufaidposh family in his neighbourhood has been starving for days as they even dont have enough to purchase flour and feed the children. Seeing the hungry children, the familys head screamed in the court of God. That they had nothing to eat let alone feast even on the blessed Night of Ascension left me in severe mental torment. Hearing all this, I couldnt help praying to God for an earlier end to the world as people are being made to experience hell by the earthly gods.
The people in our society live at two extremities today:
On the one edge are a handful of the ruling elite and their blessed henchman weighing down on the country and its people since its inception. Comprising politicians, clergy, judges, civil-military bureaucrats, corporate and capitalists, the elites enjoy all the luxuries and lavishness of life. They have concentrated so much wealth that their generations could live and thrive on. They live in cottages and get educated and treated from abroad or from the lavish educational and healthcare facilities in the country. They avail fortified residences, luxuries, fuels, foreign trips, protocols, etc. One might ask what invaluable services they have been exorbitantly charging for from the public exchequers. The answer to this lies in a thorough appraisal of the countrys relative rank in terms of HDI, justice, social harmony, political stability, constitutionalism and democratic culture. Todays public plight is thankfully the fruit of their invaluable services. As the in-charge of the countrys stakes, their policies exclusively serve their interests and strengthen the status quo.
On the other side of the extreme is the public that battles for survival. Though everyone on this side feels the implications of the countrys prevailing crises, the poor and destitute class stands on the stabbing edge of life and death. They wrestle with a holistically deprived life. Politically, they are nothing more than an object of political entities that get capitalised on in ritualistic elections. Economically, the disadvantaged class has been treated as non-entities in national policymaking. Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, malnourishment and deprivation have been systematically fixed as their sustainable fate for the past 75 years now. Socially, their status is no higher than non-entities. Psychologically, the stress, frustration and deprivations kill them from the inside.
Though life has hardly been that much bountiful and serene for systematically deprived and marginalised people of the country, the last 10 months have pushed them into the inescapable confines of miseries. Thanks to yet another failed experiment on the people by the groups of experienced losers, the masses cannot help cursing their existence. Never in the countrys history have people experienced the sort of hell they are finding themselves in today. The ever-increasing unemployment, disproportionately high taxes and unprecedented inflation compounded by artificial price hikes have robbed people of the potential and patience to survive. Amidst the absence of a source of income or a meagre livelihood, availing two meals a day has turned out to be a daunting task.
The lives of the daily wage earners or fixed-income groups are turning into insufferable tales. Many a sufaidposh experience torment. The people curse their ill-fated lives and pray for death as a win-win gamble. Resultantly, the incidences of suicide and crimes are on the rise. The condition would exacerbate in the month of Ramazan when the hoarders, opportunists and profiteers would cash in on with a full potential of the public miseries. The wealth accumulated through the capitalisation of peoples agonies and starvation would most probably be used in lavish feasts or in theistic rituals accompanied by the prayers of more such opportunities. Hypocrisy, I believe, is the only purest commodity available in excess in our country. Isnt it?
Courtesy The Express Tribune