The great betrayal

Musharraf and his cronies must have been living in a fool's paradise if they thought that they would win the elections. In the meantime, President Musharraf had to open the doors for PPP and PML-N leaders, again under intense US pressure to come to Pakistan through an illegal Ordinance called NRO condoning all their cases of corruption and misgovernance which were still pending in the courts.

The PPP and PML-N won landslide victory in the elections and formed a coalition government at the Centre and the provinces. The coalition has now fallen apart as Zardari went back on his solemn written agreement with Nawaz Sharif for the restoration of deposed judges. The funny part of the story is that the co-chairman of PPP, who is the real functional head of the government, is not an elected member of parliament, nor some of his cronies who are holding most important portfolios have been elected by the people. One wonders how such a government could be called democratic.

The Musharraf era has finally ended but the future of Pakistan is still under dark clouds with a weak democratic government.

Some of the most urgent problems which need to be addressed immediately are daily suicidal attacks in which hundreds of innocent people lose their lives, the daily increasing cost of living which has broken the back of the poor and middle classes, acute shortage of electricity and periodical rise in the price of oil and gas are becoming unbearable. These problems need to be solved as early as possible if the present government has to survive.

The way out for the government seems to be to take extreme austerity measures in its extravagant expenses on oil and electricity and introduce a culture of simplicity and frugality in its own ranks and encourage media to motivate the nation to adopt austerity and simplicity in their daily lives, which is also the message of Islam.

The writer is a former director news, PTV