A question of good governance

This article was to be on KESC, but as there has been no progress, I have written about the elusive and almost extinct good governance.

For the last 60 years, each successive government has always promised the citizens a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it has always turned out to be a pot of broken promises and each glimmer of hope has gradually faded with the coming of the dawn.

And now, after a change of numerous civilian and military governments and experiments on various forms of democracy, we seem to be back to square one and are once again facing another defining moment and another crisis.

The 7 point agenda by the former General, of eliminating corruption and the VIP culture, accountability, enforcing the rule of law, providing basic civic facilities and improving the quality of life of the citizens through good governance, now lay buried under the rubble of bomb blasts and hidden behind the black smoke of burning buildings.

An area which was world famous for its peaceful and beautiful, majestic mountains, bubbling rivers and hospitable people, has been ravaged by war, which has been declared by Red Cross, as a war zone and has become a home for local and international extremists and terrorists.

While Pres. Bush praises India to high heaven and has signed a N-deal which allows transfer of nuclear technology to them, Pakistan, which has been their front line state against terrorism, and has paid dearly for it, is now being viewed by both, Democratic or Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates as: ‘A centre for terrorism - an extremely dangerous country with nuclear capabilities - a great threat to the US and the world. So no matter who wins the US elections, we loose.

The recent visit of our young president to the US has received a mix reaction. While his party leaders have a described it as a ‘resounding success’, political analysts say that it was ‘disappointing’. Perhaps it is too early to judge, but one can not ignore the fact that after many years, addressing the UN General Assembly as an elected and democratic Pakistani president was in itself a big achievement.