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Sunday, October 6, 2024

The Pakistani ‘Game of Thrones’! – Maleeha Hashmey

Maleeha Hashmey |

Nothing is sweeter and addictive than power, the unlucky soul this demon possesses, if he is not sacrificed on its altar, will sacrifice others himself to get it “unapologetically”. The lust for power germinates in humans from the early days of school and only leaves them when they leave the world. The last few years have been quite happening on Pakistan’s political landscape. The recent turn of events exhibited a remarkable manifestation of the deep-seated socio-political beliefs our rulers harbour in their heads.

Last night I met a 72-year-old man, his weary eyes bulging as if bursting with an ocean of untold tales of injustice, chaos and an appeal for mercy. His face looked pretty familiar. I took a step back, to have a good look but could not recognize. But such was my empathy that I patted on his shoulder and asked him to vent it all out. A feeble smile appeared on his wrinkled face and he began to share his story. Let me take you all to him. Let’s see if we can help him get back up and rejuvenate his debilitated self.

Where the heartless rulers while begging for the public votes during their election campaigns feel no shame watching the masses drink contaminated water and little children sift through garbage to find any stinky, stale edibles that could keep their breaths on a run.

“Hi. My name is Pakistan. I’m 72 and I wish I could say the same for myself as all the friends my age say, 72 and still kicking it. I came into being in the Holy month of Ramadan and my founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was nothing short of a superhero. He laid the foundation of a separate homeland for Muslims with an aim to provide safety and security to every citizen equally, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or socio-economic status. After he passed on to the next world and as the years passed by, I saw a tremendous decline in my citizens in every way.

The only thing that I kept looking forward to having was a sincere leadership taking over the responsibility to provide equal rights to all, but as they say, “Man proposes, God disposes”, things turned out to be absolutely the other way around. God knows what I did to deserve the merciless power hungry beasts, the predators that ended up ruling over me, one by one. Perhaps, they didn’t get Jinnah’s message right – or maybe were the only ones who really understood it.”No discrimination” to them, it appears now, was a request made by the Founding Father to EMBEZZLE public funds “without any discrimination” of religion, caste, creed or socio-economic status.

Read more: Is Nawaz ready to concede in the game of thrones?

The past few months have been quite encouraging for me as a new ray of hope for a vibrant future emerged and every odd “Friday” (not a good day for the corrupt elite so far) kept strengthening. I simply love Fridays. Never have they ever brought in a disappointing news. But as soon as my law enforcement institutions began to strengthen their grip on the fat necks of these ugly beasts I saw a severe backlash against the “rule of law” in the garb of democracy. I wish I could scream out loud and tell the world that it’s not democracy that they were leading the rallies for.

It was NOT “Vote ko izzat do” but their ill-gotten wealth that they stashed while depriving my poor citizens of the basic facilities of life, they were entitled to. My neighbouring friend “India” claims to have the best Star Plus drama serials. I have challenged him to beat our “Pakistani Political Game of Thrones”. No fiction can beat my reality: Where a man, having ruled over a country THRICE, as its King, (oh sorry! Prime Minister) couldn’t get ONE cancer hospital built, using public funds where he could take his own first lady, his queen;

I want to warn all such news channels and paid elements hell-bent on establishing this illogical relevance, to have mercy on me and my poor citizens. Why complicate a simple case where the accused, having had ample time and opportunities to submit the required money trail with the courts, just couldn’t.

Where he, along with his best friend, generally known as, Mr. 10%, deliberately kept the masses away from education and exposure to the modern literate world, so as to keep them from demanding their basic rights; where 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, having a vast majority prone to “stunted growth” – where the heartless rulers while begging for the public votes during their election campaigns feel NO shame watching the masses drink contaminated water and little children sift through garbage to find any stinky, stale edibles that could keep their breaths on a run.

Enough is enough. I have had enough of this ruthless “rule of lawlessness”. Now that my Supreme Judicial Authority has shown the spine to put the biggest culprit, responsible for my economic downfall, behind the bars, providing the smaller thieves whose financial crunch forced them to steal a bicycle or a mobile phone or a wallet containing a few bucks, a rare sense of equality and fair implementation of rule of law, I expect other relevant institutions to show the same spirit so that we can inculcate a culture of transparency and across the board accountability.

Read more: Nawaz Sharif represents the predatorification of politics

Every home that loses a mother turns into a lifeless house of bricks and walls with emptiness prevailing in the air. I also felt very sorry over the passing away of the former First Lady and it would have upheld the grace and stature of our media, had they kept her natural death as simple as it was but to my dismay, I observed a very shrewd campaign deliberately engineered to project her natural death as “sacrifice for democracy and Pakistan”, (for me? Give me a break!) while linking it to the assumption that King Nawaz had nothing to do with those cute Avenfield apartments. Be it the use of the images of the ailing former First Lady from the hospital bed or showing the nerve to pitch her dead body for shaping a narrative aimed at gaining political mileage, one just can’t DARE underestimating PMLN’s think tanks and their mouthpieces positioned in the electronic and social media.

I want to warn all such news channels and paid elements hell-bent on establishing this illogical relevance, to have mercy on me and my poor citizens. Why complicate a simple case where the accused, having had ample time and opportunities to submit the required money trail with the courts, just couldn’t. And all they could come up with was a series of bogus Qatari letters that even the Qatari Prince that Sharif family’s lawyer attributed it to, refused to own!

“Game of Thrones” is extremely demanding and unforgiving. Never forgets to take its toll and get even. God bless you all…! With these words, he lifted his stick and walked away…I heard a feeble sound deep inside my head: “Forever Yours, Pakistan”

I feel the pain of all such disruptive elements, who are all nostalgic for the good old days when Nawaz Sharif and his likes would buy them out at a hefty price and in return they would all gleefully bury their patriotism and get in the race to play their role in the infamous “Game of Thrones”. Rest assured time is a cruel teacher. It tests you first and teaches you its due lessons later. The most valuable lesson that I have learned in my seven-decade prolonged life is, “As you sow, so shall you reap”.

The former disqualified and convicted Prime Minister of Pakistan, who is imprisoned for not being able to establish why his assets were beyond his means, was once the most powerful pillar of power corridors. God knows how many families and their loved ones were wronged in the process of decorating the heaps of currency notes resting in Sharif family’s bank accounts in 22 countries, falling in 5 continents of the world. The reason behind the remaining two lucky continents having been forgiven is still being dug out though.

read more: Imran’s reminder: Corruption is the only ideology of Nawaz

His cute, fat munchkins, for whom he stashed all this wealth, while setting a terrible precedent for our future generations, couldn’t even let their love for their mother overpower their fear of being arrested, and fear of losing ill-gotten wealth, and hence wouldn’t be part of the last rituals of their deceased mother. This should jolt all those who kept looking up to Sharif brothers for their innovative ways of plundering public wealth. The kids for whom he kept stashing heaps of ill-gotten wealth, didn’t even bother laying their mother to eternal rest. Fear of losing money?

*painful silence*

So, my child, “Game of Thrones” is extremely demanding and unforgiving. Never forgets to take its toll and get even. God bless you all…! With these words, he lifted his stick and walked away…I heard a feeble sound deep inside my head: “Forever Yours, Pakistan”.

Maleeha Hashmey is a corporate trainer, motivational speaker, socio-political enthusiast and human resource development consultant by profession. She has been working with the telecommunication sector as a corporate trainer. She has been working with the Ministry of Education, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as a Human Resource Development Consultant & Teacher Trainer. Her dream is to make Pakistan a stronger economic state that the whole world views as a force to reckon with. She can be followed on Twitter via her Twitter handle @MaleehaHashmey. The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.