Charles Baudelaire once said that life is a hospital in which every patient is possessed by the desire of changing his bed, one would prefer to suffer near the fire, and another is certain he would get well if he were by the window.

The absurdity of the theater that we find ourselves in never ceases to amaze even the most insensitive amongst us, we have had a fantastic history for the relatively few number of years this country has been in existence; checkered with imbecile governments, takeovers by the guns with little less than perfect intervals, mindless/proxy wars, loss of half of the country, national embarrassment on more than one occasion, incredible foreign policy turnarounds- remember the strategic depth paradigm that is in the dust bin-, less than dignifying visits by our neo colonial masters and what not. There is, of course, no need to mention the federal ministers who insult our intelligence on a daily basis. For us underlings in the pure land there is no respite from the spectacles that we keep witnessing from time to time; why does it not pinch much less hurt our sensibilities and intelligence one bit. One argument that the British had against giving independence the Indians was that they had doubts about our capability to govern ourselves in a civilized and constitutional manner. I am not saying we have proved them right but the abyss where our tattered image lies as a nation and a people is heart breaking enough.

Coming back to the proverbial hospital mentioned above, yes every one wants change after a while but we have been getting a raw deal in the name of change every time. This dispensation gave hope of a new enlightened time where institutions and people would have freedom of speech and more importantly freedom of choice, a culture where individuals would be free under the law to pursuer knowledge and economic prosperity and more importantly think freely. Lo, there we are with that feeling again- we have been here before, haven’t we. Yes we have seen our expectations flounder before, only we have lost another 8 years of our history and we have descended further into the pit. But this time it is different we have religious hooligans who claiming are holier than the holy and want to sit in judgment on every one else’s morality, while brazenly violating law of the land and all norms of ethics. We had sort of resigned to our fate of being in the hospital and changing out bed from time to time, even the ones we did not like, but this is definitely the bed we don’t want to get into.

Actions that are prima facie and ipso facto erroneous and immoral cannot have pleasant outcomes; in fact they may have appalling and horrendous results as we are coming to find out. Some people would say that the government has doubts about its legitimacy, in fact they have nothing of the sort, it may well be very much in the clear about the moral ground that it stands on. In the opposite scenario we would have seen swift action, not necessarily violent, on the issue of Lal Masjid in Islamabad to resolve the issue. The matter continues to keep us all hostage to mental irritation and the question what lies next for the people who don’t see eye to eye with the tactics of mullahs, the insecurity and agony that emanates from this question is easily understandable since we have seen the blood baths, the chaos and the consequent intellectual decline in Kabul in recent times and during the Revolution in Iran.

But wait a minute how can some people stand up to the state and challenge the “writ of the State”- the phrase has become a laughing point of sorts but please read on. There cannot be courts to adjudicate public morality since the constitution provides for an elaborate judicial system at different levels, true, there cannot be a parallel judicial system, true, but what respect has been commanded by the constitution much less afforded to so far. It has been nothing more than an organic blob that has been given the shape that was needed by the government of the time, while adding or deleting mass from it as and when required. It is the constitution of the State that gives it the authority to govern and guarantees the fundamental rights to the subjects. In our times the government has only reserved the long arm of the law for the hapless disenfranchised poor. The Law mauls the Chief Justice, not to mention the lawyers and the office of a News channel, while a couple of mullahs masquerading as ulema threaten, through a bunch of ignoramuses, to destroy all civil liberties, shred the law into pieces and practically go on rampage.

The government departments are very efficient in issuing notices and proceedings under the E & D rules in case of the government employees for indiscipline etc; while our learned maulanas have been let scot free. They were reportedly removed from their respective government positions as office bearers in a government owned mosque for violating the E&D Rules. They continue to be in their positions, flout the law, continue to grab real Estate worth millions of rupees, look the government straight in the face and dictate terms. Please, someone needs to highlight the difference between an Aalim and a Khateeb, and don’t be confused with the Aalim online. Great news, nevertheless, for all government employees especially the ones who are blessed with beards. They don’t need to obey the dreaded E&D rules or worry about the RSO 2000in any case but especially so if they decry the preset state of public morality in sync with our ex-government servant maulans. Great news as well for the government employees who are in occupation of the G-6 sarkari houses since their long dream of owning them has now a chance of becoming a reality courtesy the powerful precedent; may be they should become the devotees of the new power house or the new state I should say. All they need to do is very obvious, after all the scourge of Auntie Shamim has been removed after 15 long years. No need to worry if the importance of Libraries and gymnasiums has not yet dawned upon the moral brigade; these are issues should not bother them being of trivial social and educational importance.

The important thing to note is that dynasties are firmly entrenched in our society, maulana Abdullah sahib was the first appointed Imam of the lal Masjid and now his sons are runing the place along with 18 other madrasshs with teeming talibs. This should not surprise us since there are dynasties every where in our polity and the show at hand is nothing but a manifestation of power politics. If gun can brush aside the piece of paper we call constitution then think of the power of the hand that thinks it wields the weapon as well as divine legal authority.

The State can be a powerful organism provided it has all four legs to stand on and no skeletons in the cupboard. The other explanation floated in the different analyses is that there may be a strategic benefit to letting this happen for a while. After all, historically both parties have benefited from the symbiotic relationship constantly growing in power and influence at a socio-economic cost that we will never be able to quantify. This is indeed a dangerous game, what will happen if either party decides to call the bluff?

Who should be respecting the law and the constitution, the rickshaw wallah and the ordinary man on the street? The people who are supposed to establish the writ of the state need to establish the writ of the constitution first. The fish rots from the head and goodness also starts from the top. Our Prophet (PBUH) was a true model of excellence in his conduct while we pick and choose from our religion as to what suits us. Use of force is clearly not permitted in Islam, counseling and advice is permitted and very much advisable. What kind of message are we giving to our next generation, promoting a culture of violence, vigilantism, hate? Ignoramuses and obscurantists, that are enemies of both knowledge and reason, now come to the minds of people around the world when they think of Pakistan and Muslims at large.

May be the outcome of the present judicial crisis will work to save the constitution in this country in a manner like the Zenger case established the freedom of speech in the USA; one thing however we are sure of we are tired of this bed-changing and want our own governments to accord its own citizens some respect even if we don’t get any from abroad, we need to be respected in our own house and that is the least we demand of our own government. We want to see the government earn our respect by protecting our fundamental rights and our mental security. We long for the time when we will be inspired to respect the offices of the President and the Prime Minister with all our hearts.

We need to have the courage do the right thing and do it rightly; we need to learn from the UAE and the Turkish example. This is a country steeped in divisions and can ill afford social fragmentation. While the time for a happy ending to this particular drama may be running out it may already have damaged the social psyche and emboldened the radical elements in different parts of the country.