THE government in Islamabad is big on ceremony borrowed from the past. It loves to lavish medals and honorifics on the deserving and the people it finds deserving. One recent act that highlights this fetish for resorting to old rituals was the federal government`s decision to observe a holiday to mark the passing away of the extremely respected Begum Nusrat Bhutto.
Monday, Oct 24, was declared a holiday to mourn her death. This further shortened a working week already reduced by a recent government declaration of the two-day weekend closure. At a time when the long Eid-ulAzha holidays are just around the corner, this was a strain on the economy and has led to questioning the logic behind the declaration. Some of the criticism has its origins in the acrimonious sentiment the Bhutto surname generates, but another aspect of it makes quite a lot of sense.If rituals are part and parcel of a state they have to be tempered by current realities. Also, a statement in a national leader`s memory that leads to complaints of distress from groups representing the general public can hardly be construed as a compliment. The three-day closure, including the holiday on Monday, badly affected a lot of people in the runup to Eid, and as responses to the declaration of holiday go, it brought to the fore a Pakistan divided across various lines.
Ultimately, this did not make for a farewell befitting a leader who had fought for democracy whose fundamental purposeistocreateconsensus based on pluralism, not infighting. Missing was a meeting bringing together not just Bhutto followers but democrats of various shades from all over Pakistan for a joint final salute to Begum Nusrat Bhutto. That joint salute would have better suited the occasion.
No comments:
Post a Comment