Blankness

The past events in my country, Pakistan, have left me emotionally and mentally in a state of blankness which perhaps is the next stage after numbness. After pain, after disgust, after anguish, numbness , now I just feel blank. I was born in the seventies and one of my first memories is hearing my sister going around the house with a newspaper in hand, calling out, Bhutto has been hanged. I was a small girl when I heard on tv that zia ul haq had yet again dissolved the assemblies. I was a young Assistant Commissioner who was heartbroken when Benazir was murdered and went to office the next day through roads scattered with burning tyres and protestors. She was my idol, I was a great fan. And after her death I read her book, Reconciliation, and was amazed at the wisdom of the doctrine of the political parties who chose to forego their very real and fundamental differences to strengthen democracy through the charter of democracy. The Doctrine of Reconciliation is, in my opinion, the most important political fundamental of our country after the Constitution of Pakistan. It is to democracy what the doctrine of necessity is, to dictators. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is one of the signatories of the charter of democracy. Those who compelled him to look towards the armed forces for reconciliation in the present crisis have done a great wrong to him and the country. Hopefully he will recover this slip. But I wonder if we will recover if our country's democratic forces let darkness engulf them? I support the right of parties and individuals to demonstrate and demand what is their right. But will the rigidity of personalities bring us to this impasse? The government should not hold back decisions it has to take which are it's duty to take. They should not be in response to any demands. If it had done so earlier, things would not come to this. Yet is power more important to both sides than right or wrong? It is the willingness to do what is right which makes a statesman, imran khan would do well to read about Gladstone, British Prime Minister, who stood fast on whist he believed in, even if it broke his party . His belief was that the Irish deserve to be free. It was political suicide for him they said, but he did it. Prime Minister should also ponder over this example and try to do what is right. Who will lead the nation when they themselves seem to have lost their way? I do not want to sermonize, I am happy that Pakistan Peoples Party is supporting democracy even though that was not what PML N did with them, but both Protestors and the government need to speak to each other again. That is the only way Pakistan can make it through this impasse.