And Finally Going Back to the Roots

“Yes, why?” Mr Right looked at me enquiringly. I also want to know. Is it because of Salik or you feel you don’t want to spend the rest of your life here searching for a tiny slot to park your car. If this is the case, you must know that if they create problems they offer solutions too. Salik has opened new routes.

No doubt these are long, more crowded and increase your driving time, but this has certainly solved one problem. As long as you are driving you don’t need to park your car. And when you decide to park, the problem can be easily tackled as an official of the agency concerned has suggested. The motorists need to be tactful because if they don’t find a parking place near their office on the Shaikh Zayed Road they can always park their car in Jebel Ali and reach their office using one of the luxury public buses. It’s so convenient. So why to worry?”

I felt ashamed. “No, No,” I said,“ I have no such complaints. The fact is that the years, which I spent here, were just wonderful, like a beautiful dream. But dreams come to an end at last. So I woke up one morning to find that under the new rules, my car, which is 20 years old, will now be consigned to scrap yard. And I am older than my car. Hence the decision.”

“I understand,” Mr Right said. “ But now when your are returning you must be aiming for cooler climes, flights from here go to all places.”

“I have decided to go back to my roots, my country, my dear Pakistan,” I said. “And how lucky I am that I am returning there at a time when democracy is in full bloom.”

Mr Right was dumbfounded for a while. He then took a deep breath and said, “I hope you will be travelling light as you have not accumulated trash over the years like many ‘collectors of worldly garbage’.”

“That’s right,” I replied. “My assets include wife, three children, seven books and two awards, that’s all. I foresee no baggage problems.”

“Don’t forget to take a lantern with you, and loads of bread, and large bottles of water.”

I said, “Thank you for reminding me that the country has entered the ‘dark age’ after the advent of democracy. I accept there are unprecedented power failures, but how satisfying is the fact that real power is now in the people’s hands. I am sure their efforts to light up the future will bear fruit and ‘country managers’ will be able to grab pledges of new loans and grants from ‘friends of Pakistan’.

“Country managers have always managed to rake in lot of money in every critical situation but the problem with the money is that it never stays in coffers,” Mr Right observed. “Nobody knows where it goes.”

“Well,” I said, “the country’s wisest man has just pointed out that it was the lack of wisdom which had led to wastage of money in the past. I hope this time all incoming aid will go to those who have some experience in ‘judicious’ spending of funds.”

“But the flow of funds into Pakistan could be ensured only when security concerns are addressed,” Mr Right cautioned. “I know, but it’s because of the situation in border areas,” I tried to explain. “Normalcy will return to all those places as soon as our American friends are convinced that their unilateral action in the border region was not good for their friendship as it had sparked a difference of opinion between them and the Pakistanis.”

“ But,” Mr Right said,” the difference of opinion seems to be on the question, who should kill those people. The Pakistanis have emphasised that they are capable of doing it alone.”

“No Sir,” I protested, “It is not about killing, it’s about bringing peace to the border areas and to the whole of Pakistan, you know.

“The new parliament has just passed a comprehensive resolution to bring about comprehensive peace in the country.”

“That’s good news,” Mr Right said. “I wish the parliament also passes a comprehensive resolution to rescue the economy.”

“Well,” I pointed out, ” the action has already started. The new finance minister has devised three plans to revive the economy, seeking help from donor agencies, friendly countries, or finally from the International Monetary Fund.”

“Alas,” Mr Right said, “he missed the fourth option, the most effective and most important one.”

“Which one?” I asked.

“He totally forgot the huge monetary fund created by Pakistani ‘haves’ in foreign banks abroad. If all these funds are brought back to Pakistan, the foreign exchange reserves will start overflowing.”

I said, “Thanks that you did not name the ‘haves’. It would have embarrassed many.”

“I don’t think so,” Mr Right said, “People have stopped being embarrassed or repentant, long ago, even before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was turned into a National Amnesty Bureau.”

“Despite your misgivings, I firmly believe that things will change in Pakistan and it will soon bounce back as a progressive nation and I am going there to see all this happen, ” I said.

“I know you are a chronic patient of ‘Hopetitis’, Mr Right remarked. “But I advise you to carry in your hand baggage plenty of patience and tolerance that are really scarce these days.”

Najmul Hasan Rizvi is Assistant Editor of Khaleej Times. He can be reached at 
nhrizvi@khaleejtimes.com