Shahzad Chaudhry

The National Security Council (NSC) is not a dirty word — take the plunge; it will give you a collaborative platform to seek inputs from all stakeholders on internal and external security issues, and eliminate that most glaring hole in our national discourse

No, I do not intend to talk only about cricket in this column, though the defeat at Sidney is perhaps the worst in living memory. It is not that the team lost — they have now been losing for eons, metaphorically. It is the manner of defeat that unfortunately exhibits practically every aspect of our nationhood and the vicissitudes of time that have afflicted this once promising people.

Consider how Mohammad Yousaf, the Pakistani captain, got out. At 77 for 3 Nathan Hauritz was simply going through the motions, what with Pakistan’s two best batsmen at the crease, including the skipper, and a meagre total to get for a historic victory. Hauritz lobbed a lolly at Yousaf, that most complete batsman technically except that he still shuffles like a novice in the early part of his innings; and what does he do? I was instantly reminded of my very early days of lane-cricket when you saw the ball as a football and jumped a silly few toes above the ground to unleash that most ferocious straight drive, invariably uppish for that is the nature of such a convoluted physical distortion of a stance. It was a natural stroke, impulsive, raw, unrefined, and bona fide amateurish. What happened subsequently is what knocked the daylights out of Mr Yousaf; for that though a very brief referral to the Australian second innings.

Shane Watson, the Australian makeshift opener was going great guns, chipping away at the huge Pakistani lead. He pulled one ferociously to deep square-leg where our wily spin wizard, Danish Kaneria, was strategically placed to take that most expected catch. It came straight at Mr Kaneria, who initially came in line to catch it, but then better sense prevailed; such was the speed of the ball that it must have sent shivers down Kaneria’s spine, literally; else, he imagined the ball making a neat hole in his wily hand of which he still has some use. He, thus, learned of the lands of discretion and taught in the art of self-preservation, chose to move right out of the way. On timing you may never fault a Pakistani; he is quick to shoot off both his mouth and the gun. Want proof? Tune in to any of the television channels beginning 8 o’clock every evening. Result: Danish Kaneria got to save his life and Australia and Shane Watson scored another six to their respective credit.

Back to Mr Yousaf’s impish stroke-play. Hauritz, of a different creed and credulity, too given to play his role as stated, and willing to lay his best in the pursuit of victory, professionally taught and groomed — product of an institution, took Yousaf’s drive straight into his pit, wrapped his arms around the ball hurting one inexorably in the process, doubled in pain fell flat — such is the impact anyone who has got one in the pit will tell you — and miraculously through this physical contortion of pain and self-inflicted punishment, held onto the catch. Pakistan lost the chance of staying the course and Australia progressed to snatch a most improbable victory that will stand to shame Pakistan for as long as cricket is played.

Contrast the two responses: a Kaneria would have let the shot go through — he taught of the school of personal and selfish agendas, of surviving to fight another day, of melting in the shadows, of hedging a stance lest he be exposed in his true colours, of biding time to use later at his own turn, invariably to his own magnanimous advantage. Sounds familiar? Cricket is only a microcosm of our national character.

Even more instructive was the response of the nation to this unreserved humiliation. A ticker-tape ran comments such as, ‘Razzaq and Younus be brought back into the team’, ‘restore Younus as the captain’, ‘make Miandad the PCB Chairman’, ‘Inzimam bhai needs to be brought back to cricket’; so on and so forth. No recourse to institutional remedies; everything now and here. Brought up on instant formulas of sickeningly repeated 90-day accountability potions, dealing with the now and here has become the defining feature of our nationhood. People and personalities are the messiahs that will deliver to this now and here nation — never the long haul institutions. This is a nation looking for magic shorn of time for long in the works remedies.

Let’s review the political scorecard. And before I get castigated as a dubious cynic, we will begin with the good run: Gilgit-Baltistan; Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan — that though still needs to be initiated and delivered; NFC; a reasonable consensus on the war against terror — though there are other worthier claimants to this plaudit; and in anticipation let me add the good work on the Constitution review underway at the Raza Rabbani committee. Notice something? These are all issues of the Constitution and for most the credit is due to Raza Rabbani’s own constitutional inkling and intellect. What about the negatives on the scorecard? Just one would suffice — absolutely zero governance! Add a couple more for effect: only talk about institutions without any effort to strengthen or build those; there is no institutional reference for a comprehensive, integrated view or an effort to formulate policy on matters that hang on the state and its people like the famed Damocles’ sword. Obama took 90 days for repeated interactions and consultative deliberations with his most senior policy-makers on deciding a course on Afghanistan; to us whose national existence is linked to what happens there, only one DCC meeting within the last week was sufficient with every possibility that it was hardly any strategy session. General Deepak Kapoor, the Indian army chief and an equally quixotic figure, was most likely the raison d’être. There simply is no concept of a policy on anything! Just individuals matter — the president, Nawaz Sharif, Gilani, army chief, the chief justice, Younus, Miandad. Service to the people? A big zero!

There are three major dominant concerns today for our national survival: security, both external and internal, and that will contain how relations with the US, Afghanistan and India should shape up as the region undergoes turmoil; the economy, for on this count we are already in debt equal to some 50 percent of the national GDP, and hugely dependent on handouts from the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to keep our head above the water; it must look beyond the macroeconomics and detail internal mobilisation of economic activity, identify a few trigger areas in the economy that can generate movement and link those to some macroeconomic adjustments to kick-start a deflating and stagnant economy; and finally, political sustainability, which is the paramount link if any governance exists.

On all three counts the prime minister must form similar committees as the Raza Rabbani committee and task those to formulate implementable strategies with subsequent responsibility to monitor execution on behalf of the executive. A recommendation: the National Security Council (NSC) is not a dirty word — take the plunge; it will give you a collaborative platform to seek inputs from all stakeholders on internal and external security issues, and eliminate that most glaring hole in our national discourse. Let it be co-chaired by both the president and the prime minister if that will become a stumbling block, but with executive responsibility with the prime minister. For the economy, if you do not have enough expertise — as good as you have in constitutional matters — induct economists to assist the committee chart the nation’s economic survival. Governance is a federal and provincial matter — do something on the lines of the NFC award committee; let the prime minister personally be responsible for the governance committee.

In New Zealand, just before the Australian tour, when the Pakistan team lost one to the Kiwis, the skipper, Mohammad Yousaf, was of the view that victory and defeat were in the hands of the Lord; He bestows to the one He pleases. He was philosophically correct, of that one again may never fault the Pakistani faithful, but it just so happens that with us Pakistanis, the Lord has kept a safe distance for some reason. Maybe it is time to try our own hand; that might just be enough to reacquaint ourselves with His blessings.

Shahzad Chaudhry is a retired air vice marshal and a former ambassador