Regardless of how violently the wick of hope flickers due to changing dynamics and the burden of past misdeeds, it will be a heresy of sorts to lose “hope”. Hope is a divine blessing upon man.

Any rejection of its potential will mean an attitude of ingratitude to Divinity. Mankind (narrow it to Pakistanis) very often indulges in destroying hope.

The coloured lens of negativity that we keep polishing every single day make us look at only the imaginary looming dark clouds; rarely do we put our attention to the brilliance of the silver linings that circumference the dense grey clouds. Our attitude is of outright rejection of any possible goodness to arrive at our doorstep.

The scenario we keep developing on the canvas of time is of only regrets—this is followed up with an equal quantum of the muck of blame thrown at politicians, mostly without corroborative evidence or justification. This is not to suggest that they are all as holy as the Pope.

Hope, Aristotle had said, “is the dream of a waking man. It’s one of the strongest emotions that has kept humans since the dawn of civilisation. It is a strong belief that things will get better, and actually acting on this belief”. We get to see the brilliance of the twinkle of stars only when it is dark. The onset of night never defeats the Hope of Sunshine on the morrow.

While it is undeniably important to reach the corridors of power through the ballot box, it is also a historical fact with us, that there have been several periods of autocratic rule, during which time, surprisingly and interestingly, the country has seen high rates of GDP growth.

Since 1977, when Z.A. Bhutto was ill-advised to go for snap election ahead of the deadline, based on false perception of heightened popularity, the results of that and all subsequent elections have been challenged and rejected.

Consequently, the government in office is not given the much needed licence of time to develop and implement policies with a long-term view of what suits the country’s interests.

The result perennially has been that the government has to spend precious time and energy in seeking to legitimise itself.

The opposition makes life difficult – not through counter and alternate economic programme but only with a single-point agenda of how to topple the administration in Islamabad, by any means, within or even outside the........

© Business Recorder