These days, one can find pro-establishment mouthpieces in wholesale quantities in Pakistan.

Don’t know how they have managed it, but the result is fantastic. Everyday, we find articles, analysis, predictions, and posts, humiliating the politicians who are yet to take their seats, blaming them for all things that have happened and that which may happen. The propaganda bombardment is immense, incessant, and from all sides.

The mouthpieces come in all shapes and sizes; paid journalists, paid TV channels, paid programme hosts, paid political analysts, and now the fresh crop of new mouthpieces, the gems of the Pakistani blogosphere. 

They all pretend to be true patriots weeping over the shabby state of affairs in the country, and in turn try to take the blame a decade back precisely to the era of the 1990s, totally bypassing the misrule of the recent years, that we are still enduring, and the consequences of which even our children will face. Precisely, they also stop short of touching upon the dark age of the 80s. They weep over the lack of justice for the common man, and in the same breath criticize the lawyers’ movement to be hampering the deliverance of justice to the public because they are too concerned with the restoration of a few judges. 

Orwellian tendencies are at their peak. There is no escaping, and even the most intelligent readers must read really intelligently to be able to see the fine-print between the lines of the prejudiced half-truths of our new and old ministers of truth.

Let’s not worry though, since as long as we have freedom to think, truth will prevail. I also strongly recommend reading at least some chapters of George Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty Four, to have some basic insight into the workings of the complex minds of our new ministers of truth. 

“When elephants fight, ants get trampled,” or so the Urdu saying goes. But how often do we see ants fighting and hurting an elephant in the process?

Khwaja Asif of PML (N), a few days back, alleged that Amin Fahim had been meeting the President of Pakistan, in secrecy in the past. Amin threatened him back with a Defamation Notice, which Asif has just confirmed to have received.

This is extraordinary since in Pakistan defamation notices are strictly a rarity, and one often gets money for defaming others. Yes “MONEY”.  It is also exceptional since the apparent reason for the defamation happens to be the allegations of meetings with the President; something which otherwise should be a source of pride for any Pakistani.

I always thought one wouldn’t go lower after having hit the ground. A friend enlightened that disgrace is a bottomless pit, and one could keep falling forever, and still keep falling.Isn’t it time for Mush to go? Or shall we wait for more “I-know-you-met-the-President-last-summer” allegations, and counter defamation notices flying around like paper kites on a Basant day.

Prior to the elections of 18thFebruary, Amin Fahim looked all set to become the next prime minister of Pakistan. And he most probably still is, since nothing has changed except the minor political necessities that arose due to PPP’s weaker than expected performance in Punjab.

In all probability, the entire search-for- prime minister show is being staged only to address those minor necessities.

The name of Shah Mehmood Qureshi keeps the PPP’s Punjab chapter happy, after the party graciously conceded the chief ministership of the province to PML (N).

On the other hand, the name of Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar is a ploy to annoy the Q League leaders of Gujrat.

Above all, the whole exercise projects the party as a true democratic entity where decisions are made on the basis of thorough consultations with each and every member.

In the end, it is most likely that Amin Fahim will emerge as the PM and Asif Zardari will take permanent residence in Lahore to keep the party alive and active in the biggest province.

UPDATE 1: Well, let me just accept it. I was wrong.

The bunch of whiz kids at the power corridors also tried their skills at other legendary myths of the “Brand Pakistan” variety, but the “Soft Image of Pakistan” was outlandishly out-of-this-world.

Right from its fabrication, our soft image limped on for months, propped up by the soft-faced and soft-spoken female models, who toured the world to put in Pakistan’s share to the global softness pool. In the beginning, everything at least appeared to be going soft and well.

Trouble started when others took the brainy official strategy and modified it to their own advantage. 

Cheered by the idea that the world hears softer voices clearer and understands them better, the black burqa brigade came heckling into the open, in middle of the capital of the enlightened moderates, to take all things soft head on. They didn’t spare even our para-jumper tourism minister and the all-favorite Chinese masseuses.

Within days, our soft façade got cracked.

In chorus came another image-shattering extravaganza, as hard hitting as the former. While we anticipated jovial goras all over the place in the “Visit Pakistan Year 2007,” the former Chief Justice decided to implement his own version of Visit Pakistan. Riding on the shoulders of his black coat brigade, he went every corner worth a peek, and painted the remaining of our image in black. If there was anything left of our soft image, the 12^th of May and the wide array of suicide bombings after and before it, above all the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto, took it once and for all.

Now, that he is freer than ever, will someone tell our President-cum-Opposition Leader that image is not only how you want others to see you; it is how you actually look. For a soft image, we need a softer reality.

As a first step, he must go.