Mansoor Ijaz, you broke my heart
For the past four months you’ve toyed with the country like it’s your
personal hacky sack and we’ve foolishly gone along for the ride.
But I’m past your immaculately tailored suits. I’m past your jet set life style. And I couldn’t care less about your taste in
raunchy music videos. It’s simply not funny anymore and if I were you I’d quit while I’m ahead and end this thing once and for all.
We’ve all got a case of
Memogate fatigue. It’s been reported on, analysed, ridiculed, dissected and it seems to be ending in a
yawning anticlimax. So it’s time to put up or shut up.
You’re
not doing yourself any favors. It seems you’ve got what you wanted.
Your internet footprint has grown exponentially, you’ve got name
recognition and your eventual place on the New York Times Best Seller
list has been cemented. But you’ve reached such a point of
self-aggrandizement that even Donald Trump would go, “You might wanna
tone that down buddy.” OK perhaps you’re not quite there yet, but you’re
pretty close.
During this whole fiasco, we’ve seen the country go
deeper down the rabbit hole. While the media has salivated over the
circus that’s transpired between our three branches of government, real
people are hurting and it’s time to get real.
It seems this
country is destined to live in the cloud of political farce. While you
might claim noble intentions by espousing the tired truisms of democracy
and the meddling of the military, you’re not fooling anyone anymore.
For
the past week the whole country was transfixed about your much-hyped
arrival to testify in court, and for a moment you had me convinced. I
was thinking, “What a stand up guy, he said he’d come and he is.” But
you’ve turned out to be a flake after all.
I get it. You’re
scared. When your security is on the line — I’d be too. But then I
wasn’t foolish enough to play footsie with Pakistani politics.
For
a smart guy that was pretty, shall we say imprudent, because you
clearly don’t have the stomach for it. You had to have known the waters
you were treading into before you decided to become Enemy No.1 in the
high-stakes game of poker that Pakistani politics is.
This isn’t
personal. I actually agree with you when you say that, “The current
civilian leadership is not interested in a true liberal value system
that is representative of the people’s needs, wishes, aspirations, and
hopes. They are only interested in the acquisition of power and the
systematic looting of the national treasury.”
And there’s no doubt
that settling the tussle between the civilian and military factions is
one of profound importance. But at the same time, every day people are
suffering. Unemployment, poverty, a flailing economy and rampant
violence — the country is becoming a greatest hits package of misery
while our attention has been focused on a farce that has gone long past
the point of reason.
I’m willing to give you the benefit of the
doubt. I’ll grant you that it’s definitely within the realm of
possibility that there exist certain elements that really don’t want
your side of the story to go public. They clearly haven’t made it easy.
This
is where it’s time for you step up. I don’t know how or what you’d do.
Perhaps you could man up and stand by your words in spite of your fears,
considering you started this. It’s just a thought.
But given a man with your talents and connections I’m sure you can find another way. The choice is yours.
You’re either in this for real or you’re Donald Trump with better taste. At this point nothing will surprise anyone.
Your move compadr
