Pakistani politicians do their politics and we, the analysts, give our opinions about it. Being an analyst doesn’t necessarily mean your every analysis is correct as only Allah and His Messenger are correct all the time. Mere humans, as we are, our analysis can be as perfect as a human can be. A respectable analyst is considered to be the one who’s correct most of the times.
Analyzing something is not a rocket science that one could apply science, theories and whatnot and things fell in their right places. Every political situation has its own complexity. In a convoluted situation, where you can only see half of the cards, while the politicians keep the rest close to their chests. And those hidden cards play the key role in any analysis proving to be correct or wide off the mark.
Before analyzing a situation, an analyst tries to figure out the hidden cards. Although, in such situation politicians usually put out some hints about their hidden hand. More often than not, these signals are bluffs. But that’s the analyst job to figure out bluffs from true signals. However, you cannot count every signal as a bluff. Therefore, an analyst tries to gauge the given signals in light of ground realities and form his opinion about the situation.
There used to be a time when ‘being analyst’ was a serious job. But in the past 7-8 years, numerous analysts have popped up on the scene that never analyze the facts, but rather try to present their wishes as news. Consequently, they are always wrong.
For example, when Imran Khan appealed to overseas Pakistanis to send $1000 for dam fund early in his tenure, one of our colleagues built a castle in the air, claiming in the beginning donations might be few and far between but then it would start pouring in to such extent that Tarbila dam wouldn’t even contain it. I said at the time if a mega project could have been built with donations, then the planet would have been rife with hundreds of thousands of mega projects.
The result was that my analysis proven to be the writing on the wall, while my friend’s effort that he made to please the newspaper’s owner, went in vain.
One of the clues of this kind of analysts is that you find ‘sycophancy galore’ in their analysis. Toadyism is this lot’s go-to method as they would write even pieces on newspaper’s anniversary. For them the paper paying their wages is a ‘paragon of journalism’ but then another one being put on a pedestal as soon as they change their job.
No wonders, owners do to them what ARY did to Arshad Sharif.
Well, that was the story of third-class analysts who are in business of selling their wishes as news. And their wishes too, are always in line with the whims of their owners. But the self-seeking analysts have another category; VVIP class.
Back in the day, when there used to be just a few newspapers along with only TV channel PTV. Then, this lot had two or three aims; 1st to get a show on PTV. 2nd, get ambassadorship in a foreign country even a third world country was desirable. 3rd, was to sanction a loan from some bank to be waived at a later date. But the arrival of private TV channels made VVIP analysts’ schemes craftier.
Have a look at Najm Sethi’s shenanigans in recent weeks. As soon as the PDM government came into power, Najam Sethi was all but sure he would get PCB chairman office, but soon it became obvious that Mr Shahbaz Sharif was not interested in cronyism. He changed his gear and claimed the coalition government is about to fall. Watch his May 25, 2022 show if you doubt me.
In the said show, he claimed with absolute certainty that since Imran Khan had entered Islamabad, Judiciary would intervene and announce the elections on the pretext of reconciliation. Next morning, Imran was in Peshawar leaving only a few charred trees behind.
Najam Sethi has a habit of rerunning the clips of his previous partially fulfilled projections but he conveniently forgets about his bloopers. Post May 25’s blunder, Sethi went to London to appease his masters. Insiders say the matter was the old one; getting Ramiz Raja’s job but a month’s worth of sycophancy probably didn’t bear fruits as the man now again sees PDM government bowing out before October and be replaced with caretakers.
As the saying goes; Stupidity knows no bounds. 70 percent of the country is under water, and ECP had to postpone by-polls on account of floods. And Sethi sees general elections in January. Even more so, this situation is so grave that the general elections scheduled to be held next August might not be possible for another year or so.
Currently, draining flood water is the first challenge. Rehabilitation of flood-affectees will be the next job as entire villages have been wiped out. Rebuilding them will take time. Food crisis is upon us because floods have destroyed our main crops this season. The country will have to turn to the global market to feed its populace. But in all this predicament, one so-called egotistical analyst can’t help running his selfish agenda. Why is he spreading this filth? Just to get Ramiz Raja’s job.
Today, if government announced to appoint him PCB chairman, would Najam Sethi refuse on account of the government is going out in October and he wouldn’t want to be a temporary PCB boss? Heck no! Not only will he accept the job but also tell us with a long-list of arguments that the current regime is the most stable government in country’s history.
Najam Sethi is just one example. Here we have people like Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi, who devoured millions of taxpayers’ money in the name of salary, and not to mention Irfan Siddiqui, a permanent resident of the Prime Minister’s House during PLM-N’s previous tenure. There are others too, some bagged CDA’s contracts worth millions. Can someone please ask Mohammad Malik if he is an analyst or a contractor?
In all this mess, the thing that lost its worth is journalism. Then these shameless people turn around and tell this or that politician, general or a judge plundered this country. Have you no shame?
