When the going gets hot, the hot shots (of politics) get going — to cooler climes, to escape the ‘boiling temperatures’ back home. Never mind the 1,300 or so deaths due to heat stroke.

First the half-brother took off; next, brother followed; then sister and family joined them.

The mass Zardari family exodus can be traced back to a raid by Sindh Rangers on the offices of the Sindh Building Control Authority, headed by an AZ appointee, following accusations of massive irregularities. It raised the former president’s hackles and brought on his angry outburst against the generals and a threat to shut down the entire country.

A similar threat was issued by the MQM supremo, parked in London for several years now, following a BBC story accusing the MQM of being funded and trained by India. Altaf Hussain went a step further and warned that if this kind of character assassination did not stop, there would be a war in every nook and corner and that the country would break up.

The duo make Pakistan sound like their personal fiefdom. Interestingly, both Zardari and Hussain deny the charges against them and term these nothing more than a media trial and warn of the imminent threat to democracy.

Given the country’s history of martial laws, one tends to view all army actions with suspicion. But does that, in any way, justify the shenanigans of the elected legislators? Stories of their sins of omission and commission, all in the name of democracy, are legion.

Can the MQM honestly deny that it is responsible for introducing the practice of extortion, target-killings and shutdowns in the city?

Is the PPP justified in asking for a clean chit, when stories of its involvement in land-grabbing, smuggling, taking kickbacks, and appointing ghost workers in government corporations are public knowledge? Karachi is bleeding, Karachi is crumbling — but does the provincial government care?

Their ineptitude and incompetence was on display in this latest episode of deaths due to heatstroke. And instead of accepting responsibility for their negligence and taking charge, they were involved in a slanging match with K-Electric and the centre, and even resorting to cheap gimmicks like demonstrating before the K-Electric office.

If the practitioners of democracy want to save democracy from adventurist generals, they will have to stop defrauding the awam with slogans of roti, kapra aur makan.

Democracy is not about occupying thrones — and it is most certainly not about grabbing land in the country and buying swanky penthouses in London, Paris and Dubai. It’s about delivering makans and more to the masses, here, in Pakistan.