While "squeezing water from a stone" and “Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst” are pertinent idioms for a motivational speaker to pep-up the gloomy youth; however, the rise and fall of nations, civilizations and states has always been a product of sustained National Policies, far sighted strategies, honest, bold and visionary leadership and ably led, determined and self-sacrificing people. The most apt example from the recent history is the starving China led by Moa (Long March, (1934–35), the 10,000-km historic trek of the Chinese communists that resulted in the relocation of the communist revolutionary base from southeastern to northwestern China and in the emergence of Mao Zedong as the undisputed party leader), which laid the foundation for the unprecedented rise of China, destined to become number one global power in the foreseeable future. Some other examples may include the USA, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Germany and some Arab States like UAE. A cursory glance at just 8 of the Largest Empires in History i.e., Persian empire, Han dynasty, Umayyad Caliphate, Mongol empire, Ottoman Empire, Spanish empire, Russian Empire and the British Empire bear testimony to the same common national factors. Even India with the same period of independence from British colonial masters and being Pakistan’s arch rival is well poised to rise as a significant regional power and an influential global player.
There is a long list of challenges that the state of Pakistan has been confronted with right from its inception, which has diminished the hopes of the people to see the light at the end of the long tunnel. The frequent catastrophic incidents of sinking boats carrying fleeing Pakistani youth from the country through illegal means is just one pointer of hopelessness and the rot that plagues our systems and the national institutions. The corrupted and hijacked political system, removal and even controversial physical elimination of national leaders from 1948 till to date, unfair elections, stealing of peoples’ mandate, addiction to aids, grants and domestic and foreign loans, plunder of public money, crippled economy, destruction of industries, primitive farming and agriculture, rampant corruption, ruinous politicization of all national institutions, misuse of state power, political victimization, religious, sectarian and ethnic divisions for money making and power grab, unsatisfactory education system, suffocating inflation, unemployment, hunger, energy and water crises, homeopathic foreign policy with vitiated international stature, unremitting internal and external security challenges, incessant impairment of the constitution by the ever ruling elite, and finally, by and large the compromised lower judiciary and undermining of the superior courts are some of the macro challenges, which have never allowed the national flight to takeoff for a long journey to political, economic and security stability, prosperity and well being of the people of Pakistan.
With a house so divided and weakened on the internal front, the external hyenas find it much easier to gestate Trojan horses in the form of NGOs, INGOs, and the invested traitors; besides recruiting local and regional hired guns and proxies to harm Pakistan on multiple fronts. That has mostly kept the state of Pakistan in a state of flux. What hope the people of Pakistan can have with the legislature, executive and judiciary intoxicated with prodigality, self-aggrandizement, narcissistic self-promotion through use of media and that too shamelessly on public money, and indulgence in hollow rhetoric and blatant lies. The uncontrolled nepotism and promotion of mediocrity is eating all the national institutions like termite. The most recent constitutional amendments / hasty bills and curbs on justifiable freedom of speech is adding to public frustration and tantamount to a pressure cooker with a sealed steam lid. The spread of well paid false narratives by some purchasable journalists turned analysts, opinion makers and advisers through print, electronic and social media has further added to people’s anxiety and disillusionment; only to the glee of usurpers, narcissist and hedonistic ruling upper crust.
The purpose of this brief piece and reappraisal of the national environment is to highlight the need to frequently indulge in introspection in order to realize the utmost necessity to play individual as well as collective role for betterment of the ailing society. When a house is burning, a small sparrow that carries a drop of water in her beak and sprinkles on the raging fire is far better than a crowd standing around and just shouting for help. After all amongst the greatest obligations for Muslim are amr-bil-Ma’roof (ordering for acknowledged virtues) and nahi anil munkar (forbidding from sin). That is the message especially for those who remain inert due to some compromises or are fearful of the unknown; nevertheless, they fail in their societal obligations by merely by just asking ‘who will bell the cat’. Without effectively playing our individual and collective positive roles, the dream of making Pakistan a secure state with political and economic stability is prone to remain far fetched like Chasing the Rainbows.
Comments