By: Syed Shahzaib Haider
Pakistanis who travel abroad especially to the West and the emergent countries knows first-hand what progress looks like and the Interesting thing about all these developed countries! They also have almost the similar sort of real problems however it’s an undeniable fact that they are far more developed compared to our country. Yet Pakistan is stuck fighting terrorism, poverty, corruption, unemployment, incompetence and ignorance, which for all time makes me think why only in Pakistan?
Are we fated to live in squalor? How have other countries been able to make their way to development? Who is responsible for our continuous rearward drive? When will our people stop running to the West to escape deprivation? In other words, how shall we get our dignity back?
“Rise up, empower yourself and take a step. The only way to know that you still have some strength in you when you fall is to attempt to rise up. However if you believe you don’t have any strength, you will remain where you are!”
The Extravagant nepotistic governments, sluggish and incompetent bureaucracy and the corrupt politicians are the core causes of what sets us back. They have created such a disgraceful image of our country nationally and internationally that not the outsiders but our very own youth is willing to leave their motherland as soon as they get the opportunity.
My stomach turns when I see the greed for the west in our young generation the way we envy them. An example is the clear obsession by brown Pakistani girls to look white, or European or when we look at our Pakistani celebrities and their fake western attire. It’s sad and extremely depressing. It shows a total submission to myths of white beauty. But I can’t blame them doing all that it’s just that no one wants to live such a wretched life. The life we as Pakistanis are bound to live, and trust me its not because of the people of Pakistan but the corrupt ruling elite of the country who treat them as sheep.
Each one of us knows that our recent history is not very constructive because of the fact that we have had corrupt mafias running this country for almost three decades and that too with the post-traumatic stress disorder for the young generation and at the same time our ruling elite have been unbearably narrow-minded with only individual ambitions in a blind quest for power and no vision for the country. Most of the Politicians in our country are simply known for looting the public purse. If you go back to the village, or town, where you were born you will not take long to realize that nothing much has changed.
I request all my fellow beings to take a time out and ask yourself based on reason what do we have here in our beloved country? Except of a few emotional and political slogans a long list of problems popup in your mind that you face every morning when you wake up the open drains, dirt or decaying roads, water that’s unfit for human consumption when it’s available, lack of electricity which is characterized by blackouts and sky-high charges when you get it, sorry but the hospitals and health centers lack life saving drugs and utterly unhygienic, poor government school system for your kids, and unsightly garbage heaps strewn everywhere no comprehensive justice system for poor people.
These are the hallmarks of a society with a deep psychosis. Yet our leaders fight each other every day about just to enjoy the next five year of looting.
But our people the victims of this cruel reality wait very patiently. They don’t rise up and demand change not just in words but in real, In fact they cower in fear and I am afraid if this goes on as it is we will never be able to build pressure on this ruling elite to bring the real change that we desire every time we go to the polling both to cast the vote. The people need to pose an existential threat to them. We have hit rock bottom, and the only place to go is up now.
I am completely of the view that no society in history has ever advanced without great and insightful ruling elite.
Now is the time for both our political forces and the establishment must take purposeful steps to dig Pakistan out of the hole. This is what happened in all other societies in the West, and more recently, in our neighboring countries. It’s not a rocket science. We now have to stop borrowing gobs of money from the world and the IMF and then unbelievably eat all of it through corrupt interest groups.
This is the right time for our entire political leadership to understand that they first need to develop a sense of the national interest. When our immediate neighbor is constantly threatening us and doing the genocide in Indian occupied Kashmir. All of our leaders have stand unite against this act of violence of India in Kashmir.
The equal courage and sense of national interest is required to fight a war against corruption, nepotism and incompetent bureaucracy and those who are making much noise against the impeachment. They must not forget that only the guilty get defensive.
It’s very simple if you’re not corrupt and hypocritical. First tell us where you got all that money to buy your helicopters and mansions when we know you were a pauper just the other day. Second, let’s punish the corrupt without pity. I mean mercilessly.
Catastrophic times call for drastic measures. The government should make the entire public office holders to publicly declare their wealth on the pain of perjury and forfeit the wealth which is not justified.
Third, we need to develop extreme dislike for mediocrity. This is one of the banes of the psychology of Pakistanis. We don’t hate mediocrity. We say failure is god’s will which is not true. Failure is an opportunity to learn, can’t be a will of God. It’s our own shortcoming.
“Rise up, empower yourself and take a step. The only way to know that you still have some strength in you when you fall is to attempt to rise up. However if you believe you don’t have any strength, you will remain where you are!”
The writer is Special Correspondent/Columnist at The Dayspring