A few days ago for a couple of weeks, the Facebook page “Humans of New York” had become the most visited page on Facebook. Brandon Stanton, the sole reason behind this whole excitement, decided to take a trip to Pakistan. Pakistanis started imagining what they would say if they get interviewed. The most interesting part is that everybody wanted to say something that will help in building the positive image of our beloved country in the eyes of the western world. Everybody wants to contribute. When Brandon started posting pictures from Hunza valley, Pakistanis started playing their roles. From describing the scenic beauty of Pakistan to welcoming foreigners on behalf of the whole country, people tried their best to create a positive image.
When one girl called Pakistan a wretched country, I was expecting a lot of hate comments. But what I saw was unbelievable. Everybody welcomed her and even suggested her to visit the country as it will help in changing her opinion. In short, Pakistanis joined hands and used social media as a platform to start this collective effort. This made me think: are we really united? Our forefathers struggled and fought this battle that even cost them their lives. Why? Because they wanted to have their own peaceful homeland and they were proud to achieve the honour of calling themselves Pakistanis. But now we are no more Pakistanis. We are no more united. We are divided politically, socially, religiously and economically.
In the context of religion, we have divided ourselves into many sects. Instead of following the golden principles of Islam, we are all busy in telling the other sect that they are on the wrong path. We even call them non-Muslims.
In the same way, we are divided politically. The deepest divide in the current political scene of Pakistan is among the supporters of PTI and N-League. The voters of both these parties keep bashing each other instead of doing something productive. Also, we divide ourselves on the basis of language that we spoke and the region we belong to. Instead of calling ourselves Pakistanis, we have started calling ourselves Punjabis, Sindhis, Pathans, Balochis, etc. Even people belonging to the same province divide themselves on the basis of cast and creed.
The most interesting divide is between Army personnel and civilians. I’m not sure why people take this so seriously but even in colleges and universities, the first question that I was asked was if I’m a civilian or an army brat. The reason I called this divide interesting is because those who do not belong to the Army, start talking against it and do not appreciate its efforts and sacrifices. They don’t realize that for our tomorrow, they gave their today. And vice versa.
These divides do exist in our country but are highlighted by some culprit groups who wanted to achieve their personal motives and gains. A majority of these are our politicians. They mislead people and try to divide them on the basis of language and cast. For example, the people of Baluchistan are misled by feudal lords who force them to think that the only way for them to succeed in life is to have their own country and that they should gain independence like Bangladesh did in 1971. A lack of education as well as awareness is the weapons used by these culprit groups to exploit masses.
But there are people who still think that it doesn’t matter that what region and caste we belong to or what our political and religious points-of-view. We are united as Pakistanis and certain individuals are making efforts to spread this positive message throughout the country. To highlight their efforts, it is the prime duty of the media to give masses a sense of identity, so instead of labelling themselves according to their region they can proudly call themselves as Pakistanis. Ministry of education should shift their attention towards the content that is taught to the future generation of this country and should revise it according to the ideology of the state. Instead of teaching our children how we all differ from each other religiously, politically, socially, and economically, we should teach them basic things that make us united as one country.
Secondly, the media should emphasize on the importance of education, so that people should be able to identify the enemies that reside within themselves, who are working on the formula ‘Divide and Rule’. Instead of teaching our children both in schools and in how to compete and become better from others, we should teach them lessons of how to progress as a nation.
But as time passes, things are changing and we are developing as a country. People start realizing that they can only progress and compete with the rest of the world if they stand together. To make our beloved country a prosperous and a developed land, let’s stand united, join hands and work together for the betterment of this country. So that Pakistan will be much better in the years to come. Let’s Rebuild Pakistan.
