Looking for Pakistan

Marvi Memon As I travel in all our villages, I often try to answer the question as to what binds us together as a nation. The list of what divides is easily found because every old school of thought politician has used the glue to divide and has contributed to the divisions and hatred between all of Pakistan. They have divided us on the basis of us being Sindhi, Punjabi, Pathan, Baloch, Gilgiti, Seraiki, Balti, Kashmiri, Shia, Sunni, etc, etc. The list of divisions that they create out of this glue is endless. None of these politicians unite or create unity based on this diversity. My father taught me very early on that there is beauty in diversity. That one phrase shaped my life. I see my Pakistan like that. I use the differences to unite and not to divide. I take pride in the parts and then piece them together. I dont try to do the unnatural thing, which is to pretend that parts dont exist and then create the whole. That is the mistake each one of those old politicians have been doing. No wonder, they have not succeeded in creating Pakistaniyat even after 64 years. And no wonder, they have not given us prosperity and peace. To-date nobody has come up with a clear definition of Pakistaniyat. For me, it is a sum of my parts. I associate with each of the parts. So yes, I might be a Sindhi, and I feel at home in Thatta, but a part of me belongs to each of the other parts too. Shigar, Okara Dipalpur, Sibbi, Amanghar, Garidupatta, live in my heart, body and soul equally too. As a parliamentarian, I visited them all wherever there were problems. I never discriminated. I never used one against the other. I tried to act in all fairness to each of them. Not many politicians I know feel for each part. They only fight for their constituency without having any idea that they need to act in fairness to each part to create that Pakistaniyat. Frankly, they dont care about the Pakistaniyat. They want their votes and for that if they snatch more than their fair share, they dont care. They are kings of their own small castles. They dont care about the bigger castle. They dont think that by grabbing more for their parts, they are weakening larger castle foundation. They frankly dont even grab for their parts. They grab for their pockets alone. Pakistaniyat cannot be created by standing with the Pakistan flag and screaming for one Pakistan on a roundabout of a city. It can only be created when you get rid of the discriminations and not differences. People dont associate with Pakistan when that Pakistan doesnt take care of their hunger and safety. At a more practical level, the discriminations have to end. In our new Pakistan, the government school and healthcare centre, which is built in Sakro has to give similar services, as to the one built in Hunza. This doesnt mean that these two subjects, which are provincial subjects, suddenly need to move into the federal list. Conceptually, this simply means that the people living in Sakro and Hunza cannot feel discriminated because they live in different places of Pakistan. They need the same level and quality of services. If they know that because of their sect, province and religion they get less, then they will not feel for Pakistan. They will hold this loss and grudge against Pakistan. That is when you start losing Pakistan. And that is exactly what has happened in the last 64 years. In my time in Parliament, I travelled the length and breadth of Pakistan and felt the discriminations and divisions that were created by selfish politicians, who just wanted more money for their pockets. 'Might is rightversus 'equality for all. I felt natural resource allocations being unevenly allocated and spent. I was pained because I knew that the more the discriminations, the less the chance of the foundations of Pakistan getting stronger. I also learnt that in these areas where there were discriminations, there was no national leader who was willing to lobby selflessly for all their resolutions at the federal level. They were mostly there to use the discriminations to create a bigger wedge between the whole and the parts. So, it was almost as if they thrived on making the differences bigger versus resolving them. We are blessed with diversity, but we have made it a curse. The solution is so basic. Treat each part as God has instructed you to treat your children. Dont wrong any part of Pakistan. Develop each part to its maximum. Market their diversities so that they gain from them. When you love something, you take care of it. All the political leaders say they love Pakistan. But do they really? Do they know about the peculiarities of each part of Pakistan equally? Do they know their issues in-depth? Do they feel their pain equally? Do they feel at home everywhere? How can they? They are too VIP, distant and removed. Do they know the resources, which can be exploited for the parts good first and then as a consequence for the good of the country? Or do they just exploit for their colonial pockets? It is time to reconsider who you call your leaders. These current rulers are not leaders, let alone national leaders. You need real Pakistani nationalist leaders. Real sons and daughters of the soil, who feel for the soil they are born on or have decided to call home. They dont exploit the same soil just because their ancestors have been buried in it. And they certainly dont discriminate against those who associate with the soil just because their ancestors were not buried in it. Only when you resolve the issues of each of the parts will you resolve Pakistan and create a real nation state out of Pakistan. We are busy doing that. Let us hope the others will follow too. The writer is a former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan.