“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them”
– Thomas More
When I read this quote, my heart feels all the grief and sorrow that is inflicted on masses by the incapable leadership of my country.
What is leadership? This question echoes in every corner of the land but poor people and their nonchalant manners are unable to respond to it.
The prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif’s address to his subjects that “people of Pakistan are not interested in my accountability” is highly nauseating and brought shame to the face of his supporters.
The cold blooded killing of Khurram Zaki who challenged extremism without any fear is highly alarmingly for the freedom of speech in the land and shows us how this “elected” government is reprehensibly unable to provide its subjects security.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman allures public in his rallies with dance, music and food and pokes around the political jokes to keep his rivals beleaguered. This is the same Khan whose party leadership also comprises of some of the dead horses of the same arena.
No wonder why we find so many of them pulling each other’s legs just to climb one more step on the ladder that apparently leads to the gardens where IK dwells. One can challenge the modus operandi but can’t say that the demand for an end to corrupt is illogical.
Meanwhile, a horror struck the people of KP when a young girl was burnt, supposedly as a result of centuries-old custom of honor killing.
PPP, that once raised slogans of roti, kapra aur makaan, is being toyed in the hands of an infant whose luxurious lifestyle has nothing to do with the miseries of the people of Pakistan. Some scholars even expect that Bilawal’s apparently reforming ideas can supervene upon his grandfather and mother’s ideology. They are labeling Bilawal as a new voice for minority rights. In the PPP’s regime the federal minister for minority affairs Shehbaz Bhatti’s body was riddled with at least eight bullets. A pin drop silence ensued!
Recently former Prime Minister of Pakistan Raja Pervaiz Ashraf delivered hate speech against Ahmadis, but Bilawal did not dare to mention the community’s name in his ostensible condemnation through a tweet.
Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman has recently showed pedestrian interest in Panama Leaks; he is more interested in enforcing Sharia in Pakistan. However, he has been failed to demonstrate how he is going to implement his version of Sharia in a morally, financially and ethically corrupt society.
These are some of the political players of the day.
Pakistani leadership, even the opposition, has no moral ground for their actions. They are not accountable to anybody.
Since the Panama Leaks penetrated Pakistan, we observed many videos on social media; such as a political leader setting his trousers while taking off; prime minister of Pakistan who cannot deliver a speech and is being dictated by his own daughter; Bilawal Bhutto lacking compassions in his speech; Chaudhary Nisar threatens politicians for not holding him accountable; the use of abusive language on the dice by different politicians and many others.
The growing tendency of the blame game is at its peak and politicians leave no stone unturned in making opprobrious and abusive statements against each other. The use of thara language is below the belt and the people of Pakistan are bearing it with great ignominy.
Strikingly, the reality is more abhorrent than watching these politicians having fray on the TV shows or in the rallies.
Our politicians are a reflection of us. This is what we actually are…
Those who are interpreting our religion are being appointed by us, those who are dictating our daily routine life through false promises are elected by us and those who are defending us are also one of us. But there is another bitter truth that lurks across the country that all what we see might not be it.
There is a dreadful phenomenon that the meager journalists and so-called intelligentsia of the country fearfully address as the establishment – the real underground rulers of this country. As described throughout the history by different sources, this heavenly body could comprise of the extremely powerful generals, feudal, politicians, judges, clergy, business class or a mishmash of all this.
They might be the people who have used their most effective weapon to keep this otherwise intelligent nation enslaved for decades, and the weapon is called illiteracy.
Yes, it’s a shock for many Pakistanis that we have been kept illiterate by our masters. Yes, the kind of knowledge that we have been instilled with might not be the real knowledge. It might be a placebo of the reality that we had been fed by our controllers for decades to keep us calm and under control – and we fell prey to their game.
This is when the extremists took advantage of this illiteracy to feed this nation with extremist thoughts and radicalized them for years to come. This inexhaustible supply of fundamentalism drove them mad and caused an inconceivable lose to the minority’s rights in the land.
This nation would never be able to make the most of its true talent unless they decide to take bitter pill of honesty and realize their mistakes of the past by first detoxing themselves from the propaganda that was fed to us. And then strive to seek the real knowledge that might lead us to China or whatever land.
The knowledge, which dwells beyond the lengths of Pakistan studies book, which almost had us all convinced that this is the only book of history – history of Pakistan slash history of the world slash history of the whole universe. It has left us all living us in fool’s world with a zombifying belief that the universe came into existence around 70 years back with a big bang called the partition of the subcontinent.
The fear of unknown and known has subjugated us. We have given up the ability to ponder.
On the other bleak side, the people of this pure land are purging this society by waging hatred against their own fellow citizens. We are being dictated by a bunch of ignorant people who claim to have best knowledge of religion and politics. Unfortunately, this is shaping up the thoughts and lives of the majority in Pakistan.
The beau monde is busy enhancing its luxurious lifestyle and the plebeian is fighting over petty issues like bread and crumbs.
We cannot get out of such prehistoric customs that led us nowhere. We need a system that can overshadow all these thoughts that are meant to segregate the masses.
Kindly don’t suggest here any presumption which is already tearing my country apart in the name of superiority.
The current vogue of the Pakistani society is to abolish corruption and eradicate nepotism from the land. Regardless, these power players are playing their own game of thrones. A layman is unable to comprehensively capture the gravity of the situation. He behaves as he is told and acts as he is taught.
The very sense of impunity, among these players, encourages them to claw their ways, forcing the anarchy to prevail for long.
How long can we separate our ways from this game. One day they will snatch your bread and butter and there will be nothing but ruins to cling on to.
