TODAY Pakistan observes the death anniversary of its founder, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah even as its Muslim majority celebrates Eid. In fact, in that celebration one can also see the very problems the Quaid warned about provincialism. While most of the country celebrates Eid today, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government chose to announce Eid a day earlier refusing to go along with the rest of the country. This is our tragedy today that seventy years on as a nation, we are unable to unify even for the celebration of Eid. Why cant we have a leadership that is able to unite the whole nation in celebration of Eid? But this is not all that makes us yearn for the Quaid today and wish we had paid greater heed to his vision of Pakistan a progressive state with its Islamic identity and where no citizen would be discriminated against because of caste and creed. He saw Pakistan as a leader in the Muslim World with a strong and independent foreign policy. He saw the youth as the investment for the future of the nation in fact, he laid great stress on education and the youth. Yet where are we today? Split along provincial, ethnic and sectarian divides, with a growing illiterate population and increasing poverty with no social net for the masses at all. Having spent nothing on education over the decades, we are afflicted with a complete dissipation of any solid education structure in the country and a network of ill-equipped madrassahs providing little beyond shelter to the bulk of a poverty-stricken student body. What an irony A country, whose Founder not only stressed the importance of education but led by example, has done everything but focus on education and professionalism. Again, a country, whose Quaid was a symbol of honesty, has been beset with a succession of corrupt leaders who have riddled this country with a culture of corruption and nepotism what the Quaid referred to as 'poisons to be weeded out. Clearly, we have not managed to follow even a single dictum of the Quaids and have therefore landed ourselves in our present desperate straits. With a dedicated leadership, we could have struggled and fought our way out of these straits. However, today the nation sees no hope as it looks around its crop of ruling elite. So this Eid is a sombre one in so many ways. We remember with fondness and yearning our Founder, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah; but we also need to examine where we lost our direction. We also see around us the death and devastation wrought by the floods but we can also see the destruction that has visited the Pakistani nation since the US-led disastrous 'war on terror began, post-9/11 nine years ago today. As we use the present Eid to do a much-needed introspection, let us also seek leaders who will renew the Quaids vision for this great nation and unite all its people to enable us to confront our problems and our enemies in a decisive and successful manner. Pakistanis are a great nation in search of an honest and capable leadership.