Ever since the incident of 9/11, our country is in great mess due to poor leadership and wrong policies by the respective governments. At that time, unfortunately our country was being ruled by a military dictator with a handful of his close cronies and a few generals to advise him.
The US government wanted help of Pakistan in their war on terror and demolishing the government of Taliban in Afghanistan which had been recognised by Pakistan.
After Musharraf said yes, there was no independent policy of the country. The government that came into being after the general elections of 2008 was no different to that of military dictator rather it became worse as far as Pakistan’s national interests are concerned.
If our rulers really want to get out of this mess, they have to take certain steps immediately:-
1. Have independent and impartial judiciary to dispense justice to all. Ensure all its judgements/orders are implemented without any delay.
2. All appointments on key posts should be made purely on merit and their selection made transparent.
3. There should be no political interference in the court of inquiries or commissions.
4. There should be no complacency in the application of rule of law. The influential get away with the crime and for the same offence, the wretched ones are prosecuted.
5. All political parties should hold intra-party elections. At present, except for Jamaat-i-Islami, all parties are either family affair or one man show.
5. To improve economy, the law and order situation must improve. For this, we have to revisit our foreign policy which is against the wishes of the nation.
6. The national budget is always in the deficit. This means we spend more than our income. For this the rulers have to tighten up their belts who are mostly free loaders.
7. Re-invigoration of our police force. Our police needs immediate reforms without which we cannot improve our law and order situation.
8. Finally, ensure accountability across the board. For this we have to form a commission with members having impeccable and sterling character.
MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA
Lahore
