In 1947, Pakistan was carved as a liberal democratic state where everyone’s rights would be protected regardless of caste, race and religion. Pakistan: the land of the pure as Quaid-e-Azam called it. Some 62 years later, in 2009 the Transparency International described Pakistan as among the most corrupt states in the world.
The bureaucracy of Pakistan, instead of acting as public servants, acts as public enslavers. The judicial system of Pakistan is unable to provide justice, unable to make the government implement court orders and is in a constant head-on with the executive.
The executive is a money-making machine for the visionless politicians and their parties. The legislature: Senate, National Assembly and the provincial assemblies are nothing but a place where the politicians and their parties scheme, deceive and squabble against each other. Their criticism is non-constructive and does not serve the country but just their own power seeking ambitions.
No parliamentary committee is strong enough to inquire, make a decision and implement it. The general reputation of parliamentary committees in Pakistan is that they are formed for such matters which the government does not want to address in its tenure.
Is this the Pakistan our forefathers fought for? Is this what hundreds and thousands of Muslims gave their lives, shed their blood, lost their families for? Pakistan was carved for our right to a separate state, for us to be identified as a separate and distinct nation, to be free of British or Hindu rule. But the irony of it all is, first we were dictated by the British and now by people who were or are empowered by them. There was once a dream that was “Pakistan” where everyone would get justice, everyone’s rights would be safeguarded and the public would be empowered. But this is not it. You could only whisper it now, anything more than a whisper and it would vanish. It has been 63 years since Pakistan was carved on the world map. I say, let’s whisper again. The time is upon us. It’s now or never.
AADIL AAMIR
Lahore