In 1947, the subcontinent, whose people had lived as subjects of British Empire for over 200 years under the yoke of colonial Raj, finally gained independence. The subcontinent was ruled with by a Viceroy with the help of few thousand British soldiers and administrators who created hundreds of thousands of collaborators and a bureaucracy, civil and uniformed, to serve the Raj. These collaborators were generously given lands and titles in return for their loyalty to Queen of England. In Punjab, this role was performed by Unionist Party, a coalition of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh feudal, who believed that the sun would never set on the British Empire.
For over two centuries the people of this subcontinent were forced to pledge their loyalties to the Queen of England. It was the movement for liberation headed by men like Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Gandhi, Allama Iqbal, Nehru, Maulana Fazal-ul-Haq etc and others which bore fruit and in August of 1947 two separate nations, India and Pakistan, emerged whose citizens dreamt of leading their lives with loyalty to none other than their motherland.
Unfortunately, after almost 65 years, a subject of British Queen is questioning the loyalty of those who hold only a Pakistani nationality, and runs a Mafioso like party which holds to ransom the peace and tranquillity of this unfortunate country’s financial capital Karachi. In these 65 years, we abandoned vision of Quaid-e-Azam for creation of a modern democratic welfare state, whose people could live in peace, free from discrimination on basis of color, faith, creed, sex or language, each enjoying equal rights. Today we are a nation divided on basis of ethnicity, sect and faith, because for 60 years there was no rule of law and no accountability, while men with split loyalties holding foreign nationalities have been allowed by this state to decide its political and economic policies.
Our national sovereignty stands compromised, our financial assets are being transferred to foreign bank accounts by the few corrupt who having pledged an oath of loyalty to another nation are hence bound to follow agendas which suit the global strategic goals of these countries.
MALIK T ALI
Lahore