We are reaping harvest of seeds sown by tin pot dictators like Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf, who became billionaires whilst this country was pushed into discord, its sovereignty bargained for personal gains. Today we face the humiliation of being repeatedly shamed with events like D I Khan jailbreak, planned and executed from within by terrorists who were raised to defeat the Russians, on tax payers’ money. Zia manipulated this country in the name of religion while Musharraf did the same with his concocted version of enlightened moderation, both damaging the moral and social fiber of this country, giving rise to a culture of institutionalised corruption. This country has been raped and ravaged by few for whom personal selfish agendas were the priority, not the collective universally accepted concept of national interest. In the process Quaid-e-Azam’s vision and his objective of establishing a modern democratic welfare state was subordinated to whims of individuals with neither any stakes in this country nor any fear of accountability. These over ambitious men, without any vision but lots of power, have by their greed based instincts driven Pakistan to a state of perpetual discontent, disharmony and insecurity. Those who planned DIK or Bannu jailbreaks are a product of Zia’s religious exploitation to achieve for himself a hold on power and attain financial benefits, ending up destroying this country economically. They have inflicted more damage to Pakistan than by our external enemies. Our external enemies must surely have exploited this situation by funding terrorism, but then what else one can expect from them. The solution lies in self assessment, accountability and serious soul searching, instead of the confusion where we find many sympathisers for these terrorists within our political and paid establishment and the realisation that a lot needs to be rectified within political thought process and mindset of security apparatus. Instead of mere rhetoric, it is time that priority be people of Pakistan, its sovereignty, economic revival and nation building, instead of whims of individuals, be they elected or usurpers.
MALIK TARIQALI
Lahore