China has built 27,000 mega dams over 100 feet high while India has built 4,000 such dams while Pakistan has built only two dams of Tarbela and Mangla in the past 68 years of its existence. We worship democracy as if it is a new religion while the Holy Quran does not have a word of democracy. The kind of democracy we have comprises so-called elected representatives while many have fake degrees or are uneducated with no active participation in the national or provincial assemblies where a poor honest man cannot get entry due to lack of resources.
The party chairmen operate like demigods whose opinion cannot be differed from and only at the cost of expulsion from the party. The chairmen of political parties with some exceptions can only be termed as robber barons with no relationship with poor masses who comprise 50 per cent of population. They live in lofty palaces in luxurious environments while the poor and dispossessed die like flies due to heat stress and lack of drinking water. The vast numbers of rural poor are suffering from liver infection or hepatitis requiring expensive treatment beyond their means. Unless and until the democracy delivers a healthy baby, it cannot be called a good mother. We ought to think as to where we have gone wrong?
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
