Working hard and a democratic government
The country observed Quaid-e-Azam’s death anniversary on Friday past in a more sombre fashion. The life of founding father is a tale filled with sacrifice upon sacrifice. His determination was perhaps his best quality. It was his determination that brought all the Muslims of the subcontinent under one banner and put forth a demand for Pakistan. He made sure that the country that he was creating could withstand any political challenge though he died before he could see this dream translate into reality.
What the Quaid wished for the country was not a theocracy but a democracy. He was enamoured by democracy and believed in it as a system of governance. But most of all what he believed in was working hard. He was not one to take any matter lightly or ignore any task or put off a task to some other time. His punctuality and regularity made him deliver the country to the Muslims of the subcontinent in just over seven years. However, what the later leaders have done with country would leave him turning in his grave. The country has faced political assassinations, martial laws, dismemberment of the country, Islamisation of almost every aspect of the country and its culture, sectarianism, terrorism, corruption, poverty and illiteracy among other social evils. On the one hand, he wouldn’t approve of what has become of the country that he literally gave his life to create. On the other hand, he wasn’t one to give up. He would have instead stood tall and started working round the clock to make it right. That is what his most important strength was: hard work. Instead of indulging in self-harming endeavours like that of creating and supporting militants under some lame excuse, he would have focused on improving country’s defence forces to a level that would have sufficed for any internal or external threat.
The Quaid of yesterday would not be happy with the Pakistan of today, but that would not have made him give up on Pakistan, rather it would have made him work tirelessly to turn it into a country that he could be proud of. And that is exactly what we should promise to do in his memory and in his honour.
