Human beings are born in this world with the power to see and the number of people born naturally without sight is few. Sightless people lack the ability to observe events occurring in their surroundings, but it is also a fact that many sighted people also fail to see and understand the events occurring in their surroundings. It is therefore, not necessary for a sighted person to have the visionary power to see and understand things.
Those who lack vision always have a myopic outlook towards events and circumstances, but those who are gifted with sight observe the events happening in their surroundings keenly and exude wisdom and intelligence.
It is these visionary people who lead others and show them the practical way forward in the future on the strength of their vision. It is an irony that when a person with foresight and vision shows a way, many of the sighted who do not have the vision, fail to understand and see anything. Even if they see something it is lopsided. They throw abuse and point fingers at the visionary people. It is another matter that these same people follow the same path that they had earlier derided. They not only choose the same path but also wax eloquence in its favour.
On April 7, an avalanche buried 139 officers of the Pakistan Army and the battalion headquarter was wiped out. The surprising statements from the President of Pakistan, Prime Minister, Chief of Army Staff and heads of other defence institutions and some national leaders on Siachen, Kashmir dispute, Pakistan-India friendship and the mutual relations between the two countries has forced me to think: When the MQM leader Altaf Hussain had spoken about Pakistan-India friendship and other regional issues in his addresses, statements and interviews, he was maliciously accused of being an Indian agent.
Nearly seven-and-a-half years ago, while addressing an international conference organised by the prominent Indian daily Hindustan Times in New Delhi, Hussain had given a message of friendship between Indian and Pakistan and said that negotiations should be started on the basis of the Line of Control that had been in existence for the past three decades.
The catastrophic incident that struck in the Gayari Sector at Siachen had not occurred at that time. “What have the people of India and Pakistan obtained other than dead bodies, orphaning of children, widowing of women, backwardness, oppressive poverty and increase in defence expenditure?”
“Our coming generations will have to pay a heavy price if we persist stubbornly on our stance. Obstinacy and political expediency should give way to wisdom and sagacity. The defence expenditures should be curtailed, and the available money utilised for the welfare of the society and betterment of economy. The two countries will have to stop pursuing the path of aggression for attaining the higher objectives of peace and better relations.”
Hussain had pointed out a path of peace and prosperity between Pakistan and India instead of continuing with hostilities in order to save the coming generations from misfortunes like the one happened in the Gayari Sector.
He had given this advice so that the two countries could work for the welfare of their people by giving up belligerent attitude towards each other. But the people bereft of common wisdom had reviled him.
Certain self-styled intellectuals and so-called writers filled the columns of the newspapers by scathing criticism and distorting the speech delivered by Hussain.
Hectic efforts were made to prove that Hussain was an Indian agent only because he talked about peace and friendship by giving by hostilities and extremism and resolving all the issues through negotiations.
Today when a tragedy has struck in Siachen, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have also started talking about friendship with India. Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani is also talking about the huge expenditures that India and Pakistan have to bear and that the issue should be resolved by India and Pakistan through talks.
Kayani has also said that the security of the country does not lie in the security of its border. The real security is in the progress and prosperity of the people. “We want that more money should be spent on public welfare, and less money should be spent on defence expenditure,” he had said.
PML-N head Nawaz Sharif has even said that we are fighting a war with extreme weather by remaining in Siachen instead of engaging with the enemy. Billions of rupees are being spent, and the two countries should find a solution through negotiations.
He has also said that Pakistan should take the lead and withdraw forces from Siachen instead of waiting for India to do first. Even the foreign office has been compelled to say that the only way to avoid tragedies like one happening in Siachen is to implement the agreements.
It is an irony that the eyes of the short-sighted people start seeing only after some tragedy has occurred. The visionaries inform about avoiding the tragedies well in advance. People at the helm of affairs are repeating the same things for which Altaf Hussain was condemned some years ago.
I thought it is better to share the speech which Hussain had delivered as a keynote speaker in the international conference organised by the Hindustan Times on November 5, 2004 in New Delhi by making it a part of my article.
I have done this in order to give the patriotic Pakistanis, who have been affected by the poisonous propaganda against the MQM and Hussain to decide for themselves that he has always been talking about the betterment of Pakistan. What Sharif, army chief and others are saying today was foretold by Hussain but he was reviled and ridiculed.
Several other international leaders had also participated in the conference including Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, then Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga, former British Prime Minister John Major, former US secretary of state Dr Henry Kissinger, special representative of the UN Dr Hans Blix and then Indian minister for external affairs Natwar Singh among many other leading personalities.
The topic of the conference was “India and the World” and it was organised to develop a prototype for the economic partnership of India with the neighbouring countries and to shape the political landscape in the future.
Comments on the speech of Hussain can be sent on the email address [email protected].
