Story Of A Failed Nation

Whenever there is an issue containing an attack on our country's sovereignty, integrity or freedom, it looks as if we are programmed to say these two words “Pakistan Zindabad” which translates into “Long Live Pakistan.” We start to wield these two words almost immediately as if this would save us and our country Pakistan.

It does beg a question to each and every one of us, that though we passionately and vehemently blurt out Pakistan Zindabad even for a cricket match but what else do we do to make our country live long, apart from only saying it. Do not get me wrong on this, I am not for once in a position to question Allah but I am here precisely to speak the truth and for that I am not here to please any one. We are a failed nation. We have let our forefathers down who fought for this independence. We have let our Holy Prophet PBUH down, even when he was the best example to emulate. We have seriously let down our Allah in whom we only seem to believe when in the Masjid for Namaz or in the month of Ramadan while fasting. In fact, and I do hate to say it, the state of our believes are so downright appalling that we don't even remember Him when we are in trouble but that is a topic for some other day. In short, it can't be more true than this when I say that we have let ourselves down.

It was a dream of some visionary leaders of that time who wanted to see a separate country for the Muslims of subcontinent. It was a romance that can only be felt if we could realise how that dream was one day fulfilled by those people who couldn't live to see it as an independent state. It was such a beautiful blessing and gift of Allah that if we had remained sincere, honest and righteous in our deeds, this country would had been the richest and the wealthiest country in the world. Some might argue the fact that wealth and money are not everything and unsurprisingly, they are right. There are moral, culture, traditions, religion that define a nation rather than the wealth they have and if you let those “some” say more, then they would tell you that we a proud and rich country of morals, religion and culture. But I would like to pose a question in front of these proud people that in which part of the earth is it considered to be moral if you rob an old pensioner of his belongings? In which religion is it taught that to kill any one, even though he/she is wrong, is fair and correct? In which tradition and culture do we find that driving like total maniac and not following any traffic law makes a country look richer in the same tradition and culture that those people are boasting about?

I happen to visit Karachi during my 2-week long vacation. The stay was amazing, met my family, relatives and friends after such a long time, so it was indeed heart warming. However, I can't speak in the same breath for the way I found the country to be in. There is a trend growing among the people to point all the mistakes, follies and problems in the direction of Islamabad. It isn't entirely wrong if I have to be honest, but as I said, it isn't an entirely correct approach at the same time.

The trouble is we have found an easy way out to put and shift all the blame towards the capital, hence not a single creature in Pakistan is ready to accept his/her own shortcomings, let alone working on it. If we take the example of countries like Japan, USA or Germany, these countries have become powerful and wealthy states because the general public have taken their social responsibility very seriously, whereas in Pakistan it is completely the opposite. I might still get people coming up and discussing about how clean the city of Karachi use to be in '70s and '80s but they themselves have been responsible for the mess that has been created in the city and hence, throughout the country.

It won't be fair also to put all the blame on the general public, considering the fact that the public in question is illiterate and uneducated, as statistics prove that less than 50% of the people are literate. This makes it easy for political parties like we have in our country to first divide the nation on the grounds of ethnicity and then use these same brainwashed people against other ethnicity. These political stakeholders have not for once used their popularity to streamline the human resources for the progress, development and growth of Pakistan. But then I argue over the fact that its again our failure that we have created and lead such corrupt and abysmal so-called 'leaders' to power and allow them to control us.

The political parties have actually used their popularity to instigate riots in the city and all over the country, depicting us to the outer world as an illiterate, intolerant and extreme-minded society, who if given the chance can set their own houses on fire. The image that sets out to the world outside Pakistan is not very pleasant, because since the small sample of Pakistanis that resides outside Pakistan are law-abiding, tolerant Muslims, the population that resides inside the country just ruins the image of each and every thing associated with Pakistan.

This is where I think the religious parties and groups of Pakistan should wade through the problem and instil tolerance and peace among the masses. But sadly enough, even on this front we have failed massively as these religious parties have never seem to make an effort to create a tolerant and a peaceful society which would invite people of other countries. Looks as if I am asking for a lot because the thing is that we can't tolerate each other, let alone having any one else in our country to be tolerated by us.

What we are experiencing is a complete collapse of social and moral structure which held the foundation of our country. Furthermore, we are too jumbled up in our world and remain obstinate towards our country. Six decades ago, a nation wanted a country; six decades later the country needs a nation.