State of Pakistan: What Can Pakistanis Do

60 years, 3 military rules, numerous scandals within the government, terrorist attacks, corruption and 6 governments in the past 15 years. That is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ladies and gentlemen. And now, to add to its history, we have the imposition of emergency by President General Pervez Musharraf. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel he is the lesser of all evils presently. But unfortunately that doesn’t seem encouraging enough at this point in time, if one is looking for a path to a bright prosperous future within the next 10 to 15 years.

The nation has time and again, unfortunately been led down by the various people holding the offices of the administration or state. That’s old news. But mind you, all great nations went through turmoil, political and otherwise in the earlier formative years of their country. As compared to countries of 250 years or more, 60 is a mere child. Nation building takes time and people have to stand by their nation.

Aah, now lets come to the people shall we. The great people of this country. The educated, the elite, the middle class, the ’sufaid posh’, the beggars, the robbers, the government officials, the government workers, the Pakistani in general. What a people we are. I believe that most of our problems root from within us. We as a nation, as a culture, refuse to go beyond our old or rather ‘puranay zamanay kay’ school of thought. Those who do, leave the country in search of brighter pastures. There are those who want to help the nation, so they stay back, and work here only and eventually become bitter. There are those who stay with a noble outlook, but soon find themselves in the riches of the wrong ways. They further corrupt the system, and that’s why they are reluctant for a change in this nation. Even the non-corrupt, so called pious people of this country, refuse to even obey the most basic of CIVIC LAWS.

There is also myopia in our country, that helping out the nation, if you are not a part of politics means, going to the villages and sitting there and helping them or charity. That’s it. To all those myopic people. HELPING OUT CAN simply be done by not running away to other countries to work or settle down as well. If you are the privileged class, then you are the future of this country’s economy. Simple as that. If you go away, then there's less contribution to the economy. It can’t be denied that there is some responsibility automatically upon you to play a part in the development of the country. If the entire cream of the country runs away, then I am sorry those who can’t do anything beyond thinking about survival, is doomed forever. They do not have the capacity to work, and build and create jobs, or opportunities for overall development projects. They don’t even have the capacity to think along those lines, much less the resources.

I, while not completely agree with the circumstances under which the emergency was imposed, feel it was inevitable. As for the media, I completely back the government’s will to make the elements of the media sector sign a ‘Code of Conduct’. They have shown they will go beyond their limits. However any attempt by the government to curb criticism over its own actions within the media, is wrong, and I am not condoning that.

I will wrap up this long rant on the ‘Islamic Republic of Pakistan’, where the government is as corrupt as the last, where crime goes up by the day, where the law enforcing agencies are either filled with extremist nuts or bribe hungry officials. Where the common man is day by day becoming more hypocritical and bitter.

I ask, if the people of this country want the future to be different then they drop their hypocrisy and take on responsibility - there is a lot to be done in economy, in education, in politics, in all spheres of life.