- Socrates
I write this
with the heavy heart of one who is watching his country, his identity, and his
home crumble around him, and fully aware that these clichéd phrases have been
so overused by us all, especially our digital media, that they have lost all
semblance of their meaning and, most importantly, their symbolism. Gone are the
days when these words would bring to mind the countless sacrifices made by our
ancestors so that we could be free of those who opposed our right to exist, and
the freedom to believe in an ideal that was not founded in idol worship and
debauchery, but rather in the belief in one Lord, one Sustainer, and all the
spiritual safety that Islam provided. I weep inside to see the way this ideal
has been trampled, deformed, vilified, twisted to personal gain, and most
horrible of all, replaced by all that it was supposed to cure.
I speak of
indifference to one another, of hate and envy, malice and greed, lies and
thievery, all of which we now practice with abandon. Few of us remain who see
this desecration of the hope and dream of the men who built this country, who,
if left alive, would wish with all their hearts that they were dead. For this
is what we do to one another, every single day, every minute or the other, to
our families, to our relatives, friends and acquaintances. How, you will say,
does this affect our country in the wider perspective? For it is from this
beginning I will try to show how all these things that we practice so devoutly
have ruined us, numbed us to one another’s suffering, erased our self respect,
taken away our ability to hold our head high and be proud to belong to
Pakistan.
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attack on PNS Mehran at the night of 2nd May |
Yet, there seems
to be no change in those who feel themselves bound by some unseen duty to sing
the praises of their political parties and their idolized leaders as though
they are our only salvation, while rest are only pretenders to their rightful
inheritance: the reins of power. Have we all forgotten what it means to be a
head of state? The crushing and overwhelming responsibility of being liable for
every single thing that goes wrong under one’s gaze? Where is the time when
people like the Companions of Allah’s messenger (peace be upon him) fled from
the very thought of assuming the duties of a ruler? Where is that realization
that every person that goes hungry, that is unfairly punished, that is left
destitute by your inaction, will all be your responsibility to answer for? And,
finally, what is it that these so-called ‘leaders’ offer their supporters that
enable them to gladly rationalize away the troubles that plague our society,
and somehow manage to shed scorn on those who rightly question them?
This is where I
ask, with all humanly possible desperation and bewilderment, that in the name
of God, what blinds you so? What blinds you to all that I have just said thus
far? What blinds you to the looming destruction of our country, our home? What
blinds you to the corrupt way of life you’ve adopted, whose poison is seeping
into every walk of not only yours, but our lives as well? There will always the
inevitable disparagement and ridicule of selective bits of my words, but the
questions that demand answers and which hold the key to all our problems, will
go unanswered as always.
I pray that,
just this once, let this plea of mine and that of others who think the same are
seen as it truly is, in its entirety, and not as a session of thrust and parry,
otherwise, it will be just another echo of the vicious circle that we are
trapped in. Pray tell, what have these idolized
politicians done for our country thus far, and I speak not of past glories and
one-off publicity stunts, but rather of the aggregate steps taken to safeguard
the future and not just the present? All their efforts have been for
naught, except to bring our nation to this point in time where each successive
band of thieves steps in, funnels away the very resources meant for the
salvation of this almost sunk ship we call our nation, and then abscond to
leave us floundering yet again. Robbers, pillagers, rapists, utter filth from
the very dregs of society: these are our leaders. These are the people we
selected from amongst us to guide us toward the future. It is said that the
civil servants of a democratic country are a reflection of its people. And this
is our nation, for these are our representatives.
This is the
product of an inheritance of dreams of greater men than us, after more than
seventy years of leaving behind their legacy, being entrusted to unworthy hands.
The minority that wishes to see this legacy progress into something greater are
forever side-lined, ridiculed, ostracised and labelled over-thinkers, dreamers and
all sorts of similar epithets. Here is the extent our vision, dear reader. This
is the vision we have for our country, for our people, for ourselves. Blinkered
and fettered by our prejudices, our insignificant racial differences, by our
pettiness, we have never managed to grow and look beyond ourselves and our own narrow
vision of vanity and greed. Those of us who do manage to see beyond are
ridiculed for leaving the country and doing naught for pulling the people out
of this hole they have dug themselves into, never admitting that it is the
deriders themselves who do what they can to intellectually starve and throttle
all those wishing to change the status quo. This is not the task of some
‘saviour’ who will swoop down and bring us all lasting harmony, peace and
prosperity. This is something that each individual must strive to purge themselves
of.
Again, sadly,
even this basic piece of self-improvement is now relegated to the intellectual
obscurity that clichés enjoy. These words no longer hold any meaning behind
them, as do so many other necessary truths that we all, young and old, but
especially young, choose to ignore rather than perform the difficult and
constant task of acting upon these words, nor waste precious brainpower to
ponder the far reaching applications that these simple words will have in our
lives. All this is the pain of one who is watching his country, his homeland
being inexorably sold off by increments, and not just monetarily. We are
selling our future, our hopes, our dreams and identities.
Yet, my pain
alone is unimportant. Because it is all of us who must feel this pain,
so that it gives birth to the ambition to work for our salvation, and
ultimately, leave behind a legacy, an identity, a home, for the generation we
will usher in in the near future. This is my effort to bring to the vanguard of
our reality that pain, to help in the birthing of that resolve that is so
desperately needed, to try and indicate some direction where we can guide our
directionless and thoughtless youth. Mothers will continue to raise children
like Lieutenant Yasir Abbas, Khalil-ur-Rehman, Javed Ahmed and all the other
martyrs that have till date laid down their lives for this land, and our
leaders will keep throwing their precious lives and sacrifices away. They
cannot even accord those martyrs the dignity of accepting the responsibility of
their feebleness which resulted in the creation of such circumstances that
necessitated the loss of such heroes. It is finally a time to change, dear
reader. I pray we can begin now, before it is too late.
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