By Farooq Sumar
The writer is a businessman and a former chairman of the National Textile Foundation
These
and numerous other follies have caused incalculable damage to the nation. A
near bankrupt economy, political instability, social chaos, massive insecurity,
impoverished masses, and the injection of un-Islamic trends into Islam have serious
consequences. What more could we have done to destroy Pakistan and shatter the
dreams of Pakistanis? Even our worst enemies could not do to us what we have
managed to do to ourselves. Do we care?
The writer is a businessman and a former chairman of the National Textile Foundation
Be it political,
military, socio-economic or cultural affairs Pakistan's leadership has been
quite mediocre since independence. The tragedies and setbacks were many. Failure
to develop a coherent set of policies to address the nations pressing needs; to eradicate
ignorance, poverty and disease at home and to maintain a dignified image abroad
are the result of shortsighted leadership. After Jinnah there is just a continuous
and consistent bottomless fall that has now brought the country to its knees.
Some of our
decisions or lack thereof need to be revisited to comprehend our follies. The
four military interventions-coup d'etats - have retarded democracy and socio-economic
developments indefinitely. The military's continuous interference distorts and
twists Pakistan completely out of shape, so much so that it is faceless in the
comity of nations and an oppressive burden that impoverishes the people. The
unacceptable truth is that the military has become the senior partner in governance
at all levels, to the extent that separation of powers is totally blurred. The
nation experiences medium to violent jerks often that rob it of stability,
economic progress, cohesion and comprehension of its destiny.
The arrogance of
the military is the basis of its justification that it has a monopoly on
patriotism, wisdom, organisation and management skills to rule. This may be
true in part today as all other power structures and institutions have been
weakened quite deliberately by the military. While major political parties have
either been created by them or compromised and corrupted to become followers
who receive crumbs for their pimping services.
In the first
decade after Jinnah politicians squabbled over designations for themselves
rather than concentrate on the destinations of the country: a constitution,
democracy and General Elections. Severe leadership vacuum stared the nation in
the face, Liaquat was no substitute for Jinnah, Pakistan was at the mercy of
the winds and the vultures of corruption. Perfect justification for Gen Ayub
Khan's intrigues towards Martial Law.
The second round
of "democrats" at the helm begins after thirteen years of military
regimes and the debacle of East Pakistan. Bhutto gives us a constitution, but
promptly suspends articles pertaining to fundamental rights! A civilian
dictatorship and a reign of terror lasts for five and a half years, until a
rigged election and Gen Zia puts all in the dustbin. Absence of a sane system led to the flawed Bhutto
and the maniac Zia
Then we see
another round, from 1989, of the descendants of the feudal dictator
Bhutto-Benazir and the heinous dictator Zia-Nawaz in a series of musical chairs
conducted by the military. A period of heightened corruption and no democracy.
The same continues today, with of course military's indirect rule in place.
The
socio-political dispensations given to the people by the rulers that be have
only produced power grabbers and money makers, not nation builders and servants
of the people. These politicians have ruled under military patronage and are
not leaders in themselves, so leadership vacuum continues today and it cannot
be filled without a generation or two of struggle. Unless leadership emerges
that adheres to ideas and philosophy espoused by Iqbal and the ideals of a
modern democratic state desired by Jinnah, Pakistan will continue to fail and
remain a non-entity.
The media, owned
by barons, is a beneficiary of the largesse rather than the protector and
defender of the people's rights. Many talk of a "free media" in
Pakistan, this is but a mirage. We have seen how those who have transgressed
are treated by the establishment's power and control over institutions.
In this situation
our looters and plunderers have the temerity to call Pakistan "a
democracy" with a "parliament" consisting of tax evaders, mafia,
criminals, and election manipulators. With a corrupt, insensitive, bureaucratic
judiciary in league with powers that be, it has failed to provide justice to
the common man. Moreover a judiciary that legalised the rule of usurpers--Zia
and Musharraf --can hardly hold its head high.
Bhutto's sham
socialism and the ill-conceived policy of nationalisation that handed over the
economy to the bureaucrats for the next twenty-five years with Czar Ghulam Ishaq
at its head, led to massive corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement. The economy bankrupted then has not recovered
yet!
The incalculable
damage caused by the military led and Bhutto supported break-up in 1972 took
away the raison d'être for Pakistan. The military's rapacious role and barbaric
treatment of Bengali citizens of Pakistan, also fellow Muslims, shall remain a
blot on our history forever. We have been rudderless since then.
The execution of
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto manipulated through kangaroo courts, including the Supreme
Court will remain a permanent blot on Zia, the Army, the Supreme Court, the political parties that
supported the murder of a Prime Minister. Has anybody realised the damage
caused and being caused by this barbarism?
The military's creation
of Mujahedin at the bidding of the US to fight a US war which also helped tighten Zia's grip on power, the madrasa
scheme with Saudi Arabia for proliferation of Wahabism and perversion of the
spirit of Jihad, the Taliban trip whose high the military is still on which has
led to the Talibanisation of Pakistan. Their creation of the MQM mafia, Lashkar-e-Taiba,
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, ASWJ for various domestic and International enterprises
including sectarian strife at home. It must have taken some Mr. Hyde type minds
to prepare this elixir of certain doom and guaranteed destruction for Pakistan!
The mother of all
failures is the complete neglect, deliberate destruction and total refusal to
plan and install a internationally acceptable system of education for all in
the country. Ignorance hurts in every conceivable field from home to factory to
field and its continuance has done more damage than all other factors combined.
Country's
Punjabization over the last six decades has cost the nation and will ultimately
cost the Punjab. We have seen one break-up due to discrimination, how many more
do we want? A punjabi Army and bureaucracy may spill blood but cannot stop the
tsunami of hatred for punjab. Beware, we can only foster unity through equality
and liberty not by embezzling and usurping rights of others.
It seems, like all
else, we pursue a directionless, without values khaki foreign policy, sans
principles that often works against our own long-term interests. It also negates
Islamic principles. Diplomacy has been thrown to the winds for the unattainable
pursuit of depth and a desire for damnation. There is not a single immediate neighbour
that Pakistan has good or even tolerable relations with. India today probably
has more friends in the Muslim world than Pakistan with greater trade.