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Proud to be a Pakistani!
By Mohammad Ali Talpur
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The worsening of the situation in all aspects of life crucial to the very
existence of the state left me stumped regarding the choice of a topic for
writing about to highlight the misery and plight of the common people and
the arrogance of the self-righteous ruling elite. However I did find a
solution to my dilemma. In August last year the prestigious hard hitting
monthly Karachi journal founded by late Razia Bhatti had elicited views on
questions centring on the title of the column. I had answered the same,
and this was published unedited. I thought of sharing my views with the
readers on a larger scale and at the same time agitate their minds
regarding their attitude and response to the posed question. So here we
are:
1) Are you proud to be a Pakistani? If yes, why? If not, why not?
It is difficult to be proud of a country where members of different sects
blow up each other and places of worship, where cantonments are needed to
pacify people, where the expenditure on health and education is a minute
fraction of what is spent on defence and junkets by its rulers, where the
Dr Shazia Khalids, Mukhtaran Mais and Samia Sarwars cannot even dream of
justice being done, where the judiciary obliges the rulers with its
Doctrine of Necessity, where half the country is lost and no one is found
answerable, where the Kalabagh Dam and Greater Thal canal are built
disregarding the wishes of minority provinces, where the Governor of a
province receives welfare money from the UK, where the Ghotki train
disaster happens and no one resigns, where absconders from the law can and
do become ministers, where a single call from Colin Powell can bring a sea
change in our policy, where bullet-proof Mercedes are bought for billions
while the public crowds into vehicles like sardines, where the
overwhelming majority has no potable water and the Prime Minister’s and
President’s House spend millions on bottled water, where self-immolation
is the way to bring one’s plight to notice, where the politicos have loans
written off and become Prime Ministers in to the bargain. The list is long
and torturous and could continue indefinitely. Not being able to feel
proud is negative. I wish the rulers here had done something to make me
feel proud.
2) In your opinion, what were the highest and lowest points in Pakistan’s
history?
I wish there were some high points which I could have enumerated. The low
points abound. To begin with, the forcible annexation of Balochistan and
the subsequent brutal repression there, then we come to Liaqat Ali Khan’s
assassination, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the
Judiciary’s acceptance of the same, the Martial Law of Ayub Khan, the
action against Baloch and the hanging of seven Baloch in Hyderabad jail,
the incarceration of Nawab Nauroz Khan, the rigging of the election
against Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, the denial of the right to rule to the
majority Awami League, the wanton military action in East Pakistan, the
abject surrender of General A.K.Niazi, a civilian becoming the Chief
Martial Law Administrator, the dismissal of duly elected governments of
Balochistan and NWFP in 1973, and then the subsequent Army action against
the Baloch, the Martial law of Ziaul Haq, the money from Yunus Habib of
Mehran Bank to form the IJI, the assault on the Supreme Court led by
leading lights of today’s set up, the exploding of nuclear devices in
Balochistan and subsequent radiation and fallout, the freezing of foreign
accounts, the Kargil disaster and its cover up, the semi-Martial Law of
General Musharraf, the u-turn of a policy (wrong though) due to a single
call from Colin Powell, the deafening silence at the unjust and brutal US
military action against the Iraqi people, the uncovering of the nuclear
technology black-market headed by Dr. Qadeer, the manhandling of
journalists on Press Freedom Day. The list keeps getting longer by the
day.
3) Which are the three Pakistanis you are proud of and three Pakistanis
you are disappointed in?
I am proud of Dr. Allama Iqbal, I.I.Kazi, Janab Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Mir
Sher Mohammad Marri. But I wonder were they alive today, would they take
pride in being a Pakistani? I am disappointed not with three individuals
but with three institutions and they are: the Armed Forces, the Judiciary
and the Bureaucracy.
4) You are President. Which three things would you change?
If I were the President the first thing that I would do is to ensure that
education is universal and that there aren’t two tiers of education, i.e.
one for the elite and one for the masses. The same would apply to
universal health care for all citizens. This would be achieved by
allocating the present defence budget for the purpose and naturally the
present budget for these would be allocated for defence, and that would
not only be to depoliticize the armed forces, but also reduce its
influence and numbers drastically and consequently its much deplored role
in our social, political and economic life, forever.
There is a lot of talk about how the 1973 Constitution has been made
sacrosanct, but the country has come a long way from those days and needs
to have a new constitution which would respect the rights of minority
provinces and also ensure human rights and freedom. The constitution
should be formed after Truth Commissions have investigated and decided
upon the past injustices against the provinces and the people in general.
Last but not the least, the rule of law would be established in place of
elitist rule and all would be equally answerable for their deeds and
misdeeds before the law. No president or prime minister would be allowed
to go on junkets, nor would they be allowed to inconvenience the people by
creating traffic jams in the name of their security, nor would corrupt
politicos be allowed to have their loans written off; in fact all the
written-off loans would be returned to the people, along with interest.
The rule of law would bring about transparency in all state functions.
When a regime loses its meaning, supposing that it ever had any, it
becomes increasingly repressive and isolated. It remains concerned only
about its survival at any cost, and this is exactly what we have been
witnessing here for nearly 58 years. This has been the source of all the
miseries and problems that the people have been subjected to, and will
continue to be subjected to for the foreseeable future, unless, of course,
they decide to become the masters of their own fate.
This country is in dire need of people’s active involvement and action in
matters related to every aspect of the state. The fate of a country is too
important a matter to be left to the whims of military or political
godfathers. The salvation of this country lies in the development of a
responsible civil society. This is certainly not impossible, but it will
come at a price. It would be better to pay a price now, rather than pay
the ultimate price eventually.
The writer has been associated with the Baloch national struggle
Source: The Post
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