Rafi
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Don’t know why we can’t have a serious discussion without bringing in religion.
There is no way that you can get another Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA), Hazrat Omar (RA), Hazrat Osman (RA) or Hazrat Ali (RA) so reference to their time is unreasonable. I don’t much care about other Khalifas (except for 4 years of Omar bin Abdul Aziz). According to Maulana Maudoodi all others were Kings in all but name, thus IMO all those believing in Khilafat are living in cuckoo land.
You can have a very good progressive Islamic state without following the Takfiri/Wahabi tyranny. I am not a very religious man but I hardly missed any Friday prayer or Ramzan fast during my 5 years stay in UAE mainly because there was always a mosque present within 5 minutes’ walk from wherever I lived. In a country (Dubai) where wine is freely available in the hotels as well as there are night clubs at every corner; women can walk alone in the middle of the night without any fear of being molested and minor crime is virtually non-existent. Everyone has freedom choice about what he wants to do in his free time. Can you say the same about Pakistan or Iran or Saudi Arabia? Dubai is a modern Islamic state, not a dark age Afghan like Emirate that Taliban and Khilafat would like Pakistan to become.
No one can deny that Pakistan defence forces are rather large. We need them mainly to fight India. Excluding Kashmir, we have very few other disputes with India. Once Kashmir situation cools down, why do we need to spend 50% of national income on defence? I am only advocating cutting out the deadwood from the services to make them lean and deadly. May be we need more COIN forces rather than tank regiments?
Iqbal said a hundred years ago
Khuda key aashiq to hain hazaaron, banon main phertain hain marey marey
Main uska banda banoon ga jisko khuda key bandon sey piyar hog a
Meaning there are thousands of lovers of God who running around aimlessly in the deserts. I will be slave of that one who loves God’s slaves (human beings).
I am advocating that we put welfare of ordinary men of Pakistan at the top of the list. To do this we need to provide them with jobs, housing and education. We can’t achieve this without sustained growth in the economy; this in turn requires investment in infrastructure and job creating projects for which we need funds.
How else can a nation generate income if not thru taxation of some kind? It is not that Pakistan is really a very poor country; despite 1/3 of the population living below poverty line a lot of people have a lot of money and they don’t pay taxes. During a very recent visit to Karachi to attend wedding of a close family friend’s daughter, I was horrified to know that the wedding suit of the bride cost 4 lakh rupees. This is five thousand dollars!!! Enough to feed four poor families for one year. I am not suggesting to tax the poor (that every budget does) but to get everyone into the tax net to generate income to finance public sector projects.
As it is, a very large percentage of the population is without clean drinking water, public health care is non-existent; education level is going down each year and there is a sever e lack of housing.
Pakistani population is growing at the rate of about 2.5% per year. How are we ever going to educate, provide work, housing and other living facilities to future Pakistanis unless we generate funds. May be some Hon members would like to keep borrowing from IMF?
A robust economy will not only benefit common man but also with additional funds defence forces will be able to afford more modern weapons and thus defence will be strengthened in the long run. Besides a strong economy is a must for ability for sustained fighting capability. Is this not what defence is all about?
I would love to hear alternate views, but please don’t preach Khilafat to me. Give me concrete arguments relevant to present day environment. Remember I am not advocating secularism, I am only proposing ‘Defence thru strong economy’.
The state even if it had 0% defense budget would not be able to accomplish this, their should be privatization of state assets, the state has no business running air lines and banks etc. we are currently spending billions on loss making state enterprises, that went out with the dodo.
Peace is something to be desired, but at what cost.....