Pakistan was in trouble long before the Taliban and the Arabs came into the fray.Let us not adopt the ostric approach and blame this or that for PAkistan's failure as a state.
Firstly we need to decide why we made pakistan. I dont want to drone on and on here, but we made Pakistan as a homeland for Muslims, so that they could live their lives as Muslims. If you deny that then the very existence of pakistan is in doubt. But then we back tracked and went about our ways. This was bound to happen because the people who made Pakistan had no clues about Islam in any case. Therefore we had lip service to a system by a vested interest who had no inkling or intention to stick to their word.
Second. We then started off with establishing a democracy. Total lack of education and no sense of fairness in the ruling elite meant that democracy turned into another elite club of landed gentry. Any semblence of democratic values went down the drain with Liaquat Ali's assasination (or even with Mr Jinnah's death) and a series of weak and corrupt leaders soon invited the army into the power corridor.We have since then struggled with democracy and army rule since 1956, and the struggle goes on.
Third, and for obvious reasons, lack of education and enlightenment has chronically deprived this nation of people with knowledge and wisdom. Intentionally honest people are kept in the background and corrupt people are borught to the front, to do the bidding of the corrupt elite. This has never allowed institutions to develop, which can monitor and check rampant corruption. In many ways the current CJ is the only ray of hope in this direction.
Rampant corruption has resulted in lack of industrialization, and in some cases active discouragement of development in various regions. The german Steel mil,s in the 50s, Kalabagh Dam, and nameless other projects which could have seen us a light year away from our current state of despair are a few things that come to mind.
Financial corruption has resulted in lack of generation of revenues , a bulging black economy, and a landed gentry that still refuses to pay tax after 60 yrs and no one including the high and mighty military dictator and reformists can seem to solve this riddle.
Moral corruption has resulted in regionalism and creed and caste selection before merit, which has resulted in brain drain and moral and social deterioration. it came to a head in 1971 in the partition of this country, something which our ruling elites to this day consider (unashamedly so!!!!) a good solution and best for Pakistan.
The social corruption has resulted in disillusioned youth, drugs , and fanaticism to creep into the culture to tear apart what is left of it.
Another national trait of the people is to expect overnight changes to happenand all bad to turn into good in an instant. When this does not happen, people go on and malign anything that comes to hand!!
So where do we start AGAIN!!!!
First things first, the people should decide once and for all what they actually want!!! Islam, or West, Socialism or rampant capitalism, Presidential or parlianmentary system. We then need to stick to it. We need to assure ourselves that army is not a system of governance, and whereas it is a big institution and has a great power base with an interest in PAkistan's stability, it is not the solution to Pakistan's problems. we should decide the way we want to go and make amendments to the constitution accordingly. Limits must be imposed on the job of the senior exec of the country, as well as term limitation to ensurethat people do not cling to power and destroy the country in this lust.
It is important to build institutions in Pakistan and strengthen them. We need to have systems in place so that the beaurocracy is not prone to manipulation by the polity, nor are they unchecked bulls on the rampage, but work within their remit.
Financial stability of the nation is paramount if we are to maintain our independence. We really need to strengthen our tax bas e and collection system and avoid dependence on foreign loans at all cost. we can ask various enterprenours of pakistani origin to come back to their country and start trade from here. They need to understand that this would be within the frame work of the laws, and if they transgress, they will be punished.
Education is the next thing. We need to understand that modern day education should include PROPER islamic education, so that the people have an understanding of the Quran and Sunnah and therefore are not led astray by the Mullah and other extremists with a vested interest. No member of this ummah be it man or woman should be left out and a renewed effort should be made to educate the grown ups. The way to do it is to involve industry and once people have been given jobs, it should be incumbent upon them to educate themselves. We can use the medium of television like was attempted during the times of Bhutto, but allying it to the maintenance of their jobs would result in more motive for people. Throughout the west, we are taught multiple foreign languages. The languages of the East are Arabic, and Persian or Mandarin, given our regional affiliations in addition to english. This should be made compulsary. I also think that the system of examinations should be changed and military training for the youth should be a must so that the health of the nation should improve. I also think that vocational education should be taught to the grown up unemployed and then they should be put to work.
How will all this happen. We should not hope for it overnight. This is a task that will take years to complete and even longer before it bears fruit. It will have to come through the ballot rather than the revolution as a less bloodier way of doing things although understandably slower. We need to let the system work over 2-3 terms and see what it brings to the fore. Sooner or later the people will relaaize that voting for the caste or biradary does not get the work done and look towards other people and sources. Unfortunately, the one good way of choosing candidates from the grassroots was the local elections which has been stopped by this stupid Government. this needs to be recommenced as soon as possible.
Araz
