At times when madness and miserliness is prevailing, sanity becomes a virtue. At times when uncertainty, bewilderment and deformation substitute realities, it is hard to keep sight. At times when vultures overshadow the sun on sky like dark clouds, it is hard to see light. And that is probably the crisis of Pakistani intelligentsia, leadership and people. In past sixty years or so we have preferred very devastating and destructive choices amongst the alternates that were available and traversed the time opposed to ground realities, our age and era. Result is utter dissatisfaction and discontent, but we still fail to understand that these are the results of decisions made and still we do not recognize those faults and hence our methods and approach to rectify our issues is as confused, unfruitful and dis-satisfactory as our past and present.

Throughout time we took decisions which supported undemocratic totalitarian regimes, we took decisions which supported narrow-mindedness and fundamentalism, we supported decisions which resulted in growing gulf between different segments in society, we supported decisions which reinforced waning and corroded systems such as feudalism, clans and tribes, caste and race. We supported jirga against the court, we supported honor and shame instead of justice and rights, we supported centralization against delegation of authority, we supported hatred against harmony and peace, and so on and on we supported short-sightedness. Negativity or positivity, whatever approach one chose to take, the cannot be contained, they cannot be channelized, there is no mechanism by which you can control behaviors, that here you need hatred, here you need love, here you need war and here you need peace, here you need die hard extremists and here you need peace loving brethren, here you need harmony and here you need disintegration, no it is not possible. Similarly you cannot create progressive, competing minds while controlling the very process necessary to create such minds, while you are not in favor of the system which is needed for progress, you will not attain progress.

In short we condemn every virtue which modern world adopted and we praise every weakening structure which the progressive world has left behind, examples are feudalism, industrialization, secularism, democracy, politics, totalitarianism, centralization, peace and harmony, communalism, racism, and so on (this list is not in order, and left on reader to chose which piece fits where).

 

All we cry against these days is outcome of ill thinking and weak mindset, corruption is not the cause but product, in a society where loyalty is preferred over duties, where position is more important than performance how can you avoid corruption? It is a society where people in a certain class can go to any extent to preserve their interests, every time democracy is failed, people are murdered, hanged, tortured and made silenced, and we do not see who is getting the real advantage. We provide opportunists with maximum opportunities of exploitation and then we feel hurt. Still we cannot see the real culprits and so we are responsible, we the people who chose to be deaf, dumb and blind.

Changing faces is not the solution, change cannot come from top. It is the core issue that the real fight is not for right but for opportunities, people are angry because they are not getting opportunities, provide them fair share in the cake and they will be quite, people are failed to see that majority in Pakistan is illiterate, poor and deprived of all necessities of life. Our majority is out of our politics, our worries and our issues. Our middle class cannot see beyond themselves, and is always failed to join hands with the majority, as joining majority demands sacrifices, it demands hard work, it demands long term policies to uplift the poor and deprived. It can demand nationalization when necessary and until when necessary, it may demands quota system in its true format, it may demand sacrificing your social and moral principles to accommodate lower classes and their ethos. In short, real progress of this nation demands an upside down and major sacrifices from privileged. Unrest we see today is partially due to the fact that this tussle between unprivileged and privileged is growing, most fail to realize or they do not want to consider the fact for obvious implications for them.

It is a good sign to see salaried middle and upper middle classes participating in political debate and accelerating in political activism, although they are still conservative but there is a hope that with continuation they may learn from their mistakes as time and experience provides avenues to learn, only problem is that if they will be allowed time. Time is a crucial factor because forces which primarily back conservatism know they need to act swiftly and not allow democracy to prevail, as democracy will eventually root them out, that is the prime reason why democracy is compromised and failed in Pakistan with support from agents within and outside. This conclusion leads to a question if a revolution is the only way possible to uplift this nation, although at present it does not looks like a possibility, nevertheless revolution arrives when no options are left.

 

Aloofness and detachment of ruling classes from people and as a result inability of people to have a say in their own fate has cumulative effect of reliance on powers beyond the realm of state and citizen, hence vigor of administrative and security gear (or what is called the establishment) and hence the involvement of majestic powers with their own imperial agendas and hence the role of anti democratic fundamentalist forces; all these clusters go hand in hand and complement each other. Political parties cannot survive without these clusters (in absence of legitimate and democratic role of people who support them), and hence they are merely restored to survival, at present every political party in Pakistan (irrespective of its ideology and alignment) is striving to survive, and they are not really contributing to the reason of their existence, that is state, citizen, democracy, politics and policies to empower these core institutions. For those in government, they are more vulnerable as they are supposedly responsible for governance and growth, for policy making and strategies, for development and sustainability and all other sectors of governance and legislation. It is a question if they realize that they need to get back to the core principles of modern democracy and state, which is empowering people to look after their interests, but it is not that simple and here is where the challenge appears, as mentioned earlier in another context, to empower people it is necessary to provide them with trappings such as education, awareness, economic activity, progress in personal and social life, transparency, fair and fast administration and financial apparatus willing to support a growing economy. Moreover generally and in case of Pakistan specially, peace is a necessity to empower and help people concentrate on growth. What is very clear is that any government which tries to follow this path is provided maximum obstacles from within its organization and from outside, corruption prevails, self interests and objectives affect decision making process, personal loyalties are preferred over principles, every available avenue is used to demoralize people, co-operation and alignment between stake holders is shattered, alliances are made and broken, in short every move is supported which results in preservation of status quo.

Every problem, has a solution, and a problem can be considered as an opportunity, forces in history are not bound to people and events but more meaningful and enduring reasons, collision of different classes and segments is inevitable and it is also true that at the end of day it is the most dynamic and energetic ideas and groups which last, nations flourish and vanish, people come and go, maps are changed, those with will to survive and change are always able to compete. Solutions to all our problems, lie within us.

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