Muhammad Bashir
Ever since the creation of the Islamic republic of Pakistan, religion has been used as a weapon either for furtherance of some particular political objectives or tightening the noose against political adversaries. Almost at every decade,in the chequered history of 70 years, the political pundits have very prudently used Islam when they had no cogent solution to the real problems of the land and its people .It has almost become known to all and sundry that whenever politicians find themselves in tight corners or when their feet tremble due to their extreme failures in addressing the real issues ,then the cheapest recourse to hoodwink the public and attract their attention is to make a hue and cry of three issues-Religion ,Anti-Americanism and Anti-Indianism.
A matter of great misfortune, that not only are these fallacious and irrational ideologies ingrained into the mind of the Pakistanis but are regularly taught and preached with much vehemence in the schools, colleges and universities. For how long will we suffer from the malaise of self deception– to hide one,s head in the sand deep , shutting eyes , presuming that the enemy is not there and ultimately he stands on our head. The nation is awake .We are no more in the era of dark ages or medievalism where dogmatism prevailed.
The statement by the finance minister a month back in the midst of dollar’s flight at an eagle’s heights that”It is the will of God that Pakistan will exist”and that “the only state in the world that has been created in the name of Islam” is nothing more than blinking eyes to the fact that though we are in the deep quagmire of economic chaos, from where no exit is visible .The lone way to face the public is either to hurl stones at the previous regime, or to take shelter under the shadow of religious dogmas__ both the man oeuvres are being applied successfully since inception.
One must bring it to the limelight that the God’s favours are with the whole universe as He is the ultimate controller and manager of the whole universe and the ideological basis is not the matter of today but right from the struggles against colonialism, controversy of Banarus(1867),and the efforts of Muslims to have a separate state are all those stages which leave no doubt regarding the deep entrenched ideological basis of Pakistan.The question is how this old idea came to his mind at a stage when common man is least bothered about these age old mantras of philosophical and irrational rhetorics but deeply bothered about two square bread a day.
The real issues dragging us back are _poverty , curruption,polarization , parochialism, horizontal and vertical fissures ,over population, illiteracy,centralism,oligarchy , feudalism,injustice , mediocrity, leadership vacuum, intolerance, fanaticism,fragile institutions, overdeveloped state structure ,dictated Foreign policy , insecurity and the last but not the least and most lethal is absence of meritocracy. For how long we will suffer from the problem of skepticism, determinism and mudslinging at each other .
Confession is the greatest virtue .We must accept what is true .So long the stakeholders don’t admit the fact that the nation has been suffering from fatal disease and this social fabric is on the brink of disaster,we cannot come out of the mess.It is high time that prior daignosis as to which part of the body is aching and where from the tumor to be removed shall be immediately arranged .The ongoing crisis where people are getting suffocated in pursuit of flour bags and infants are dying due to scarcity of clean drinking water,sky rocketing prices have compelled large section of society on moral, social and ethical vices.Sheer apathetic clouds have encircled the nation .There is no dearth of resources but the only problem is that we are neither sincere nor serious about tackling the core issue of the nation which needs very sincere managers .
When matters are not taken serious, then the results are very hazardous. Economy is the backbone of nation. It is the nucleus which keeps the whole body intact. Once it gets derailed, then all parts of the machinery get rent asunder leading towards fragmentation. The fall of USSR was not due to guns and steel but it’s internal economic disorder. All institutions of the state have roots in the economic fields and from the economic soil, it takes water and fertilizers. Once the soil gets dry or God forbid barren, then the plants, super structure gets pale and die down like the autumn leaves .
Solution is not far to seek .Sincerity and looking a bit forward from one’s nose is the only panacea. We have a great resilience as a nation and have overcome many upheavals in the past .The shackles of mutual antagonism among political parties and institutions need to be broken. Prejudicial feelings and looking above personal interest and placing national interest at the highest premium can bring us quickly out of mess as “where there is a will, there is a way.”
(The author is associate professor at GPGC Charsadda)
