What Ails
Pakistan?
By Sir Cam
Cambridge, England
Another Pakistan Independence
Day already! My goodness, how the years have gone
by! Ah, yes, the summer of 1947, when Pakistan
appeared on the world map. It only seems like
yesterday, or so the oldies say (I'm afraid it
was long before I was born). Well, never mind
your yesterday, Baba, what about today? "Today,
my son, will be your yesterday tomorrow."
Yeah, whatever, but what about Jinnah?
Poor Jinnah! How would Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali
Jinnah have felt if he was to somehow reappear
today? Sad or happy? Or both: delighted by the
realization of a dream -- Pakistan -- but tinged
by a depression born of realism: what Pakistan
should have been 59 years after independence.
If dreams are anything to go by, and I've met
Jinnah three times in my dreams, he always looked
a bit melancholy. (My family says I should stop
reading so many history books and I would thereby
dream normal dreams: about cars, Lara Croft, and
Pakistan beating England at cricket.)
Back in August 15, 1947 (the date for Pakistan's
Independence Day was subsequently changed to August
14), Jinnah said: "This day marks the end
of a poignant phase in our national history and
it should also be the beginning of a new and a
noble era". A poignant, historic phase, yes,
but whatever became of the new and noble era?
Would Jinnah have described the years and years
of military rule as a "noble era"? Or,
would he categorize the episodes of civilian mismanagement
as a "noble era"?
Jinnah, I think, would have been appalled by the
sorry mess that Pakistan finds itself in today.
It is certainly not a laughable kind of mess,
not the Laurel and Hardy slapstick type: "That's
another fine mess you've got me into, Laurel".
Hardy at least had Laurel to blame for his troubles,
but who is Pakistan's Laurel? And, for that matter,
where are the Hardys of Pakistan?
In the oft-quoted (but not this particular sentence,
I might add) Presidential Address to the Constituent
Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, Jinnah
said, "Now, if we want to make this great
State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should
wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being
of the people, and especially of the masses and
the poor". Ah, the people! The masses! The
poor, poor, suffering masses. Remember them? Ignoring
them, dehumanizing them, even, is a part of Pakistan's
ailment. Jinnah directly linked Pakistan's happiness
and prosperity with the well-being of ordinary
folk.
The greatest asset for any nation is the people,
the human resource. Ignore them at your peril.
Brutalize them and you sow the seeds for discontent,
violence and intolerance.
That, as Jinnah emphasized, is surely not the
way for happiness and prosperity. And what is
it that the ordinary folk cry out for? Just the
basics, really, nothing too demanding or impossible
to achieve in this day and age: education, employment,
health; peace, security, justice; clean water,
uninterrupted energy supply, and decent roads.
Is that asking for too much?
Touring around Pakistan recently, I was constantly
shocked to see what ordinary people have to go
through in their day-to-day lives. Whether it
is water shortage, power cuts or whatever, bear
in mind that Pakistan is a nuclear power. Yes,
the people should eat grass! That is, if there
is enough water for the grass. If not, then the
people will have to eat dust and swelter in the
heat (no electricity, no fans, no coolers, and
no air conditioning).
Water is an essential necessity, yet people, even
in the major cities, do not have a decent water
supply. Why else should people resort to buying
bottled water in this poor country? Why should
people have to go through the ordeal of queuing
in the middle of the night for a bucket of water?
Should people be dying of thirst or by drinking
polluted water in the 21st century?
Then there is that menace of "load-shedding"
whereby the electric supply is suddenly cut and
you are literally left in the dark as to what
the hell is going on or when the supply might
resume again. The suspense and irritation of it
all may explain the high blood pressure of many
a Pakistani. There should be a new health warning:
Danger-- Electricity (the lack of) kills!
How is one expected to get anything done, or lead
a normal life, without essentials such as uninterrupted
supply of electricity? Pakistan's power supply
may yet not be bombed like in Iraq or Lebanon
or Palestine, but when the electricity goes one
can just about experience what it may feel like
in those troubled areas. It is suffocating, to
say the least.
And what to say of the roads: suddenly, as if
overnight, there's a massive explosion of cars.
It's traffic jams left, right and center. Jam
today, and everyday. The banks and lending institutions
have a lot to answer for. Now, almost any Tom,
Dick and Harry (or Tariq, Abdul, and Habib, if
you like) can own a vehicle.
That's no bad thing: more wheels for the people,
I say. But with the proviso that the road infrastructure
keeps up with the increase in vehicles, that the
vehicles do not churn out poisonous pollutants,
that the drivers have the requisite driving skills
in terms of safety and easing off the ubiquitous
horn blowing. The noise pollution from Pakistani
vehicles -- especially the pressure horns -- is
unbearable, deafening. Here, the people have some
responsibilities, too. Consideration for others
would go a long way.
Almost 40 million Pakistanis are reportedly living
below the poverty line. We're not talking professional
beggars here, the kind who intimidate tourists
in particular, but ordinary folk who just can't
make ends meet. No "roti, kapara, or makaan"
for them, I'm afraid. Rather, it may well be a
desperate case of "beg, steal or borrow".
Such large numbers of poor people do not bode
well for the future of nuclear Pakistan.
Are "the relevant authorities" taking
"necessary action" to alleviate the
suffering of the people? Is anyone listening out
there or are we banging our heads against a brick
wall of bureaucracy and a corrupt "system"
that has almost plagued Pakistan since independence?
Happy Independence Day!
Final Yaum-i-Azadi thought by Jinnah: "Our
object should be peace within and peace without.
We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial
and friendly relations with our immediate neighbors
and with the world at large," (Message to
the Nation, August 15, 1947).
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