At the Mausoleum of the Quaid
By Rais Khan
Fremont, California
I had an interesting dream last night that I wanted to share with your readers. I found myself standing at the Mazaar of my venerated Founder of the Nation with certain questions in mind. Soon I realized that I was immersed in a sea of people on all sides who, as I came to know after a while, were the masses of Pakistan. I heard high-pitched hues and cries echoing from this mammoth gathering. All in one voice they were moaning to their leader with a litany of woes sounding, inter alia, in complaining tone and tenor:
“O Quaid! Where did you land us? Like tradable commodities, we are passed from dictators to defaulters and detractors of your ideology. We are being butchered by our own people. We have no food, shelter, health and education facilities and have to wait long to buy a bag of sugar or flour, a modern amenity like electricity is a far cry. We have no chances of employment and the prices are killing us. The note bearing your picture is worth nothing and cannot buy even a kilo of beef. While we are sinking deep day by day in the cesspool of poverty and inertness, our leaders have mansions spreading over vast land measuring in acres to enjoy life like barons. Our relation with our country is in name only - a few can claim its ownership and control over its resources. We are doomed O Quaid! Let our souls be out of this imbroglio.”
Back came the Quaid’s reply, “Go away you disgruntled dead people. I would not have fought for a separate homeland had I known the likes of you are going to inherit it. You made my soul humbled before those of Gandhi, Nehru, Azad and Mountbatten. I struggled to achieve independence for a living people, not for dead souls. Go find life first and then the fruit of independence shall fall in your laps.”
While people were pondering over the Quaid’s advice, I started pleading with the people to give the poor inherited-leader one last chance to complete his agenda. Let him acquire the estate neighboring the Rockwood Estate and the penthouse apartment next to his Blair-House Luxury Apartments in Manhattan, I requested the masses. They acquiesced and dispersed quietly with no hopes of any future for the country or themselves.
