Daily Times

The 78th Pakistan Resolution Day is right around the corner. The memories of yesteryear in the minds of our senior citizens who were in their youth on March 23, 1940, would be clear as if it was yesterday. The hustle and bustle surrounding Minto Park (Present day: Iqbal Park) in Lahore, where today stands Minar-e-Pakistan with all its majesty and splendour, was nothing but a ground. However, history turned it into an iconic area where Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah led his companions in passing a resolution for creating an independent country for the Muslims of the sub-continent.

The youth of today must learn lessons and adapt values from the likes of Quaid-e-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan, Fatima Jinnah, Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Rahmat Ali, Raja Ghazanfar Ali, Abdur Rab Nishtar, Huseyn Suhrawardy and others.

Today as we stand in 2018, seventy-eight years after the historic movement that transpired in Iqbal Park, it is time for us to develop and follow our own resolutions for a better and brighter Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam did give us a homeland we feel proud in calling our own, however, it is our responsibility to make this country what it was really destined to be – great!

Pakistan, in today’s testing and delicate times, needs loyal citizens who know the value of patriotism. However, equally important is to understand our rights and duties as citizens. Why have we been waiting for someone or some institution to stand for us, when we could have stood for our rights years ago? We must resolve to rectify matters as much as we can on our own. Take a simple example in this context. Why do we need to wait for the authorities to come and fill potholes in a neighbourhood or clean garbage off the streets? Why cannot we take a shovel and start filling the potholes with dirt or start throwing garbage at their proper place?

Collective initiatives – when taken with diligence and the right frame of mind – do give positive results. Here, it is imperative for us to stay united and work for the cause, which is to make our society better. Moreover, we must make a resolution to not blame the government for every action but look into the grim realities.For instance, many of the traffic congestion problems of Karachi will fade away if people park their vehicles appropriately and at designated places. More than one-third thorough ways of Tariq Road, Zainab Market and other high traffic residential and commercial areas of Karachi are occupied by vehicles including motorcycles and cars parked at odd angles. Parking vehicles while leaving space for traffic will help ease the flow of traffic.

While being a loyal citizen must be the bottom line for us all, being morally rich in values and principles must be adhered to. Where stealing money and valuables is a crime, stealing electricity by hooking wires from homes with the main supply lines running from one pole to the next is also a criminal activity. Moreover, those constructing their homes and extending their legal boundaries an extra foot or two ahead comes under stealing. However, since no one notices it, it remains a silent crime being followed by many.

It is imperative that loyalty must be seeded in the minds, body, and soul of those in power. While Quaid-e-Azam and his companions made Allama Iqbal’s dream of Pakistan a reality, our Quaid was loyal to the cause of giving Muslims of the sub-continent a separate homeland where they could live with freedom and exercise with ease their religious, social and cultural rights.

It is imperative that loyalty must be seeded in the minds, body, and soul of those in power. While Quaid-e-Azam and his companions made Allama Iqbal’s dream of Pakistan a reality, our Quaid was loyal to the cause of giving Muslims of the sub-continent a separate homeland where they could live with freedom and exercise with ease their religious, social and cultural rights. However, in pursuit of foreign nationality and living a dream life has been compelling our youth to move abroad. Here, the question of brain drain comes in.

While brilliant minds who score high grades in undergraduate and graduate degree programs settle abroad for better job opportunities, they leave behind their country in the hands of those who do not even have an iota of leadership sense. Let us resolve to live in Pakistan and work for this country so we can contribute to the society and give back to the nation.

While loyalty must be the dominant denominator for everyone working in all sectors, education, health, and justice are the three sectors that desperately need a loyal representation. It must be the collective resolve of Pakistan’s government to hire such learned people to head these sectors and others including trade, economy, power, water, agriculture, environment etc. so they can add value in their respective sectors and streamline all functions with effectiveness and efficiency. Let us resolve to live our personal and professional life by adhering to positive values, moral principles, and civic rules and with the sense of loyalty to the state.

The writer is a columnist and an author. He can be reached at omariftikhar82@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, March 24^th 2018.