Daily Times

Our short history does not show that we have ever valued our freedom. For this painful situation, our bureaucratic and military, elected civilian leaders and their partners in power are culpably responsible. These rulers kept the masses deprived of the basic needs of life – education, healthcare, and access to clean drinking water, rule of law, and equality before law, security of life and property, opportunities for a dignified livelihood – even after 70 years of independence. Crowning all this spectacular failure is the interminable disease of majoritarian, intolerant and sectarian religiosity.

The democracy was nipped into bud soon after the demise of the Quaid-e-Azam. The inclusion of the Objectives Resolution as the preamble of the Constitution was a direct attack on the plurality of this multi-religious and multi-cultural country. The direct elections in the Eastern Wing of the country in the early 1950s resulting in the defeat of Pakistan Muslim League alarmed the ruling elite from the Western Wing. They abandoned the democratic path altogether. The indirect elections tailored to the needs of the ruling elite to keep them in power were no service to democracy.

The subsequent ten elections in the country from 1970 to 2018 were made controversial by the mainstream political parties charging each other for collusion with powerful powers that may be, rigging and acquiring power. The performance of the ruling elite in both executive and opposition has never been above board or geared to the public good. Theyshowed no qualms in filling their coffers when in power. We witnessed paupers turn into billionaires. They attacked thelegislature and judiciary, politicized the bureaucracy and relegated anti-graft institutions to periphery.

The fallout of this free-for-all plunderswas very harmful. The society came to believe that nothing would happen to the powerful elite; the laws of the country were operative for the prosecution and persecution of underprivileged and marginalized class.Politics acquired the status of a money making business with the poor people looking to the ruling demigods for crumbs – a menial job, a petty contract and protection from oppressive police.

We have time to revert to our sublime faith which turned the heathen Saracens into a great nation at a par with the Roman and Sassanid Empires

The people stopped thinking of their rights as citizens of the state and resigned to live in perpetual powerlessness and bitterness in a society mired in plunder, extortion, religious bigotry, sectarian intolerance, illiteracy and poverty. This country was established after a gruesome struggle to free ourselves from the subjugation, mendacity and oppression of the assertive Hinduism. Alias, we allowed the same bigoted majoritarian and intolerant religiosity to overwhelm our society. Didn’t we stray from the path determined by the Quaid in his maiden address to the Constituent Assembly?

The history of the oppressive pre-Partition period reminds us again and again to remember how the British Imperialists in collaboration with the majority community precipitated the decline of the Muslims in education, superior services, trade and other professions. All this is elaborately recorded in history and the British India gazetteers.With the advent of Pakistan, we became the master of our destiny but failed to evolve into an inclusive, democratic and tolerant society because of the misguided political and economic policies of the ruling elite.

The rulers and their cohorts – the so called elite –deliberately encouraged clientele politics, parochial, religious and cultural fragmentation and sectarian bigotry to remain in the saddle. How the country would forge ahead as a progressive state if we don’t overcome our weaknesses or fault lines as a nation. We have unabashedly sunk into vices unheard of in civilized societies – slitting each other’s throat and indulging in dishonesty, falsehood, forgery, inhumanity, profiteering, hoarding and adulteration, pilferage of national resources including gas and electricity, tax evasion – and what not.

These are the signs of a moth-eaten and crumbling society. We have time to revert to our sublime faith which turned the heathen Saracens into a great nation at a par with the Roman and Sassanid Empires. In our region, how the mighty Mughal Empire died a slow death with the last princes and princesses publicly hanged or left behind to beg on the streets of Delhi where once they yielded power. The Indians, at least, keep remembering their subjugation under the Muslim rule of over 800 years. The evolutionary wheel of peoples, societies or nations keeps spinning. It has no favorites, no cast and creed.

The nations which lose sight of the unobtrusive and merciless turns of history and fall negligent of their freedom and independence pay a heavy price. They are relegated to the dustbin making way for new and strident societies. The choice is with us.