Daily Times

What differentiates us from rest of the life on planet Earth? This is basic but a subtle question. There will be answers stating that we have the power to question and think; the ability to use reasoning and logic. These are gist reasons but all of these are synonyms to the fact that we have evolution’s most powerful and complicated masterpiece device: the human brain.

The sounds we hear, the colours we see and the feelings of love and hatred are all inventions of our brain. In the arsenal of all these amazing abilities, we have the power of imagination. I am a citizen of Pakistan, a country in turmoil. I have heard people saying, “Look our country is getting ruined.” This is the most irritating thing for me. Have we tried to identify the problem? If not, then how are we going to formulate a solution? Using the potent weapon of imagination along and reasoning, I will try to find where our nation is going all wrong. I am going to perform a thought experiment for generations.

Let me start from what people say about this. The general public view is that where Pakistan is currently standing is because of our incompetent rulers. A bookish and an orthodox reason but this alone does not explain everything. We will be celebrating the 69th year of independence and in my opinion, it is an irony for us that we, a country boosting that we are the fort of Islam, could not find determined leaders in this large span of time. The purgatory condition of the country requires a statesman like Quaid-e-Azam, a leader like Nelson Mandala, a revolutionist like Kamal Atta Turk and here our populace are giving chances to the already fired castigates, again and again, hoping for a different result. The cartages that have proven to be corrupt, dishonest and with the leadership qualities of a toddler – there are exceptions of course. Then the question arises: why are people electing them? We are giving them a blank check, a blank check in the form of democracy, to exploit our country, through our votes).

If I plant an apple tree, I will expect apples to grow on that tree, not mangoes. It is said that a believer is not bitten from the same hole twice. So where is the problem? Here the other piece of the puzzle comes into its place: literacy. Our country has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world – around 40 per cent. According to our current constitution, a person who can read and write a letter is a literate person. Without education a nation is like a wounded animal, alone in the wilderness, vulnerable to the wolves ready to prey on them. We are sadly that unlucky animal, and our representatives the parasites. What is the cause behind such low literacy rate? Obviously, it is due to the weak and ineffective education system of our country. Whether it is due to lack of infrastructure, or low share in the budget, or due to lack of political will or for what so ever reason, they all converge to our rulers.

From this point onward in my thought experiment, things get really interesting. I have just established a peculiar cycle: Pakistan is experiencing instability because our rulers are not up to the mark. This is the result of our under-performing educational system. Actually, if I would have taken any issue, I would end up experiencing an awfully similar cycle. According to me, this is the full picture but now I have to fulfill the second objective of our experiment: the solution. We are not a hopeless case as nations with more serious situations have built themselves from dust. The best example is of China. With an army of heroin-addicted farmers, they are now on the verge of becoming a super power of the world. A war-torn country, Japan, of which it is said that there wasn’t a single building that was in proper condition after World War 2 but now, they have got deep roots into the economy of the world. If we study these two cases, we will observe that these countries invested in their human resources, or in other words they educated there people. But for that to be done, we have to break the cursed shekels of the infinite looped cycle.

How will we do this? The answer to this paradox is the reader of this article; the prodigal children of this nation who have to come forward and do ‘something’, or else I’m afraid that our future generations will suffer to the extent that we cannot imagine. I am optimistic that we will find our way out but for that we will have to put in our efforts. Pakistan is the world’s first Islamic republic and it will prevail and fulfill its purpose.

In the end, the gift of writing is again a product of our brain and it’s really special. Through it, I was able to communicate with such a vast audience, conveying my views. Writing enables us to express ourselves, our ideology. It is magic. And I hope you will think over what it I’ve tried to convey.