BY STTAR CH

Save Pakistan… but from whom…? This is the question that the nation will have to ask itself… We have always been told that Pakistan is in danger from external enemies, from borders, from conspiracies, but no one tells us who has caused the most damage to Pakistan in the last seventy-five years…?
The point is there again… Two royal families and a few dictators…
This is a bitter thing, but the truth is often bitter, this is a universal truth, a research of centuries, merchants and generals can never prove to be good rulers… Just open the map and look at the world, where is a land like Pakistan? More than six hundred thousand square kilometers of land, thousands of kilometers of coastline, the world’s highest mountains, fertile plains, coal, copper, gold, salt, gas, iron and dozens of minerals, yet the situation is that the government keeps knocking on the doors of the world for a few billion dollars and the poverty rate in the country has reached 50 percent, that is, 120 million people are yearning for two-time bread… Why? Did Allah Almighty give them less resources? No… Are the people not hardworking? No… Are the youth deprived of skills? Absolutely not. Then what is the problem? The problem is of governance. Look at the centuries-old history of the world. The merchant sees profit. The usurper sees order. But the state needs vision, tolerance, institutions and public welfare more than profit and order. This is why successful nations are run by institutions, not by personalities. And in Pakistan, personalities always win, Pakistan loses.
Pakistan’s biggest tragedy is not poverty, poverty has always existed in many countries of the world, Pakistan’s biggest tragedy is misrule. Some people will be angry while writing this, but the job of truth is not to please, but to show the mirror… Just imagine for a moment… If Pakistan gets a leadership like Japan, South Korea or Malaysia today, can’t this country change in ten, fifteen years…? It can change at all. This means the problem is not in the land… the problem is in the system.
The point then comes to that… two royal families and a few dictators.
When one comes to power, he teaches the nation a lesson in democracy, when another comes, he raises the slogan of accountability, when a third comes, he raises the flag of national security, but the result is always the same, debts increase, inflation increases, unemployment increases… and the problems of the people increase…. Today, Pakistan has trillions of rupees in debt. No poor laborer, no farmer, no pushcart driver took this loan, but who is paying it back?… The same laborers, the same farmers, the same salaried class… If the electricity bill increases, the poor pay, petrol becomes expensive, the poor pay, taxes increase, the poor pay, but no one is going to ask those who made decisions for decades how the country reached this state… The question is very simple, if the rulers were successful, why is Pakistan drowning in debt? If the policies were right, why have millions of people reached the poverty line? If there was progress, why are millions of young people anxious to leave the country…?
Pakistan’s rulers have often convinced the nation that the cause of our problems is external conspiracies… Sometimes America, sometimes India, sometimes Afghanistan, sometimes some other country, conspiracies have always happened in the world, are still happening today, and will happen tomorrow, but the question is, is every conspiracy in the world only against Pakistan?…? There are no conspiracies against China…? There are no conspiracies against Turkey…? There are no conspiracies against Malaysia…? The only difference is that successful nations cure their weaknesses, failed nations keep blaming others.
The point comes back to that… Governance.
If the head of a household keeps taking loans for twenty-five years, does not pay attention to the education of children, keeps increasing expenses instead of increasing income, and then blames his failures on his neighbors… then will the household be in order…? Absolutely not, states also follow the same principle… For the past seven decades, dreams have been sold to the people in Pakistan, sometimes bread, clothes and houses, sometimes Pakistan first, sometimes a prosperous Pakistan, sometimes change… But the common man is still standing where he stood years ago, our rulers have kept the people confused in slogans… and themselves have been busy in the game of power… Listen to another bitter truth, in the developed states of the world, the children of rulers study in government schools, use government hospitals, the law is enforced on them in the same way as on a common citizen… What is happening in Pakistan…? Education is different, treatment is different, law is different… and life is different… Then we wonder why hatred is growing in the nation…? Remember, the greatest asset of any country is not wealth… it is trust. And if anything has disappeared the fastest in Pakistan, it is the trust of the people. The rulers kept changing, the promises kept changing, the speeches kept changing, but the fate of the people did not change.
Every government claims that the treasury is empty, the economy is ruined, the institutions are ruined… and the former rulers have ruined the country. It is strange, for seventy-five years, every incoming government has been saying the same thing… and the same is said about every outgoing government. If everyone was a failure, then who was successful? If every government left behind a disaster, then who gave an account of these disasters?
The point is there again. In Pakistan, there is power, but no accountability.
In Pakistan, power is not a service, it is a business. Invest capital, fight elections, gain power… and then get your capital back many times over in five years. Such a nexus of politics, business and power has been formed in Pakistan.Which has made the common man just a spectator…. Once upon a time, the youth used to dream that they would change the country…Today the youth thinks how they will leave the country, this is the last alarm bell for any state, when capable people start leaving and incompetent people start making decisions, decline does not knock on the door…it enters the house.
Now the question is not what are the problems of Pakistan…the question is whether we are ready to accept these problems…? Because the most dangerous thing than the disease is the denial of the disease, seventy-five years have passed, we have seen democracy, dictatorship, unity, revolutions, new Pakistan, old Pakistan, but we have not seen one thing…a Pakistan where the common man can live in peace.
The matter comes to that again….two royal families and a few dictators…
The fate of nations does not change with slogans, it changes with decisions… Japan dropped an atomic bomb, Germany was destroyed in the war, South Korea had negligible natural resources, Singapore was a small island, but these nations made a decision, they did not let the state become the fiefdom of a few people. Pakistan also has to make the same decision now, we have to decide whether the country is bigger than the individuals or not…? Is the law bigger than the powerful or not…? Are the people more important than power or not…? If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’, then there is a way… Pakistan does not need any miracles…Pakistan needs justice, honesty, merit…and above all, it needs a leadership that considers power not as a right, but as a trust…And fortunately, hope is still alive in Pakistan, it is alive in the farmer who sows seeds even in dry land…It is alive in the laborer who goes out in search of sustenance before dawn…It is alive in the mother who feeds her children while she is hungry…It is alive in the youth who dreams of a better future despite all the difficulties. If anyone has to save Pakistan, these are the people who will save it, no family can save it alone, no general can save it alone, no party can save it alone, because Pakistan is not the domain of a single person, it is the trust of twenty-four crore people…And trusts are taken care of, not looted. May God help us to learn to make the right decisions for Pakistan instead of claiming love for Pakistan…Because nations are saved not by slogans, but by character.