If Pakistan Had Made the Right Choices...

 

The Times of India has started a new campaign to promote friendship between the people of India and Pakistan (yet again). This has already prompted a lot of debate especially amongst the only people who are experts at running the country but are busy either cutting hair or driving cabs. I do neither but still have my opinion which I shall air as always.

 

I was fortunate enough to have read a lot of articles on the political history of Pakistan as well as the experience of watching it go down the drain over the past 3 decades. After all our media and theirs too for that matter believed at one time that the two countries were at the centre of the universe and the whole world revolved around them.

 

The line of thought for this post was What if Pakistan had made different choices…What if they had not made the blunders they have.

 

The bane of Pakistan has been the deviation from the original line of thought for which it was formed. Jinnah had envisioned a liberal, free thinking state albeit based on the socio cultural similarity in Muslim culture as a binding force. His thinking in his dapper suits was to create an Islamic state like what today is probably Turkey or Lebanon with its tolerant moderate mindset and liberal outlook.

What instead transpired in the first six years of the existence was the taking over of the state and its soul by the rigid mullahs who interpreted the formation of the first truly Islamic Democratic state as a platform to forward their own religious ideologies.

 

Mistake Number Two was the acceptance of the population and their meek submission to the military. Maybe due to the scars of Partition and the formation of Bangladesh there was always a subconscious need to feel protected and thus the quiet acceptance without dissent. Also the leaders understood this meek acceptance and never really let the free media develop in the country. Even till date with the exception of maybe 1-2 newspapers and TV channels the entire Urdu media at least has been run by and for the establishment.

The cesspool of dirty corrupt politicians also played a part in the submission of the population to the military as in the absence of any accountability or answerability the politicians had a field day in looting and plundering the country.

 

On Dec 2 1978 Gen. Zia ushered in Nizam e Mustafa (Islamic System) a 180 degree turn from the predominant Common Law in Pakistan. It led to the establishment of Sharia benches and probably was the most instrumental factor in the final Islamisation of a society envisioned to be a liberal democratic and tolerant state.

 

Then led to an era when the hygienically challenged very hairy breed of men was created as mercenaries for the proxy war against the Russians in Afghanistan called the Taliban. After the disintegration of the USSR the same mercenaries who didn't know what to do apart from war now turned inwards. They were used to a free hand and decided to continue with or without support from the US. The Tigers moved from the jungles to the city when they needed to fend for themselves and fuelled by the military leaders who thought of them as bouncers to keep the population under submission, till they decided that they wanted to be the rulers themselves. NWFP and the other autonomous regions were seceded to the tribal leaders as the Taliban took control of a spineless Afghanistan and the drug trade had filled their coffers enabling them to buy the most sophisticated weaponry.

 

Mistake Number Three was the greed of the local politicians to fill their pockets in fear of being usurped by the army before they could have their fill. What they needed to understand was the fact that geographically Pakistan was so important for America as a base that they would have probably transformed Karachi and Lahore into New York and Los Angeles at their own cost had the Pak Leaders been even slightly true to their cause. The growing clout of China and the tension in the Middle East made Pakistan the ideal candidate for American Partnership. It was the only country blessed geographically and they squandered or rather the leaders plundered the money they got from America.

 

Till now it has not dawned upon the population that it is the absence of a free media and the voice of people being suppressed that has lead to Pakistan being a failed state. They have the most beautiful people, a lovely language and strategic advantage. The choice is simple and it is up to the people of Pakistan to decide whether they want to blame everyone for their problems or stand up and take responsibility for their mistakes. After all their future depends on the choice they make.

 

Having said the above please note that in 5000 years of its history India has never attacked any country, so why would we change now?? Why the suspicion?? Is it because of the thief within?

 

In comparison India has moved on. Our league has changed and in spite of any political party in power and charges of corruption or in competence we still manage to bring to book even the most powerful or the most influential and that my friends is the Power of Free Media ,of Freedom of Speech, and being heard by the people.

 

The equation is now never India- Pakistan but BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China). I personally think that we have wasted too many years and too much money and effort over an issue that has lost relevance in today’s day and age. They are our neighbours and we should be cordial and polite, but I need to enjoy my friends not force them for friendship. If an initiative has to be made they should be the ones asking for our advice for our system has proved itself in spite of its many snags to be far superior to our neighbours.

 

If their choices had been different … who knows we might have done another Germany.