I can never get tired of quoting form Ibne-Khaldoon, universally recognized as the Father of Modern History. Before him Herodotus had enjoyed the distinction of having fathered this great field of learning.
In his famous Muqqadima, Ibne-Khaldoon wrote:
“Whenever Allah the Almighty chooses to punish a nation for its misdeeds, sins and crimes, He imposes upon it the rule of its most hated evil-doers.”
I don’t know why these words of the great Arab historian have come alive in my mind at this point of time when the country is ‘ looking up’ or ‘looking down’ at its new prime minister. His name has just been announced. I don’t have any intentions of casting any aspersions on his honour . He like all of us, is a member of this society that is characterized by qualities that can hardly be regarded as worthy of feeling proud of.
Evil-doing has become our collective attribute and our collective dispensation.
Raja Pervez Ashraf is no exception. Perhaps God wants us to realize that on the basis of the nature of our deeds, practices and preferences, we don’t deserve any ‘leader’ better than him.
Why shouldn’t we move forward to congratulate him on the assumption of an office which had once been held by ZAB and BB? Suppose President Zardari had lost in the game of numbers, wouldn’t it have been Mr Mehtab Khan Abbasi whom we would been honourbound to congratulate ? Or couldn’t it have been Maulana Fazlur Rahman?
This is the ‘stuff’ that in this moth-eaten system can be offered by the political parties of the country for leadership.
Perhaps today, in the heavens, the founding fathers of this nation should be asking each other: “Did we envision this country to be led by these people and their likes?”
Perhaps we can listen to their voices, coming from the heavens:
“OH THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN SHAME ON YOU !”
(This Column was first published on 23-06-2012)
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