Some wise sage has said:
“Never speak loudly to one another unless the house is on fire.”
In the context of the current national scenario, either we are not following this advice, or the house really happens to be on fire.
We are all shouting.
We don’t have to have four eyes to see what is happening around. And four ears are not required to listen to what is being spoken.
After nearly six decades of its coming into being, our beloved homeland still happens to be wandering in wilderness, in search of a system that will suit it, a constitution that will stand, a national will that will survive, a socio-political code that will last, and a government that will not have to seek endorsement of its legitimacy and strength from its army commanders.
Here, in this context, I have a confession to make—not in the hope that my sin of indulgence will be forgiven —but in the knowledge that the best way to move forward is to move forward. Meaning thereby that both—standing still and moving backward should be avoided.
For that to happen it is important to confess to oneself what one didn’t do right. Or simply what went wrong?
I was a child when Pakistan was born. But when Pakistan became a Republic on March 23, 1956, I had acquired enough understanding of what was meant by a system, a constitution, a legitimate government, a social order, and national responsibility.
When Ayub Khan broke into the corridors of power, I welcomed the change, hoping that he with his ‘benevolent’ leadership would give the country a lasting hope, a lasting system and a lasting identity. It was not to be.
From the dawn of the Ayub era, to the advent of General Pervez Musharraf, I have continuously oscillated from revived hopes to depressing frustrations — from rekindled passions for democracy to irresistible longings for a well-delivered revolution.
The confession that I have to make is that I have never been realistic in my hopes. Nor in my judgments. Nor in my despair. Nor in my frustrations.
No one has acted as per my wishes. No one perhaps ever will.
The road to deliverance -to salvation – to a country not governed by the whims of its elite, but by a legal -cum-moral code signed with their souls by its 160 million citizens — the road to such a beautiful beautiful Pakistan will be paved, not by any individual-made miracle but by a national will, powered by the heroic resolve of each one of us who can dream and toil, and dream and toil and dream and toil……
(This Column was first published on 05-06-2007)
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