For the umpteenth time in my life I am going back to Jean Paul Sartre to make a point.
“There are two ways of destroying a people,” said this great social scientist of France. “Condemn them en bloc, or force them to repudiate the leaders they chose. The second is the worse.”
The wisdom behind this saying by Sartre is not hard to understand. What he is trying to communicate is that the surest way of destroying a nation is to ensure that it ends up leaderless after losing all faith in leadership.
Is Pakistan on the verge of such a catastrophe?
To find an honest answer to this question, let us have a quick glance at the names that qualify to be mentioned in the context of leadership.
Benazir Bhutto?
Wasn’t she involved in the plunder of Pakistan because of which her accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere are in astronomical figures?
Mian Nawaz Sharif?
Isn’t his leadership a test-tube baby delivered by the Agencies to stop Benazir Bhutto, and hasn’t he worshipped only one deity —-Greed?
Altaf Hussain?
Isn’t he a Mafia Don who has thrived on terror, blackmail and priesthood of the temple of ethnic and linguistic divide; and is wanted by the Law of the Land on charges of multiple murders?
Imran Khan?
Aren’t his ‘born-Again’ Muslim credentials doubtful and isn’t he simply trying to cash, on the one hand on people’s emotions, and on the other hand, his ability to conceal his second life?
Qazi Hussain Ahmed?
Can a Mulla living mentally in the middle ages be trusted with the task of flying a modern plane?
Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman?
Didn’t he earn the dubious title of Maulana Diesel, for his willingness to enter into a profitable deal anywhere anytime?
General Pervez Musharraf?
Can he be trusted with the responsibility of guarding the sanctity of the Flag, the Faith the Frontiers and the Will of the People after he has so abundantly exposed his crazy longing to stay in the military uniform even while performing the Haj rites, and to make Washington his Qibla?
These are not all the leaders who have loud and vocal claims on the high honours that come with leadership. There are others too. But for the sake of making the point I want to make, I am not stretching the list too far.
Don’t they all stand condemned by one segment of the society or the other? Ant’s they being repudiated by the nation for one or the other reason?
Who—or what is behind this mass character assassination of our National Leadership?
Are we condemned to be destroyed as a leaderless nation?