Painful reflections

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Shamshad Ahmad
Our 63rd independence anniversary, with mud and water all around the country and an unending bizarre game of blood and fire raging in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, is an occasion for painful reflection.

Pakistan’s creation was the finest hour of our history. The country came into being as a result of a long and relentless struggle of the Muslims of the subcontinent for a separate homeland. Our people saw in it the promise of freedom, democracy and prosperity.

Many of us who belong to the first generation that saw and experienced Pakistan’s creation its formative phase are often reminded of what the Quaid-e-Azam had envisioned this country to be are pained when we see where we stand today as a people and as a state.

Today we see a mutilated and disjointed nation. We see a rudderless country, debilitated spiritually and left with no dignity and sovereign independence. Pakistan’s rulers have kept the people hostage to their personal whims while exploiting them through deceitful promises. In recent years, our country has also become a global laughingstock, thanks to stories and scandals of corruption involving our leaders.

The Quaid-e-Azam expected Pakistan to become "one of the greatest nations of the world." During the last year of his life, he addressed almost every segment of our society, providing guidelines on every aspect of national life. He gave us a clear vision of a democratic and progressive state, which was to be stable politically and strong economically and imbued with Islamic values of tolerance and justice.

After the Quaid, however, Pakistan was left in a state of political bankruptcy and moral aridity, with most of its leaders lacking any sense of direction. We have gone through traumatic experiences which have left us politically unstable, economically weak, socially fragmented and physically disintegrated. Our history as a nation is replete with a series of political crises and socio-economic challenges that perhaps no other country in the world has experienced.

Pakistan as a state survived these crises and challenges, but at what cost? The real Pakistan disappeared with its tragic dismemberment in 1971, and whatever was left is being looted and plundered by its rulers.

Addressing Pakistan’s First Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947, the Quaid reminded the legislators of their "onerous responsibility" of framing the future constitution of Pakistan. It took our politicians nine years and several governments to frame our first Constitution, in 1956, which was abrogated in less than three years.

Since then, we have had two Constitutions, one promulgated by a field marshal president in 1962 but abrogated by the next chief martial law administrator president in 1969, and the other adopted by an elected legislature of truncated Pakistan in 1973, which has since been amended 18 times, with very little of the original text left in its essence. It is a different Constitution altogether.

Meanwhile, our parliament has never been able to function as a sovereign body, as it was envisioned by the Quaid. A cycle of frequent political breakdowns and resultant long spells of military rule disabled our institutional framework, unleashing a culture of political opportunism. For decades, we have had a parliamentary system with our parliament never functioning as a sovereign body or playing any role in the country’s decision-making.

Since our independence, we have been experimenting with almost every form of government, ranging from democracy to dictatorship, from civilian to military rule, and from parliamentary to presidential system. Our present system, which is neither parliamentary nor presidential, is without parallel in political philosophy or contemporary history.

In his presidential address to the First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on Aug 11, 1947, the Quaid had given us a roadmap of what he believed were the biggest challenges for the country’s government and lawmakers. According to him, the foremost duty of a government was "to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects were fully protected by the state."

He then warned us against what he called the "evils" of bribery, corruption, black-marketing, nepotism and jobbery. He wanted the government and the assembly to take measures to put these evils down with "an iron hand." We as a nation have not only failed to grapple with these challenges but are in fact living with these problems as if they were meant to be an integral part of our society.

With Musharraf’s departure, people expected real democracy to return to the country. But that was not to be the case. Our leadership crisis continued. Asif Zardari, while still holding his top party position, got himself elected president in violation of tradition and an ethical code established by Quad-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in 1947, when as governor general he refused to remain head of the Muslim League.

We now have a government which the people brought to power to bring about an end to dictatorship. It was a vote of no-confidence against the last government and the system that it represented. It was a referendum for change. But till now there is no change visible.

Today, the crisis of governance continues in its worst form even, though we now have an elected civilian government. Yes, it is a legacy of disaster that the current accidental civilian rulers inherited from the Musharraf era. But one doesn’t see any effort on their part to get rid of this legacy. In fact, the situation has never been so pathetic. Governance is at its worst. Corruption is rampant. The economy is in a shambles. The common man is suffering the worst hardships since independence.

Plunderers, profiteers, looters, murderers and killers could not have a safer haven anywhere else in the world. Despite our vast human and material resources, our rulers have followed policies that have kept the country hostage to external influences and control. With our continued political instability and violence driven by extremism, we also remain unable to harness the unique asset of our location for our economic growth

The Quaid would have been pained to see how miserably we and our successive leaders have failed to live up to his vision of Pakistan, and how we failed to protect and preserve our national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Alas, on our part, we are not even ashamed of what we have done to his Pakistan.