TOWARDS BETTER PAKISTAN
Author
MAJOR(R)KHALID NASR
The common man in Pakistan is not bothered about Musharraf or restoration of Judges. He is interested in a peaceful & respectable living. We have seen civilian dictators like Mr Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The people of Pakistan welcomed Musharraf on his take over. Currently, the lawyers & media are behaving like a mafia. They want to force their decisions on the parliament & PPPgovernment. There are certain issues that can be better handled through Courts and Ballot boxes. Imposition of minority's decision on the majority of Pakistan's population is not justified. The fundamentalists & extremists in Pakistan may also take a lead from this. This has become a second nature in Pakistan that, whenever, some thing goes wrong, we put blame on RAW not realizing that it may be an internal “SAW” that is cutting the throats of innocent people in Pakistan. India is a stake-holder of what happens in Pakistan. Now the perception of a common man in India has improved. The fact is that there is a leadership crisis on the political chess board of Pakistan. There are some commonalities in the vision of the Army Chief, General Ashfaq Kiyani, President Musharraf and Zardari. It is hoped that they would be able to handle this situation of violence & extremism in Pakistan. Pakistan's foreign policy would have to be redesigned and more focus should be towards China & Iran. Pakistan's relations with India would also improve in the coming years. As far as the state of violence & extremism is concerned, the majority of people in Pakistan believe in “enlightened moderation.” There are few Pakistani Muslims who are unable to find a difference between Jihad & terrorism. This situation will also improve through better control on Madrassas. US funding to Pakistan for anti-terrorism operation will not be stopped but definitely it would be curtailed to a limited amount. The immediate tasks’ priorities should be better infra structure, good governance, quality leadership, economic and education growth, terrorism and extremism, Kashmir issue and Foreign policy. A common man in Pakistan is very optimistic about the future of Pakistan.It would be better if we go through the following ground realities:1) Pakistan Muslim league had her roots in combined India; therefore, some good leadership had been witnessed in the early years of Pakistan.2) During Ghulam Mohammad's regime, political leaders created an opportunity for General Ayub Khan to take over.3) Bhutto created the environments under which Ayub Khan was forced to hand over to Yahya Khan.4) Bhutto created a political scenario that led to the debacle of 1971 and he took over as first Civilian Martial Law Administrator.5) Bhutto used his political and military force against the common men of Pakistan as a dictator. The opposition leaders invited Army through their letters to Generals. 6) General Zia accepted this invitation that led to Bhutto's judicial murder.7) 1988 to 1999 was the period of the so called democracy in which the nation witnessed the 'power---hide and seek' between Benazir and Nawaz. Nawaz took aggressive actions against President, Chief Justice and Army Chiefs as a Dictator. This scenario led to take over by Army. Now when Army has decided to refrain from enterference in government affairs , the entire nation is in the state of bewilderment whether any of the political leader in the arena is capable and trust worthy enough to lead them out of the present crises on the geo-political front. The credibility of both Nawaz & Zardari is shining on the future of Pakistan. God bless Pakistan and give some 'hidayat” to our political leaders to change their mindset and bring the country out of the state of now or never. Musharraf has decided to step down in due course of time but still every political leader is on the musical chair to get the credit for it. Problem with Pakistan is that every ruler thinks that he/she knows all and understand the people the best. People of Pakistan are never given an opportunity to decide their own fate. Ruler or combination of rulers are always thrusted on them. Therefore, they never feel a stake in the government and are not united as a nation even after 60 years. They will continue to despair unless provided a chance to form their own government on a regular basis through a free and fair election under the Constitution. Nothing else is going to work. We shall continue seeing today's villians coming back as heroes be they from military or civilian set-up. This nation has a lot of talent---it just needs a leader with vision to lead in a charismatic way.May God bless Pakistan. _________________WISHING YOU HEALTH & HAPPINESS . MAJOR(R)KHALID NASR
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Agreed to the extent that neither was Democracy prescribed as a panacea in Islam, nor did it ever exist in a practical shape in the Muslim Society. In fact Muslim Society was a hotch potch of aristocracy + a Majlis-e-Shoora consisting of tribal elders. It can't be said with certainty that complete homogeneity existed amongst elders. Contrary to this claim, Muslim Society also confronted civilo wars amongst rival factions, when two rival Muslim armies confronted each other in the battles of Siffeen and Jamal. Theoretically one might argue, but practically all powers were concentrated in the Caliph right upto the end of Ottoman Empire in Turkey.
Muslim struggle in the Indo-Pak sub-c0ntinent was also restricted to proportional representation which dragged on from the formation of All India Muslim Laegue in 1906 AD i.e partitionof Bengal to the Cabinet Mission Plan. Demand for Independence was the reaction to Congress's going back from its commitments on a number of occasions & partition of the sub-continent was a sudden development in reation to the rejection of the Plan by Indian Nationsal Congress. Radcliffe awward showed an overt bias for Congress giving truncated Pakistan firstly by denying the corridor from East to West, and secondly by denying access to Kahsmir by handing over Gurdaspur to Bharat. Hindus had struggled hard after living under Muslim rule from pre-Mughal period when Hindu empire flourished during the pre-historic Aryan period. They had the working experience of democracy, had languished as second grade citizens under Muslim Period, and were on the look out for the restoration of their independence. Their struggle for Independence started immediately from 1857 AD, they offered tremendous sacrifices by laying dopwn down life under the moving trains, their rallies were crushed by force. Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar where thousands were killed by General Michael O. Dior and Railway Station at Gujranwala (which was bombed by the British) are living monuments of the age.
They had men of vision like Moti Lal Nehru & Jawahar Lal Nehru besides a multitude of other nationalists-hence they could assume power without allowing bureaucracy to exceed its limits. We on the other hand, had only Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah who claimed to have fought the battle single-handed; because he could find nothing but counterfeit coins while searching both of his pockets . Consequently we were bereft of guidance on the eve of his departure, and were left at the mercy of bureaucrats like Ghulam Muhammad, Sikandar Mirza, and others. This deprived us of the opportunity of exposure to democratic values, and hence our existing condition.
Jameel Zaidi
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