By Shah N. Khan
After 60 years of independence, poverty and ignorance continue to be prevalent in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Yes the literacy rate has gone over 54% but still a great mass of population remains illiterate. Yes now India and Pakistan are now the Nuclear Powers. But misery and want remain the foundation of the social structure, deaths from malnutrition are common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption are taken for granted. In countries like China the elimination of these conditions has been striking. But not in South Asia. We and our leaders have not shown the same commitment and farsightedness as the leaders in China, Japan and Malaysia did.
As the famous Pakistan journalist Ayaz Mir laments “When words fail, as they will do when no premium is put on their worth, recourse will be had to the stick and the firearm. Why do parliamentarians in all our three countries take to fisticuffs at the slightest provocation? Not because great principles of policy are involved but simply because their high-wired temperaments get the better of their discretion. A scene from the National Assembly here and the Lok Sabha in India is about the same: noise, clamour and little genuine debate. And for variety, fisticuffs.”Like the demogogues, quite a few of our Mullas, Pundits and teachers spread hatred rather than patriotism and universal brotherhood. Nobody seems to realize the need for creating civic sense and motivating people to develop skills and knowledge, and to work honestly and hard for the progress of the country. Everybody wants to grab money, power and clamor about their rights without fullfilling their responsibilities as responsible citizens.In Pakistan the efficiency in Government offices and civic and municipal bodies remain pathetic. Rarely anybody is held accountable for the piles of files in offices or garbage that accumulates in our streets but zealots of Islamization tear down billboards simply for displaying a female model. Power failures, power thefts, water shortages, land grabbing, food adulteration, black marketing, neoptism, favoritism are more common than dacoities, petty thefts and terrorist attacks and other crimes.Nobody thinks of launching a Jihad against social evils, yet some zealots are found willing to die in helping the freedom
fighters in the neighboring countries. In 1947 the dollar was worth less than RS. 4 and Riyals and Dinars were weeker than Rupee but now their worth is 15 times higher than that in 1947. Years of misrule by the politicians and military dictators, our habit of importing more than what we export and living on loans and aid has made us poorer than we were in 1947 and now we have become economic slaves. And yet our economic policies are are being shaped by the henchmen of those powers who exploit the third world to keep the wheels of their industries running.
No. This is not talk of despair. It is time for taking stock. We must mend our ways. Each one of us can contribute in the progress by adopting simplicity and honesty performing whatever duties we have honestly and sincerely. We must raise voice against corruption and miuse of power and inefficiency not only in the Government, schools and colleges and municiple bodies but among our own ranks also. We must adopt the Islamic spirit of justice, honesty and fullfil our obligations to Allah and the community and all Creatures as prescribed in Holy Quran and Sunnah. The real test of freedom is less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. So far we have been taking liberty with the freedom. There can be no freedom without responsibilities. There is nothing with which it is so dangerous to take liberties as liberty itself.
Shah N. Khan
