Life without honour or Death with dignity

Self-esteemed nation never compromises on the cost of dignity and honour. The examples of North Korea and Pakistan’s neighbour Iran are in front of us. These nations are not highly economically well off yet they have demonstrated to the world that they have no fear of vicious consequences in standing up against a superpower when it comes to their sovereignty and integrity. And there are several examples in the history for those nations who physically perished but remain alive in the history with pride.

A small scandal of wrong-doings by a top leader make the nation in unrest until the punishment is served to the leader. Not long ago, a member of national parliament in Australia used a fake invoice of only 350 dollars of a motel, falsely claimed that he stayed in the motel when he visited his mother over the weekend at his hometown. When an auditor found the false claim; the parliamentarian suicided after leaving a note in his room that he could not face the people and the house of parliament. This is the power of people and fear in the eyes of their leaders. Another incident of a gentleman which I never forget as I know him personally, an excellent politician and former premier of the state of New South Wales (Australia) resigned and retired from politics forever when he misbehaved with a girl in a party while he was drunk. Reading the news in the newspaper next day, he left politics forever but remained in the dignified political history Australia.

Loyalists to Pakistan and its notion have been pushed to the wall in Pakistan. And the corrupt state-occupiers and gang-style political crooks have paralysed the Pakistani nation by the everyday tortures of sky-hitting prices of daily needs, load-shedding of power, gas and water, lawlessness, looting and killings etcetera etcetrera. The armed gangs backed by political and religious party leaders, parliamentarians, choudheries, landlords and tribal leaders, openly looting and killing innocent citizens under the shelter of some powerful law enforcement agencies. When an ordinary person comes home safely he prays to God twice.

Hundreds and thousands flood victims are still sitting under an open sky with no life for them and fraudsters are sitting in respectable houses. Corruption, discrimination and injustice are winning everyday on the name of democracy and Awami Azadi (Peoples Freedom) - right is wrong and wrong is right - and the silent majority become the dumb spectators.

The institutions which were, once, the pride for Pakistan, now became the disgrace for Pakistan. It is very hard to find any government department which has not been humiliated by the corrupt rules. PIA, Railway, Steel Mill, Oil and Gas Department, Sea Port and every big industry of Pakistan has been collapsed. The economy of Pakistan has been the worst than ever in the last 3 ½ years and lower than any under developed nation. The country has no adequate basic necessities and security for the 180 million people. Looting, snatching, rape is the common crimes. Even the dead bodies of women are not safe in the graveyard. Every new crime is breaking the previous record of crimes. An ordinary person fears to go to the police station and report for a crime.

And the biggest dilemma and a joke with the rest of the world is that the rulers of Pakistan are claiming they have given a democracy. They claim that they have given the independent judiciary to the country whose decisions are now being ignored by the person sitting in the highest office in the country.

The rulers for sake of just in power have made secret deals and agreements with foreign forces. The US agents of secret agencies are operating as freely as Pakistan in their own land. Openly shooting and killing Pakistanis on the busy road of Lahore by a US secret agent, Raymond Davis and then his safe exit from Pakistan, US bloody operation only few kilometres from the Pakistani capital, every drone attacks killing Pakistani civilians and the recent killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in the Pakistani territory by NATO forces have nothing left for the Pakistani nation except a big shame. I feel shame and regrettable to the founder of Pakistan and those who paid their lives for this country. I am sorry to my grandparents who paid so much sacrifice for Pakistan. The most dangerous scenario is that if the people of Pakistan remain in sleep then the anti-Pakistani forces that are already knocking at the door will disintegrate Pakistan and control its assets.

Where is that spirit of uprightness of Pakistanis shown against the past dictators? I was a kid but I can still retrieve some of the images of my memories when the people of Pakistan stood-up against the most powerful army dictator ruled in Pakistan – Field Marshal General and the President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, who was compelled to resign. I still remember my youth days when the people of Pakistan from Peshawar to Karachi united against the most powerful civilian dictator – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – against the rigging in the national election of 1977. The nation compelled Bhutto to bow down against the continuous strikes and demonstration of Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). The situation today is a hundred time sworst than those times. The people of Pakistan have to come out now specially the youth from the deep sleep. They have to change their attitude of comprising against evil deeds. They have to eliminate these monarchs of corruption and looting.

Pakistan is now a patient whose only option for treatment is a surgical operation. I don’t mind who should be that surgeon, a civilian or again a person in uniform, as long as Pakistan can be rescued from anarchical situation. Thanks to God, Pakistan’s arms forces still have discipline and capabilities to rescue the country from any disaster. Pakistani judiciary is seemed to be very serious and watchful of wrongdoing in the country. The media is far more powerful than ever and ready to support any public moment if stands against incapable and corrupt leaders. In these circumstances the only thing the people of Pakistan need to go back and look into the dreams of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, how he wanted to see Pakistan. “With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve” – Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

(The writer is a Sydney-based journalist, media analyst and a life coach, his homepage is www.sahassan.com and email shassan@tribune-intl.com).

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