Our Nation

By: Shaheer Khan (Volunteer)

Our beloved country is in a very serious situation today and every single person of our nation is responsible for it. We are never there when our country needs us but are always ready to criticize others for their mistakes.
Always talking about corrupt politicians,  unworthy civil servants etc we never notice it is due to us that these people are on their positions. Take politicians, for instance. They are blamed for not caring for the country but busy filling their pockets. However, no one seems to notice that at election time, either we don’t use our power of voting and sit at homes or we elect again the ‘over-tested and over-tried’ politicians, thinking “maybe this time they’ll truly work for the nation.” We need to acknowledge the fact that a new face is needed indeed as nearly all the present politicians have been tried over and over again, but in vain. As for if the new face turns out to be corrupt too, then at least we are allowing someone new to loot our country, who’ll not be ‘experienced’ enough as his predecessors.
Our next tragedy as a nation is that that all the good and worthy people choose to live lives isolated from politics and claim “what can we few people do?” They don’t seem to acknowledge that Pakistan now really needs honest and corruption-free people on top positions. They should not forget that nearly every ‘change for the better’ program was begun by a small group of people e.g. Nelson Mandela of South Africa (which by now is much advanced than Pakistan). Corruption has nearly eaten away the foundations of our country as a moth eats away wood.
Laziness is also a common factor among us. A Chinese saying, “If one can do it, you can do it better. If none can do it, you can still do it the best” has a Pakistani version, which is also our national motto “If one can do it, let him do it. If none can do it, how can you do it?” We want a change while sitting at our homes and enjoying cozy lives. A revolution can’t come while we are discussing sports and watching movies. Revolutions require people rejecting their lazy lives and walking out of their homes on the streets. It means bearing pain, but in result, getting a better country. However, our nation has no time for these things but ample time for criticizing and giving advices to others which it doesn’t follow itself. It doesn’t know what it itself ought to do but has all information on how other people should live. We are still waiting for an angel who’ll ‘help us change’, no, ‘directly change’ our condition as we ourselves can’t.
As a nation, we’re not united and so; don’t face problems as a nation but rather like individuals. In Indonesia, a daily routine (used in every meal) product’s price was slightly increased. But due to the boycott of that good by the people, the original price was retained after only a few days. Here, however, the government increases the price of sugar; we criticize and abuse it but we are present in markets the following day to buy the sugar costly. “If I can afford it, then it’s okay. Forget about those who can’t. And besides, how can I survive without sugar?” is our excuse. If we only stop using sugar for just a week, the dealers will be forced to bring the price down to half of what’s today. But we’ll not, since we can still afford the sugar so why unnecessary waste of time?
We don’t care about the ones who are loyal to the country, the greatest example being the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam. On his last day amongst us, when he was brought to Karachi for treatment, the ambulance sent for him to the airport was ‘of no use’ and it broke down during the way to the hospital. Our Quaid passed away on a footpath with flies flying around and sitting on his face. But why go that far, the example of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is a recent one.
We ourselves ruin our reputation in the international world and then blame our leaders for it e.g. drugs are banned in Saudi Arabia but our people are constantly finding more and more ways of smuggling them into the country. As a result, Saudis now search Pakistanis in a way which is of utter humiliation. Others, who don’t smuggle drugs, too are to blame as they are just bystanders to what is going on, the type of action which the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) has ridiculed in one of his Hadith.
We boast that we’re staunch supporters of the Prophet (S.A.W.) and are ready to burn cars and destroy buildings due to the incident in Denmark (Nauzo Billah) but do not follow his basic teachings of Islam.
The remedy to our problems is that we should make ourselves true Pakistanis and one, single, united nation. Our thinking must be on the national basis, not individual. We should not think “what this country has done for me” but rather “what I’ve done for this country”. We should truly follow the teachings of Islam. Our greatest emphasis should be on equal justice for everyone. Then and only then will be able to progress.