Our beloved country Pakistan reels
under a civic system that is out of sync with the imperatives of a modern
society. It is decrepit and utterly inadequate to provide decent, modest and
worthwhile living environment to the people of Pakistan. The roads and highways
network is not enough to cater for fast growing movement of both travelers and
freight. Travelling between the cities and within the cities in Pakistan is
hazardous, slow, and unsafe.
Unlike western societies, Pakistan at first
glance looks primitive, dirty and disorganized. From traffic to business
activities nothing seems to be without sleaze and impropriety. Despite our
society being deeply religious and people with total religious orientation,
ethical practices in social dealings and human interaction are woefully
deficient. There is always a wide gap between what the leaders profess and what
they do.
Our social sector figureslowest in our national priorities.
The health, education, transportation and other public related services are moribund and woefully inadequatedue to a variety of factors
including paucity of funds,
erroneous and faulty policiesand planning and lack of vision to make them universal, accessible,
organized and modern. The population is growing at an alarming pace. We have ramshackle old frames and structures of buses shorn ofnecessary facilities like air conditioning, heating etc.
Overloading of passengers is common scene on Pakistani roads.
Social vices like bribery,
corruption, pilferage of government resources, adulteration and selling of
sub-standard commodities and medicines, evasion of taxes and a host of other odious
crimes have always been rampant. Despite being deeply religious people lack
moral fiber.
There are no standardized procedures
for conduct and regulation of civic life. Even if there are such procedures, no
one bothers to follow them in order to check the mal-practices and violations
in daily life such as encroachments, violation of building rules, sanitation
rules, and maintenance of premises and public places.
Likewise traffic rules are
complicated, cumbersome, outdated and ignored by both public and the concerned
departments. Traffic in Pakistan has ever been messy. The civic code is
outdated. The cities are brimming with filth, stench, encroachments, horse and
bullock driven carts. There are no strict codes for raising new dwellings.
There is a mushroom, unabated and
unplanned growth of houses and shantytowns in and around all the major cities
in Pakistan, choking and stultifying the already meager and insufficient
utilities. The water is rationed by hours, the electric power goes off
frequently, and the voltage is low and unstable. There is no well-planned or
scientific method of removing garbage from the lanes, roads, houses and public
places in Pakistan.
Our railways is ramshackle,
mismanaged, is a relic of the past and starkly lacking in the modern system of management as we find in the railways of the
developed societies. The railway stations have deplorable and endemic problems
such as sanitation, non-provision of computerized communication, operation
system and utilities like air conditioning, heating and reservation etc. There
are countless flaws in our railway system. Our railway is in dire need of
complete overhauling so as to make it modern and efficient.
Same is the case with other service providing
organizations such as WAPDA, PIA, customs,
municipal and local bodies police, courts and judicial system, postal, revenue
and taxation departments: to name a few. All these organizations and departments are chronically
infested with corruption, mismanagement, inefficiency and other flaws.
The Judiciary, Police, bureaucracy
and all other nation building institutions that should serve the people in the
fairest and the freest manner have remained subservient to the interests of the
powerful local lords, wealthy
sections, aristocracy, robber barons, elitists classes, bureaucracy, andthe political mandarins.
The unavailability of uniform, inexpensive
and prompt justice, adulteration, timely decision making, stealing of mail,
counterfeit stamp papers, usurping public land and property are part of our
morbid system that needs to a drastic surgery and purged of its deformities, disabilities
and disorders. Expired and spurious drugs are sold unhindered without any
qualms of conscience or fear of law. Hospitals lack the milk of human kindness
and lack proper facilities for the ever-increasing patients. We sell
adulterated food without any moral prick and without any fear of legal or
social reprisals.
In order to bypass the complicated,
cumbersome, and unclear rules for issuance of essential and ordinary documents
such as driving licenses, passports, identity cards the people are forced offer
to graft and bribes to the officials or the touts. In short there is a complete moral,
institutional and organizational mess and mayhem in the society.
Pakistan is to be liberated from the
clutches of feudal classes and privileged families, rapacious mafia, pressure
lobbies and special interest groups that have held the state and the society
hostage since the inception of Pakistan. These unassailable rogue entities and
powerful individuals do not allow Pakistan to function as a liberal, free,
democratic, modern, progressive and prosperous country.
They hate the very concept of a civil
society in Pakistan. Civil society means freedom of expression and unhindered observance
of faith, and un-curtailed movement and pursuit of happiness in conformity with
the human and fundamental rights. These groups and entities are enemies of
progress and therefore of the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan is still far away from
having a democratic order that is unvarnished and truly based on the popular
vote and people's aspirations. For most part of its existence Pakistan was
under the army rule, bureaucratic dispensation or quasi-democratic system.
Elections in Pakistan were seldom free and fair. The National Assembly and
Senate assailed by the powerful classes would not function in an independent
manner and only serve the privileged sections. There is no accountability at
any stage in bureaucracy and officialdom. Accountability in Pakistan is used
for vendetta against the political contenders.
.
The leadership that was in power all
along has, thus far, miserably failed to address and resolve the myriad socio
-civic, economic, political and even day to day problems of the people. The
hapless people of Pakistan have been waiting for so long for a better time to
come but it is now foregone that the leadership in Pakistan is birds of the
same flock.
The leaders lack vision, sincerity, seriousness
and the will to transform Pakistan into a modern, liberal and prosperous state.
With the abundance of natural resources, vast productive land and industrious
manpower that Pakistan is endowed with, our country has the capability and
potential to stand shoulder to shoulder in the comity of developed nations in a
few years' span.
What therefore, needed is to hand
over power to such people who are down-to-earth, who possess the vision, unshakable
will, absolute honesty and sincerity to bring about an encompassingrevolution for a glorious Pakistan as well as for a vibrant and
prosperous
civil society. Since the political leadership
in Pakistan has failed to provide a stable democratic political system, there
has been a pervasive socio-civic and economic chaos that the country is
perennially suffering from.
With a crowd of political parties
already in the country it would look superfluous to form another political
entity for themuch needed watershed revolution in Pakistan and to change it
structurally from a primitive, backward, poor, mismanaged to an institutionalized,
orderly and dignified modern nation. Yet without a dedicated and visionary
leadership the hope for a better, prosperous and stable Pakistan would always
remain dim. It means that for making Pakistan a great country, it is
indispensable to change the leadership first.
After more than half a century's
governance, it is obvious that the privileged and elitist classes that believe
in running the country via plutocracy, oligarchy or aristocracy, are neither capable nor sincere in good governance. The
reason for their inability to earnestly serve the nation and country is that
they are not mindful of the common man's problems nor are they interested in
ameliorating the plight of the citizens whose predominant majority is suffering
from bad governance.
It is now incumbent that the power
should be exercised by the dispossessed sections of the society. The common
people understand their problems well because they are affected by them. But
while the political power should now pass on to the underprivileged or
unprivileged, there must be a team of such experts and men of excellence and
vision who should formulate policies and planning that can put the country on
the road to progress and prosperity and inject order, discipline and social
peace into our ailing society and mode of governance.
In the light of the above assessment
one would wonder and it would rather be pleasantly awesome if MQM and Imran Khan's
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) can join hands to save Pakistan and steer this
nation out of the dire straits of ignorance, poverty, lawlessness, decadence, social
and moral vices, plunder of the privileges sections, endemic corruption, gas and power load shedding. They should
restructure failed and dysfunctional institutions departments and industries,
renovate Pakistan with a modern infrastructure and infuse life into its ailing
economy and stir a fresh hope about a glorious future and a great destiny.
I mention MQM and PTI because notwithstanding
their shortcomings and, they possess the grit and resolution to straighten the
awry situation in Pakistan. Their leaders are eminently honest with committed
cadres to get the things done. The exemplary unity and strict discipline in the
ranks of MQM with a mission to root out feudalism, nepotism, perfidious privileged
mafias and similar abominations is a boon and the indispensible tools to harness
Pakistan and reorder it rudder.
PTI is a new entrant into the political
arena of Pakistan. Their slogans and manifestoes too are revolutionaries and
their chief and his associates are reputed for their patriotism and clean hands.
They possess the pain and a desire to revolutionize Pakistan with radical transformation
of its rotten system from a Patwari to the running of the state of Pakistan.
They should get a chance to stem the burgeoning rot in Pakistan.
The writer is a senior journalist and a
former diplomat
Tariq Khattak, Islamabad, Pakistan.
GSM = 0300-9599007 and 0333-9599007
Email: Tariqgulkhattak@gmail.com
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