Is Pakistan really a super nation?
"Pakistan,in the age of super teams,yet in the seek of a super hero"
A nation emerging onto the map of the world with the sole aim to live under the teachings of a religion that even grants away unconditional liberty in following it, falls prey to the worst evil of hero worshipping be it any walk of life.
Here's the tragic saga how it unfolded and unfortunately continues happening.
The image of Muhammad Ali Jinnah was on the back of the mind of almost every new migrant travelling to the newly created country Pakistan.The very image was so powerful not only in its character but also strengthened with the biggest achievement of getting independence from the then political super power of the world.It was indeed a one man effort in making that happen,however the fruit was later on looted and plundered by everyone who opportuned to take a hand on that.
"Father of the nation" was chosen to name the person who made all that happen in order to show their gratitude for the maker of the country.1948 the month of September brought the tragic news of the demise of Muhammad Ali jinnah,since his fatal disease finally knocked him down,the secret he had kept to himself and a fewer but closer.
The nation's set back of losing their super hero was partially balanced with the presence of the next in line of heroes.Liaqat Ali khan,the then prime minister,was not surprisingly awarded with the title of "quaid_e_millat" since he had to play the leading role then, giving away the newly born country with the basic principles of running the machinery of state.The most tragic event took place in the history of the newly formed nation of diverse ethnicities jelled together with the string of a common belief, a monotheistic religion Islam,when at a political convocation in Rawalpindi,the nation's hero was reportedly assassinated with a gun fire by a person who was never seen afterwards.
In came the gap of leadership,with the top most all vanished in the earlier years and the nation finding no second best hero in line,fell prey to the conspiracies woven by the state's bureaucracy as it came forward to guide the nation with its new journey of building a state.A country with no constitution of itself, running on the leftover of the British legislation solely aimed at running their colony was now hijacked by the ones with skills only to run a governmental department let alone a country.
After liaquat Ali khan,the then governor general khwaja nazimuddin became the prime minister and the politically shrewd finance minister of liaquat Ali khan's cabinet ghulam muhammad was made governor general.A country only four years old with its political gurus falling down in quick succession was in no way going towards its destination since it faced a tug of war between presidential and parliamentary forms of democracy.From1951until the take over by the then commander in chief General Ayub,Pakistan faced the worst beginning any nascent democracy would crumble with.Governor General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed the soft and politically less assertive Nazimuddin from his post,though the dismissal was challenged by the then president(speaker)of legislative assembly Molvi Tameezuddin.In a High Court verdict,the dismissal was declared null and void but the same was reinstated by the Supreme Court of the country.
The process of political development,the nurturing of institutions and the evolution of democratic norms were severely sabotaged.In a beginner democracy of a populace with low literacy rate,unable to handle the newly formed state machinery,finding no trustworthy group of skilled individuals to run state affairs,the desire to have a hero seems inevitable who comes and corrects every wrong and the populace kneels down in respect with their jaws down in sheer and utmost surprise at the unleash of God gifted potential of their hero in the process of rectification.
The hero did appear.The commander in chief of the country could not stay indifferent to the worsening political situation of the country and took over as the saviour whose eleven year regime's tale highlighted the complete ban on political parties,political activities,the indulgence of country into undesirable war with eastern neighbour(the situation would have been different if parliament existed and war matter duly debated over).The defeat of Quaid's sister Fatima Jinnah in the general elections against the then hero Ayub khan was an eye opener as it proved who then held and would hold in future the tight grip in the power corridors but none took it serious and learnt from it.
Country as a result of Ayub khan's endeavours to run it in a mideaval kingship style turned into a limited company as the power corridors were then taken over by Z.A.Bhutto and General Yahya khan,but the later was kicked out by the former since bhutto looked like the nation's long desired hero after quaid.
He was so assertive in glorifying and convincing the nation of his heroic persona that the nation didn't even bother the break up of the country and fell in the romance of rectifying affairs through him.He inspired the masses with his charismatic personality on and off the stage.People would love to listen to him for hours and he would make them stunned with his political rhetoric of bread, clothing and shelter.
What else people needed?Why would they bother to believe in themselves to become hero themselves and change their destiny when they had their hero at their disposal.
So What is the reason of people being hero worshipper and looking towards only one gifted with super talent to do things that are normally done by many with different skills?
Apart from the historical perspective of the evil of hero worshipping accounted in the lines earlier,the apparent reason seems to be the prevailing illiteracy but deep down lies the inability of having developed the process of legislation thus forming a way towards building institutions that would replace individuals.
In the beginning,the process of legislation was hindered by people like ghulam muhammad a power hungry man and the politically lenient khwaja nazimuddin who couldn't assert himself neither as governor general nor prime minister and then came the commander in chief who by all means grabbed the power,making sure there remained no room for political development of the newly created democracy.The constitution of 1973 was though not an ideal document to run country,yet a landmark in the worst political scenario of a country that had lost half of it.
Came in the next spell of zia's dictatorship and people of the country who were about to start learning the basics of democracy,parliamentary legislation and institutionalisation,the process of political maturity stopped flourishing.The growing heroin culture,state sponsored smuggling and the uncontrolled influx of afghan migrants were some of the many gifts of zia's regime who is yet considered by many as the real hero because of his apparent endeavours to islamicise the country,the pulse of common people who are more than ready to sacrifice their lives for any fued between Islam and infidelity.The hero was fallen prey to an apparent air crash yet hidden international conspiracy to remove him from the chess as he was undesirable anymore.
The spell of musharraf's regime threw Pakistan into the hell of terrorism since the fall out of his personal decisions(the situation would be different with the presence of a sovereign parliament then) to involve into US Afghan war,Lal masjid incident and the killing of the cheiftain of bugti tribe haunts the country to this day.
Unfortunately the civilian dictatorship also stands side by side with uniformed dictatorship when it comes to share the very reasons behind nation's long suffering with hero worshiping.People who surfce on the political arena also have a tilt towards power concentration into their very own grip thus making state institutions work as their limited companies serving for their benefits.
Nawaz Shareef combined with Benazir Bhutto,given with the power of popular vote for a considerable time also failed in defining and strengthening the democratic norms,instead they competed each other in granting loans,issuing contracts to their family and friends and taking revenge from one another while in power.
All these heroes came and claimed as people's saviours,yet changed nothing but the desire for a super hero kept growing and the hero kept changing dresses from Sherwani(a sub continental cloak and state's official dress code for state's chief executive) to uniform to Sherwani again.
The present entails past as this was witnessed in the recent years that the nation is in seek of a super hero to this day.The state machinery looked confusingly inactive when it had to face a crazy looking armed person on a road in the broad daylight in the heart of its capital where again a cheap heroic show was put up by a local member of parliament as the daylong beaurocratic procedure for taking a decision as to what actually needed to be done to knock the armed man down was seen nakedly inapt in dealing with the situation and before something worst happened,there came the all time tested state formula of handling the situation with the help of a super hero.The member of parliament hurriedly ran towards the armed person in order to knock him down and escaped certain death as the gunman opened fire randomly,the gunman was then shot by the police aiming at his legs and the masses taking fun and making videos and gossips of the potentially fatal situation,clapped and cheered the hero.Soon after,a video went viral but the nation didn't learn the lesson from the handling techniques shown in the clip of a same situation in another country where the police on ground took the decision to handle a suspected person by shooting his leg with a gun making him paralysed and unable to run away.
What makes people not fall into hero worshipping?
This is natural for humans to look for a solution to every problem they are faced with.
The endeavour to find the solution on own or passing the buck to others in doing so is what that makes the differnce.The encouragement of doing things and handling situations on own and the attitude of taking the hero out of self instead of waiting for one,are the reasons that make people different from being a hero worshipper.From doing a household task to running state affairs,self heroes like doing themselves,making mistakes but learning from them and depending less on others to come and rescue them.
We are not doing any help to ourselves as long as we keep waiting for someone with a majic wand to come and cure our collective illness of running state affairs.We are not living anymore in some mideaval age sultanate(kingdom)where state affairs were limited to waging wars and expanding Kingdom and the order of King would be the final verdict binding on the subjects to follow and if defied, exile would be destined onto them.We are living in a democracy where people govern,having rights and duties to claim for and perform with.We need to be our own heroes and yield the thinking as to why let someone else be our hero,why not let us be the same?
We need to build and strengthen institutions to lessen our dependance on certain individuals.The rule of law must be our primary focus in order to achieve this lost goal of ours.Education plays an important part in the making and breaking of a nation.We need our education be unfettered of the chains of text books aimed at directing the nation's intellect to safeguard certain vested interests, instead we need to start an open dialogue amongst different factions of the society to grow a culture of accommodating any hostile view,let the collective wisdom of people decide to either adopt or reject it by providing them with different narratives of a matter.Everyone should be a hero in his or her own capacity,contributing towards the overall welfare of society.
This is the cry of the day.Are we hearing it?This is boldly written on the wall.Are we reading it?
By A.R.naqsh
A nation emerging onto the map of the world with the sole aim to live under the teachings of a religion that even grants away unconditional liberty in following it, falls prey to the worst evil of hero worshipping be it any walk of life.
Here's the tragic saga how it unfolded and unfortunately continues happening.
The image of Muhammad Ali Jinnah was on the back of the mind of almost every new migrant travelling to the newly created country Pakistan.The very image was so powerful not only in its character but also strengthened with the biggest achievement of getting independence from the then political super power of the world.It was indeed a one man effort in making that happen,however the fruit was later on looted and plundered by everyone who opportuned to take a hand on that.
"Father of the nation" was chosen to name the person who made all that happen in order to show their gratitude for the maker of the country.1948 the month of September brought the tragic news of the demise of Muhammad Ali jinnah,since his fatal disease finally knocked him down,the secret he had kept to himself and a fewer but closer.
The nation's set back of losing their super hero was partially balanced with the presence of the next in line of heroes.Liaqat Ali khan,the then prime minister,was not surprisingly awarded with the title of "quaid_e_millat" since he had to play the leading role then, giving away the newly born country with the basic principles of running the machinery of state.The most tragic event took place in the history of the newly formed nation of diverse ethnicities jelled together with the string of a common belief, a monotheistic religion Islam,when at a political convocation in Rawalpindi,the nation's hero was reportedly assassinated with a gun fire by a person who was never seen afterwards.
In came the gap of leadership,with the top most all vanished in the earlier years and the nation finding no second best hero in line,fell prey to the conspiracies woven by the state's bureaucracy as it came forward to guide the nation with its new journey of building a state.A country with no constitution of itself, running on the leftover of the British legislation solely aimed at running their colony was now hijacked by the ones with skills only to run a governmental department let alone a country.
After liaquat Ali khan,the then governor general khwaja nazimuddin became the prime minister and the politically shrewd finance minister of liaquat Ali khan's cabinet ghulam muhammad was made governor general.A country only four years old with its political gurus falling down in quick succession was in no way going towards its destination since it faced a tug of war between presidential and parliamentary forms of democracy.From1951until the take over by the then commander in chief General Ayub,Pakistan faced the worst beginning any nascent democracy would crumble with.Governor General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed the soft and politically less assertive Nazimuddin from his post,though the dismissal was challenged by the then president(speaker)of legislative assembly Molvi Tameezuddin.In a High Court verdict,the dismissal was declared null and void but the same was reinstated by the Supreme Court of the country.
The process of political development,the nurturing of institutions and the evolution of democratic norms were severely sabotaged.In a beginner democracy of a populace with low literacy rate,unable to handle the newly formed state machinery,finding no trustworthy group of skilled individuals to run state affairs,the desire to have a hero seems inevitable who comes and corrects every wrong and the populace kneels down in respect with their jaws down in sheer and utmost surprise at the unleash of God gifted potential of their hero in the process of rectification.
The hero did appear.The commander in chief of the country could not stay indifferent to the worsening political situation of the country and took over as the saviour whose eleven year regime's tale highlighted the complete ban on political parties,political activities,the indulgence of country into undesirable war with eastern neighbour(the situation would have been different if parliament existed and war matter duly debated over).The defeat of Quaid's sister Fatima Jinnah in the general elections against the then hero Ayub khan was an eye opener as it proved who then held and would hold in future the tight grip in the power corridors but none took it serious and learnt from it.
Country as a result of Ayub khan's endeavours to run it in a mideaval kingship style turned into a limited company as the power corridors were then taken over by Z.A.Bhutto and General Yahya khan,but the later was kicked out by the former since bhutto looked like the nation's long desired hero after quaid.
He was so assertive in glorifying and convincing the nation of his heroic persona that the nation didn't even bother the break up of the country and fell in the romance of rectifying affairs through him.He inspired the masses with his charismatic personality on and off the stage.People would love to listen to him for hours and he would make them stunned with his political rhetoric of bread, clothing and shelter.
What else people needed?Why would they bother to believe in themselves to become hero themselves and change their destiny when they had their hero at their disposal.
So What is the reason of people being hero worshipper and looking towards only one gifted with super talent to do things that are normally done by many with different skills?
Apart from the historical perspective of the evil of hero worshipping accounted in the lines earlier,the apparent reason seems to be the prevailing illiteracy but deep down lies the inability of having developed the process of legislation thus forming a way towards building institutions that would replace individuals.
In the beginning,the process of legislation was hindered by people like ghulam muhammad a power hungry man and the politically lenient khwaja nazimuddin who couldn't assert himself neither as governor general nor prime minister and then came the commander in chief who by all means grabbed the power,making sure there remained no room for political development of the newly created democracy.The constitution of 1973 was though not an ideal document to run country,yet a landmark in the worst political scenario of a country that had lost half of it.
Came in the next spell of zia's dictatorship and people of the country who were about to start learning the basics of democracy,parliamentary legislation and institutionalisation,the process of political maturity stopped flourishing.The growing heroin culture,state sponsored smuggling and the uncontrolled influx of afghan migrants were some of the many gifts of zia's regime who is yet considered by many as the real hero because of his apparent endeavours to islamicise the country,the pulse of common people who are more than ready to sacrifice their lives for any fued between Islam and infidelity.The hero was fallen prey to an apparent air crash yet hidden international conspiracy to remove him from the chess as he was undesirable anymore.
The spell of musharraf's regime threw Pakistan into the hell of terrorism since the fall out of his personal decisions(the situation would be different with the presence of a sovereign parliament then) to involve into US Afghan war,Lal masjid incident and the killing of the cheiftain of bugti tribe haunts the country to this day.
Unfortunately the civilian dictatorship also stands side by side with uniformed dictatorship when it comes to share the very reasons behind nation's long suffering with hero worshiping.People who surfce on the political arena also have a tilt towards power concentration into their very own grip thus making state institutions work as their limited companies serving for their benefits.
Nawaz Shareef combined with Benazir Bhutto,given with the power of popular vote for a considerable time also failed in defining and strengthening the democratic norms,instead they competed each other in granting loans,issuing contracts to their family and friends and taking revenge from one another while in power.
All these heroes came and claimed as people's saviours,yet changed nothing but the desire for a super hero kept growing and the hero kept changing dresses from Sherwani(a sub continental cloak and state's official dress code for state's chief executive) to uniform to Sherwani again.
The present entails past as this was witnessed in the recent years that the nation is in seek of a super hero to this day.The state machinery looked confusingly inactive when it had to face a crazy looking armed person on a road in the broad daylight in the heart of its capital where again a cheap heroic show was put up by a local member of parliament as the daylong beaurocratic procedure for taking a decision as to what actually needed to be done to knock the armed man down was seen nakedly inapt in dealing with the situation and before something worst happened,there came the all time tested state formula of handling the situation with the help of a super hero.The member of parliament hurriedly ran towards the armed person in order to knock him down and escaped certain death as the gunman opened fire randomly,the gunman was then shot by the police aiming at his legs and the masses taking fun and making videos and gossips of the potentially fatal situation,clapped and cheered the hero.Soon after,a video went viral but the nation didn't learn the lesson from the handling techniques shown in the clip of a same situation in another country where the police on ground took the decision to handle a suspected person by shooting his leg with a gun making him paralysed and unable to run away.
What makes people not fall into hero worshipping?
This is natural for humans to look for a solution to every problem they are faced with.
The endeavour to find the solution on own or passing the buck to others in doing so is what that makes the differnce.The encouragement of doing things and handling situations on own and the attitude of taking the hero out of self instead of waiting for one,are the reasons that make people different from being a hero worshipper.From doing a household task to running state affairs,self heroes like doing themselves,making mistakes but learning from them and depending less on others to come and rescue them.
We are not doing any help to ourselves as long as we keep waiting for someone with a majic wand to come and cure our collective illness of running state affairs.We are not living anymore in some mideaval age sultanate(kingdom)where state affairs were limited to waging wars and expanding Kingdom and the order of King would be the final verdict binding on the subjects to follow and if defied, exile would be destined onto them.We are living in a democracy where people govern,having rights and duties to claim for and perform with.We need to be our own heroes and yield the thinking as to why let someone else be our hero,why not let us be the same?
We need to build and strengthen institutions to lessen our dependance on certain individuals.The rule of law must be our primary focus in order to achieve this lost goal of ours.Education plays an important part in the making and breaking of a nation.We need our education be unfettered of the chains of text books aimed at directing the nation's intellect to safeguard certain vested interests, instead we need to start an open dialogue amongst different factions of the society to grow a culture of accommodating any hostile view,let the collective wisdom of people decide to either adopt or reject it by providing them with different narratives of a matter.Everyone should be a hero in his or her own capacity,contributing towards the overall welfare of society.
This is the cry of the day.Are we hearing it?This is boldly written on the wall.Are we reading it?
By A.R.naqsh
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