Again it is Aitzaz Ahsan, who after his meeting with the President Asif
Zardari is quoted as saying that ‘Pakistan is facing a war-like
situation’. This may be even anunderstatement coming from a person who
ably led to success the lawyers movement very timely organized by
another rising star of legal fraternity Mr. Munir A. Malik. When Mian
Nawaz Sharif’s surprisingly defied his house arrest to lead a long march
towards Islamabad, which was over whelming joined by civil society and
at its full peak the march was intercepted at midnight near Gujranwala,
where Mr. Aitezaz Ahsan conveyed a message from some high authority that
Prime Minister is going to announce in his address to the nation
restoration of Judiciary as on 3rd November 2007 at 3 A.M, which was
broadcast at 6 A.M. Nawaz Sharif complacently abandoned the march at
midnight to maintain friendly opposition status, which role PML (N) is
also continuing on American & Saudi requirements and now when another
turmoil has been triggered by the rulers themselves to suit their
agenda, the name of Aitezaz Ahsan appears in media providing breathing
space for the public expectation to slip away again.
Dark clouds still engulf due to misrule the administrational, economic,
political and ideological fabric of this state which had come into
existence sixty years ago in order to prevent the Muslim community of
united India from the status of being a permanent minority in a
parliamentary democracy dominated by the Indian National Congress and
the Hindu nationalist parties has been strained to the extent that the
future of this state also seems rather bleak with no hope mainly because
of our compromised attitude on vital national issues including
Kerry-Lugar bill, return to IMF and World Bank clutches and promoting
Capitalistic trends..
Until today the leaders of this country have not been able to give it a
positive identity to determine what actually they want it to be and what
would be its destiny. From the very beginning in1940 when the Pakistan
resolution was adopted until the coming into existence of Pakistan no
broad-based discussion had taken place what Pakistan would have to be
alike. Quaid-e Azam may have thought that it was too early or that there
was enough time. When in August 1947 the country was founded it lacked
almost everything but the optimistic determination of the masses.
Unfortunately, that was not enough. Quaid-e-Azam was fatally ill and
overwhelmed by the multiple severe problems the country was facing. He
may have been also surprised that the ideas which he had about a modern
Western-style democracy were hardly shared by many people. The new
constitution under Z A Bhutto did not last more than a day before it
when fundamental rights were suspended and in the process its shape was
changed so as to suit his own dynastic rule Bhutto himself lost power
because of his shameless manipulation of the elections in March 1977.
The army came in again and destroyed whatsoever good had been there.
When the politicians came back to power in 1988 to 1999 by wheeling and
dealings. All consecutive ‘democratic’ governments were toppled on
corruption charges and there is no denying the fact that the country was
plundered mercilessly by them. But General Musharraf also ascended to
power on 12th October 1999 with US clearance obtained with the curtsy of
General Zinnie. So the doors for American dictation were opened widely
already before and the pressure we are facing today to compromise our
sovereignty, he simply to prolong his personal rule opted to become
frontline ally against the popular public opinion. It was perhaps the
result of Supreme Court notice asking production of missing Pakistani
citizen numbering hundreds detained in Afghanistan and USA without any
trial that a row was started to dislodge this issue. Absolute power
corrupts absolutely so General Musharraf tried to trample the Apex
judiciary by forced removal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan on 9th of
March 2007, this sparked a wave of agitation by lawyers and the civil
society, which in the last consequences led to his stepping down as COAS
and then even as President. It was working on modalities of this
turmoil, which necessitated openly USA to interfere and broker an NRO
deal between General Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, which the corrupt
bureaucrats also exploited to take personal advantage by hundreds of
other people claiming as beneficiaries and the same has now become a
thorn in the throats of government, which can not be spitted out even.
This goes to prove that the wheels of nature are always grinding and
some time they grind fast. Time has also proved that they had learned
nothing from history and now again after ten years of Musharraf’s
misrule when a new kind of genuine democracy was assured President Bush
and general elections were held in 2008 to revert to the present
parliamentary system, which stands exposed with the demand for mid-term
polls in the air already, the situation has gone bad from worst. There
always have been point of possible return or seeking collective
forgiveness from Allah Almighty for committing willfully crime against
humanity, one such was in 1997 when Arbab Ghulam Rahim his MNA from
Mirpur Khas took his religious scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil of Tablekhi
Jamat to Islamabad to meet Nawaz Sharif who had become the Prime
Minister, he invited Maulana Tariq Jamil to give sermon on requirement
of character of every individual and offer dua before the cabinet but
his advise for collective dua for forgiveness led by PM on TV network
was ignored conveniently. As a result of elections in 2005 this Arbab
Ghulam Rahim had now become Chief Minister in Sindh, he invited Moulana
Tariq Jamil to address senior bureaucrats of Sindh government and
cabinet in CM House and then he took Moulana Tariq Jamil to Islamabad to
introduce him with the new Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
By then the idea that Islam would and should play a role in the state
had been around but no viable way of implementing that idea had ever
been developed. Maulana Tariq told the newly formed cabinet that it was
time to change things and that God would not forgive them if they would
not take the country upon a path of betterment. He advised Shoukat Aziz
that in order to make a new beginning all Pakistanis starting with the
government to general public should express repentance for their
previous wrong-doings and publicly pray for God’s forgiveness. Shoukat
Aziz also ignored that and ended up being deposed by the autocratic
ruler General Musharraf. The nation is suffering load shedding, atta and
sugar crises coupled with unemployment, poverty and all kinds of ills
and curses that afflict man kind including the un wanted drone attacks
on our territory by American drones. Since then our plight has reached a
new height with the NRO having dry-cleaned and brought into the
power-corridors the beneficiaries of this document. But the country as
such is at the verge of collapse due to mounting controversy. And one
major reason for that is that Islam has been used by politics as a
convenient means of argument but it has never been taken or promoted
seriously. What is the role of Islam in the state of Pakistan? Can we
join American camp and still have our own way of life? Islam does have a
global message but it is a different message from the American or
Western one. Because this has been neglected for years and the word of
Islam only has been used at convenience to create confusion with regard
to what we actually want and how to achieve it is becoming difficult.
Western ideas propagated by the West and Western educated Pakistani
intellectuals and financed by Western aid money are clashing with the
ideas of the common men who happen to be poor and un-educated or
half-educated at best, who have been betrayed over the years to fill the
coffers of their respective leaders and who have been fed a version of
Islam which they thought would suit their objectives. So every
successive ruler tried to use it to prolong his rule at the cost of
degeneration of Pakistani society at large, which every naked eye can
see today. That has had its impact that Islamic militancy is thriving,
sectarian strife is a daily feature not only between Shias and Sunnis
but between many more of the Islamic sects.
It has brought the country at the verge of collapse and into a situation
where we are fighting the war of the Americans with the hope of getting
dollars, which in the final analysis will lead to our own doom with the
emergence of Russian and Chinese influence in the emerging multi-polar
system to win peace through limited wars in their zones.-our own
solution for militancy could have been better achieved through
meaningful dialogue for peaceful settlement had not the American drone
attacks made that impossible ? We are now perhaps at a point of no
return. God will not forgive those who used the name of Islam for their
nefarious selfish aims. It is time to decide what we actually want: join
America as another of their colonies or go our own way. For that we need
courage and determination we need a complete break with the past. We
will need those collective Tauba-prayers which Nawaz Sharif and Shaukat
Aziz avoided at that time. And we will need the heart and the hand of
all Pakistanis raised together before Allah Almighty for his forgiveness
and blessing, when we decide and declare to change our attitude in daily
life as an honest, sincere law abiding human being that we are not
today.
