Once pure, now plagued
BEING a student of Social Sciences, my views and writings are supposed to be objective and must be evolving but being the radical youth who was enthusiastic about changing the trajectory of the homeland like many others, I am now losing faith!
What amount of firm faith can one possibly have in a state that is constantly falling prey to self-inflicted, internal crises?
In a state that is gradually becoming a tale of brutal injustice? Pakistan's functional yet imperfect patterns are what govern her. Any best-designed and noble intentioned reforms are suffocated.
Pakistanis are failing their homeland. We can take into consideration any given crisis and our country can prove to be a wonderful case study for the said matter.
A country that gave us- lets say the bare minimum- nationality- deserved at least sincerity and sanity in return.
Even if we start from the bottom, there are miscalculations and errors that nobody is ready to admit, let alone correct.
The impoverished are being exploited and worse off but they too are at fault; if a below-average earning man is offered free education for his children, he will rather opt for sending them to work; child labour.
Similarly, if the privileged are held accountable (a fantasy, though) for employing children they can simply tell the family needed money and they just are their knight in shining armour.
Who do we blame here? The impoverished need multiple bread earners for the family. They do not seem to be caring about the long-term benefits of education and we cannot blame them for that and the privileged need maximum profits to maintain a living standard.
The problem is not with the country, the problem(s) lie within the people. We should rephrase our cliche statements and beliefs that say ' Pakistan is failing' when in reality we, individuals are failing.
Pakistan was not meant to be on its own, we cannot assume it to be. A state always needs actors to act accordingly so the problem here is with the actors.
The problems are deep-rooted and are driving the state toward ultimate destruction. Unsettling political disputes are something we are all demented about at this point.
The question or choice of good or bad is not for us now; we’ve either got better or worse people to choose from.
There is no good left. Our institutions are not serving justice anymore, they are just selling decisions, and linked to this is another massive, lethal problem of our system; patronage and kinship; something because of which we are doomed.
If water, chemically speaking, is H2O then Pakistani politics are P2K" You are capable of doing anything if you are powerful; having a strong designation or a lot of money, congratulations *The system bows* Kinship and patronage are two influential factors for life-saving and interest-gaining.
A common man cannot even think about toppling the system if we find it with errors and corruption.
It is 1-0 because you and I are just having a national identity card that makes us Pakistani but they?
They have been monopolizing the country for generations. Might is right and that is why we have an extensive history speaking for many; anyone who spoke the truth, who tried to stay loyal to the state and said no to injustice, they were either seen behind the bars or assassinated.
This is something we recently witnessed and are still trying to wrap our head around. With the inflation hype, the only thing that keeps getting cheaper is human life. When talking about might is right, we must not shut our eyes to the concept of feudalism in
The existential threats are many and all of them are grave in their entirety. Religious, ethnic, and regional divisions are other factors that aggravate the scenario, giving birth to and nurturing sub-factors; propagation of hate culture, intolerance, large-scale violence, and ramifications that are triggered by extremism.
Extremism being one grave factor has been paralyzing the country on many fronts. Extremism not only petrifies individuals but also shrunken space for liberal ideas.
Apart from social factors, it is of great harm to the economic aspects as well. A country 's economic growth is affected as foreign investment decreases to a dismal level when they have security concerns; investing in a country where security threat is a norm, the cost is doubled.
From the political aspect, people lose their faith in the government and its ability to control the situation and guard their citizens and Pakistanis have majored in extremism, ranging from day-to-day interaction, such as a political debate to the extremist groups; illiterate clerics claiming to be the authoritarians of Islam.
Thus, extremism is shrinking space for disagreement and reasoning; molesting the system and the state as a whole.
To conclude, heinous propaganda, back-door politics, ailing social and religious structures, and rotten individual standpoints and practices are plaguing our land that was once the land of the pure.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
