While we discuss the topic, let me refresh the memories of the valued readers of these columns that Pakistan got independence in 1947. This means that the age of Pakistan on August 14, 2005 will be 58 years. Pakistan is going through a process. Even after spending 57 years, various rulers have not been able to achieve the required targets. Our priorities are based on adhocism. Nobody knows which way we are leading?
Due to lack of co-ordination among political forces within the country, foreign forces got an upper edge and this is how our policies are made. I am ashamed to note that instead of taking the nation to the right direction, political leaders have divided the nation into bits and pieces.
Some of them want to run Pakistan according to their own agenda. And the rest of them want to drive Pakistan according to their own desire. Nobody knows which way to go. The simple reason is that the rulers of Pakistan after assuming powers have deviated from the correct path shown to us by the Father of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Unfortunately, no leader in our country has ever tried to play a role according to the wishes of the Father of Nation. This is one of the reasons that the nation is divided and follows different political leaders, who work on their self-made political agenda which are designed to protect their own interest.
This is why in our country the political will of political leaders remains supreme than the national interest. And this is the reason that today, after Bangladesh declared its independence, we are living in half-part of Pakistan. If Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had lived until 1971, after seeing what has happened to the former East Pakistan, he would have died due to heart attack.
If we dig deep into our past, we will find that no political party has been able to give any thing to the nation, except that at the time of general elections in the country, various political leaders come out on the streets and beg for votes from the masses. At that time, political and religious leaders make hoax promises with the nation, but at the end of the day, they are unable to deliver and leave the nation into a pool of miseries.
Pakistan has to go through a long political process, until our leaders learn how to drive Pakistan with democratic forces. Democracy does not mean the rule of majority of the ruling party in the parliament. Democracy means the rule of majority of the voters who are the masses.
The decisions taken from time to time by the federal or the provincial cabinets in the country, do not reflect the feelings of the masses in the country.
Let us take into the account that what are the fundamentals that the masses are looking for. The masses want to see that the unemployed should get jobs in the country. They want fair and speedy justice. Their children should get educated, own property to live, better health facilities, clean drinking water, drastic reduction in the crime rate, pollution-free environment, eradication of corruption from the law enforcement agencies and government offices, playgrounds, elimination of terrorism from the country etc.
Now I would like to ask this question that have the masses got the above-mentioned demands fulfilled by any of the previous governments or from the ruling government? The answer is NO.
President Musharraf, while holding both the offices, can play a significant role. He has the time to deliver. His retirement is due in 2007, and then what next? Will he also leave the nation in the same way as his predecessors have left in the past? Holding of both offices by President Musharraf will not yield any fruitful results on the national politics. The more important question is what finally people will get at the end of the day.
If President Musharraf wants to leave an impression on the nation, then he has to make drastic changes in the federal and the provincial cabinets, as taking along with the present set-up is a sheer waste of time, not only for the government itself, but in the long run, also for the masses.
The masses do not need the hoax promises that are never fulfilled by the ministers and cabinet advisors. Let's not leave the remaining half-part of Pakistan in the middle of the road. We have to set our priorities and the goals according to the teachings of the Father of the Nation.