As a nation, had we been duly vaccinated with Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s pearls of wisdom at our birth 75 years ago, we surely would not have been left traumatised and truncated before age 25, and would not have been hobbling along since then like a polio-stricken victim. Pity the nation that indulges in self-denial and imagines its enemies elsewhere.
That fact is that we shattered Jinnah’s dream early on. Singling out politicians and demonising them alone is condescending and unfair. Polarisation has been naturally precipitated when elite capture, cartelisation, patronage, cronyism, social injustice and economic disparity were practised in the name of democracy.
We would do well to remember the Quaid’s considered view that corruption was a cancer, and his strong directives to ensure adherence to the oath of one’s service. All organs of the state bear a collective responsibility for our failures, including the media that claims to be the ‘fourth pillar’. None remains unfettered even today when elite capture rules the roost by excluding the saner voices.
All state functionaries are duty-bound to serve the people who pay for their upkeep and expect them to deliver on good governance in line with their designated responsibilities and accountabilities.
Most political parties and politicians have been ‘midwifed’ into government by dictators who have periodically usurped power and who were facilitated by the ‘doctrine of necessity’.
Finally, it is rather rich to believe that we enjoy freedom of speech or expression as our fundamental right. Rule of law has to be applied equitably and universally, and should not be cherry-picked.
ZIA HASHMI
KARACHI
