The Islamic Republic of Pakistan came into being 74 years ago on 14th August 1947, with the struggle of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the dream of Allama Muhammad Iqbal for a welfare Islamic State. Since Pakistan came into being, it has been facing so many challenges: economic, social, political, foreign, etc.
This region had been under British control for the past 1 century. The Indian subcontinent was a colony of the British Empire. This colonization of foreign control made the mindsets of the people living here colonized too. We were forced to serve the British in our own homeland. This colonized mindset is being transferred from generation to generation. When Pakistan came into being, its purpose was to have a separate nation for the Muslims of the subcontinent so that they can practice their religion with freedom, because Muslims were deprived of their rights under the Hindu and British rule. Pakistan came into being from a big struggle, in which many people sacrificed their lives. Pakistan was the second state after the State of Madinah, which came into being in the name of Islam, and the slogan was “Pakistan ka Matlab kya La illaha Illallah”. This Nation is a special gift from Allah Almighty. Here we were supposed to follow the true Islamic principles in our social, moral, economical values. This Nation had to give rights to all human beings including non-Muslims. This Nation had to have a just system of Adal-o-Insaf. A Nation where all people had rights according to the limits set by the Holy Quran, and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
However, unfortunately, we have deviated from this ideology of a welfare Islamic State. This happened after the death of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, just after one year of the creation of Pakistan. The wealth of the whole country was concentrated on some influential families of Pakistan, and the rest of the Nation was poor. Pakistan passed through political instability, in the 1950s, until the 1st Martial Law was imposed by Field Marshal Ayub Khan. Though it was a military dictatorship, and should not happen, during his reign Pakistan was actually on the road to development. Industries were being set up, and Pakistan developing fast, but Field Marshal Ayub Khan did some mistakes which proved to be disastrous for the Nation, and eventually, the downfall of Pakistan started, and one after the other leader worsened the country, in between, we faced military dictatorships and political governments. They all worsened the Nation’s situation.
The worse was to come after the coup d’état of 5th July 1977, led by General Zia-ul-Haq. This military dictatorship of 11 years proved to be very disastrous for our Pakistani society. This President General was a conservative person, a hardliner, whose support was the religious clerics, who got so much support from the state. These clerics tried to impose their conservative rule on the people of Pakistan. They banned everything, took away the freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of practising religion. His rule spread extremism in our society. This extremism proved to be very fatal for Pakistani society. These extremists sitting in the government banned all types of freedom, and anyone standing up for his/her right was either beaten up or hanged. There was a height of extremism in the country and it still continues. Corrupt people were also inducted into Pakistani politics during the brutal reign of General Zia-ul-Haq. People like Nawaz Sharif, Khwaja Asif, Yusuf Raza Gillani, and many more made their way into the National Assembly through the non-party elections, and these people proved to be fatal for Pakistan’s socio-economic situation. Morality went down in our country after this brutal Military rule.
Now coming to the present situation. Today, Pakistani society is divided into different classes. One class is the elite class, which is very less in number but indeed very powerful in this country. The second one is the middle class, and that too is divided into the upper-middle class and lower middle class, and the third class the lower class. The problem is that the decision making of the whole country is concentrated with these elite classes, who have no idea how the lower class or the middle class live. Most of the elite class spend half of their year in foreign countries and half of the year in Pakistan. Their interests are mostly out of Pakistan, which is a dangerous thing for the country’s security. These elite classes always degrade the people lower than their class, and I am an eye witness and a victim of that because I have spent a lot of time in between the elite class people. Some people’s mindset is that if the other person has never visited some foreign country especially the USA, UK, UAE, then you are a very backward person. I think this attitude of them is very bad, the least negative word I can use here. Making fun of someone who has never visited any other country other than your own country is a habit which many of the elite people I have come across have. Secondly, they prefer foreign things including music, fashion, food, and social and cultural values over their own country’s things. I think, when you are living in Pakistan, Pakistani norms must be followed. Another attitude of them is that they call that person a backward person who doesn’t speak English, keeping in mind that English is not the National language of Pakistan, and most people have either Urdu or local languages as their mother languages. I think this must be discouraged, this class is filled with a superiority complex, which is leading to the corruption of society morally. Their moral and social values are not according to what actually the Islamic Republic of Pakistan had to be. However, whilst criticizing them, I would say, these people, while trying to show them as very Westernized display some manners, but I think manners must be according to Islamic moral values. This class provides world-class education to their children.
The second type is the middle class, talking in general. Middle-class people are mostly working as employees in the public and private sectors. They work hard to educate their children so that they live a good life. They mostly follow family norms and culture and don’t get involved in big issues. This class, don’t care about what’s happening, they support everyone, whom they think can provide a good job, and 2 times meal is covered. However, there are exceptions, but still, this class, which is in middle is better and they are humble. However, in the third class, the lower class, most are uneducated people, who don’t have such manners and things. They don’t know anything because they aren’t given opportunities for that thus, they are left behind.
So, what I am trying to say is that this disparity in society never lets society unite and live as a Nation. Society is corrupt morally and financially. Financial corruption starts from the very top level, and comes down to the bureaucracy, to the low-level clerks, police, to the traders to a common stall owner, everyone does financial corruption. When you go to a fruit stall, first of all, he will charge you more than the usual price, then he will not let you pick the fruit yourself, and if it happens, he will definitely put one rotten fruit in your shopping bag, just as a habit, this comes in moral as well as financial corruption. Coming to the bureaucracy, you can never get your work done before you give a commission to the bureaucrat. If you give him money, your case would be heard on priority, and if you don’t give him money, then even if you wait for years. Mostly, the middle class and lower class are the victims of this behaviour. A corrupt politician, including a leader, will put up a mega project, suppose it costs $1Billion, and he signs a contract for $1.2 Billion, the $0.2 Billion will automatically serve as a commission which is corruption, and the moral corruption here is dishonesty. From politicians to traders to businessmen to a common shopkeeper, a handful of them would be honest otherwise, others will be dishonest. This is eating up our country like a termite. We need to end this at all costs, and corruption can never be ended with law, there are many laws, corruption can only be ended, when a Nation rises up and unite against the corrupt mafia and boycott them, the problem is that we people have accepted corrupt practices, and we encourage them, which actually gives an easy area for the corrupt to do corruption. People really need to change their mindsets and be honest in public and private dealings and follow the principles laid by the Holy Quran and the Holy Sunnah, so that we may rise as a Nation.
Secondly, there are some social problems, i.e. there are two types of people living one type is the liberals, who are more influenced by the Western ideas, and the other is conservatives, who think they only know about religion and the rest are non-Muslims. They see you with a bad eye when you go to a mosque, wearing a pant and a shirt. These types of people are spreading extremism in the society, and are deviating the society from the real and true Islamic principles, whereas the liberals are people who think that everything should be free, I mean they want to have freedoms everywhere, even violating the code of conduct of the religion, and when asked not to do that, they start giving baseless arguments. I think both types of people are wrong and they must review their ideas, and come in accordance with true Islamic principles laid by the Holy Quran and the Holy Sunnah so that we can depict that we are the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. We need to stop foreign influence and we need to break the stereotypes of the conservative society, be more centrist, and everyone should work within their limits set by Allah Almighty.
I hope that you people will understand what I am trying to tell you that, we need to follow the religion of Islam in true essence as laid down by the Holy Quran and the Holy Sunnah. We must give rights to our minorities, and not impose Islam o them, but surely, Muslims are supposed to understand the religion, and our youth must learn about the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). We need to unite as a Nation, end the class disparity, and work forward for a better Pakistan.
In the end, I would ask where are we heading as a Nation, are we following the ideologies of our Founding Father? This country had to be a welfare Islamic State, where everyone was to enjoy equal rights, staying within the limits set by Allah Almighty? I think the answer is NO, and we really need to head in the right direction, or else there is no guarantee that we can live peacefully ever. There was more to write and will be discussed in the next article, next week. This article is to be continued, Insha Allah.
May Allah Almighty help, protect and guide us…Ameen
PAKISTAN PAINDABD
