Since the creation of Pakistan, we have been continuously suffering from every sorts of problem, be it from social, economical or educational. We have only succeeded and survived as a trembling state instead of a firm, strong and successful nation.
By Rashid Qutub
Today every person has his own solution and theory to address the situation of the country, even the political parties are hardly sharing common grounds and platforms to come up with some miraculous solutions for betterment of Pakistan.
For some, Pakistan has reached its worst situation today because it never had a clear, transparent and a practical vision. Some might curse the absence of a progressive educational policy. Some might blame the feudal class and some might consider the economic plight or the extremism factor to be responsible of our current scenario.
The democratic and parliamentary history of Pakistan has also not been very impressive either, that could make us proud. So where lies the main deficiency? What could be the main reason of destruction of our national integrity? Can the main problem be diagnosed and pointed out?
Pakistan has experienced almost all sorts of people, political parties, progressive and conservatives, who claim to provide people with the basic human necessities. There are also those who receive huge amount of money when they raised slogans of Qarz Utaro Mulk Sanwaro, then we have experienced Generals, both liberal and religious, Technocrat brands ranging from top World bank’s officials like Moeen Qureshi to CitiBank’s Shaukat Aziz. Sadly, after leaving premiership of Pakistan, they preferred to become financial advisor to prominent Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal in 2010.
Unfortunately, the nation continues to fall into a blind well, irrespective of whoever rules Pakistan. Even after 63 years of independence, we are inept to give transport solution to our people, we are unable to control the prices of basic needs and commodities, store rain water and avoid floods, can’t stop public violence like Sialkot incident. Furthermore, we aren’t able to eliminate the target killings in the financial hub of country. Adequate supply of energy and fuel still remains dream for us and more than half of our country is still deprived of clean drinking water.
Of course there exist several solutions to our problems and these have been highlighted from time to time, individually by Pakistanis who feel the nation’s pain and also collectively suggested by different segments of our society.
A very popular slogan is usually raised for the unification and uprising of middle class in order to solve all of our national problems. Personally, I consider this solution as only one of the remedies for the numerous evils and disorders we are facing whereas other solutions are still missing.
If we study human history, irrespective of chronology and geographical regions, the utmost and prominent feature required for success of mankind is ‘character’, both individual and collective character of the society. No political, economical, social or religious reforms or revolution was able to gather noteworthy achievement and could remain triumphant without this fundamental value of ‘good character’.
Let’s walk through history. We see that our beloved Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) not only addressed the poor and middle class segments of that age, but never missed any chance to guide the leading class of the society. The Islamic history is not complete without mentioning Usman Ghani (R.A.) who generously spent his wealth whenever required. We even find Prophet’s pray in Quran, seeking the help of an authority to help Him (P.B.U.H.) in accomplishing his Holy mission:
“And grant me from You, an authority to help me.” Al- Isra- 80.Having said that, the very significant human attributes that were nurtured by Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H.) in the people of Arab were Piety and Taqwa (Fear of God), which resulted in a great characters in the individuals and in the entire Muslim society. So rather than simply focusing on middle class, Allah’s Messenger (P.B.U.H.) worked very hard to produce a human class of Character.
Even if we don’t go far in history, we can see that while the Muslims of South Asia were struggling hard for a separate homeland, isn’t it noteworthy that the key person and focal point of the hopes of millions of Indian Muslims, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, also hailed from a rich mercantile family. He studied in one of the most prestigious Law Institutes of England, Licoln’s Inn.
The man next to Quaid, who always stood tall and firm for the Pakistani nation throughout his political life was Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan son of Rukunuddaulah Nawab Rustarn Ali Khan, the Nawab of Karnal. He also, came from a very prosperous family and was able to successfully complete his bar-at-law from Oxford.
These both gentlemen did not belonged to lower or middle class, but to my understanding they joined the ‘Character’ class and developed the basic required characteristics to lead the society, that greatly helped the Muslims of subcontinent. Despite the fact that they belonged to the Elite class of the society, they were able to achieve their political goals based on their good character.
To conclude, we as a nation, needs to produce, develop and nurture the basic qualities of human character and then find for the solutions of our problems – social or economical does not matter. This would allow us to stand up and live as a proud nation.
May Allah bless Pakistan and its people!
Rashid Qutub is Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University Hamburg, Germany. He is currently associated with a German company and comments on national issues
