What have the rulers of Pakistan have given to the people of tribal areas during the last 60 years? The rulers have just given them hunger, diseases and the most dangerious thing -- terrorism.
There is no system of security. Hospitals are in shambles.
It is pathetic to note that Pakistan has been getting huge amounts of money from the United States and other donor agencies earmarked for the welfare of people of tribal areas. But where these dollars go, no one knows.
The rulers are corrupt to the core. They have created terrorism in order to hide their misdeeds and get even more dollars.
A writer, Dr. A.H. Khayal, has discussed the corruption of the rulers in his latest essay: We have had numerous rulers. They had political differences amongst themselves. But one thing they had in common. It was their lifestyle. They ate five-star dishes. They wore five-star dresses. They lived in five-star palaces. They moved about in five-star limousines. Each moment of their life was a five-starry moment.
When taken ill, some of them flew abroad in five-star planes to five-star clinics in the West. They firmly believed that only the foreign doctors had a knowledge of the material with which Nature had manufactured them. Their physical disorders were absolutely beyond the comprehension of the indigenous quacks.
Inspired by the common lifestyle of the rulers, the masses also have developed a common lifestyle. The lifestyle of the masses is utterly starless. It is darker than hell.
The animals feel proud of themselves when they see what the masses eat. They feel proud of themselves when they see what the masses wear. They feel proud of themselves when they see the masses sleeping on naked earth. And they dance when they see the masses dying medicinelessly like themselves. They thank God that they have kith and kin in the cities.
The rulers have always been anxious about our trade, about our commerce about our finances, about our industry etc., etc. They have done all they could do to better our commercial affairs, our trade affairs, our financial affairs, our industrial affairs etc., etc. There is only one thing which they have considered not at all worth improving. It is the miserable lot of the masses.
The rulers know that if they want to continue ruling as they have been ruling them they must ensure that the masses continue sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of their misery. The contemporary history keeps warning the rulers that prosperous masses are the most dangerous creatures for the rulers. Naturally, the more miserable the masses are, the securer the rulers must be.
The rulers must have learnt a political lesson from the West. The masses in the West are pretty prosperous. No wonder, the rulers there are pretty miserable. They are absolutely at the mercy of the masses. They cannot threat the masses like animals as the rulers in the East have always done. East is East and West is West. The twain can never meet.
Had our rulers surrendered just a tiny part of their personal budgets for the masses, the hellish life of the masses would not have been so hellish. But no! The rulers believe that hell and paradise must flourish side by side. And the two have been flourishing as such in most of the poor countries of the world.
For the rulers, the masses are a dirty nuisance. They could have driven the masses out of the country into wildernesses. But they have always tolerated nuisance. The toleration is a cosmic mystery! We are an Islamic state. We love Islam. But we don’t practice Islam. Had we practised Islam there would never have been a single miserable citizen in the land. But our capabilities are woefully limited. Our capabilities are only sufficient for loving Islam. We lack capabilities for practising Islam.
Every political party in power has always claimed “Whatever we have been doing, we have been doing for the country’s prosperity.” What a supreme self-adulation! The reality belies the claims. If you add up what all that the rulers have so far done for the country, the total shall be a gigantic zero larger in size than our globe.
It is only because of what the politicians have done so far that the Demon of Chaos has today maliciously tightening its rope round the country’s neck. Each twist titillates the Demon. The country is missing its heartbeats. Any moment could be an utterly disastrous moment. The eyes of the masses are wetter than water. The masses are imploring God: “Please God! Forgive our sins! Forgive our sins! Forgive our sins!”
Once a billionaire Pakistani was lyrically singing “What a prosperous land! What a prosperous land! I love my country! I love my country!” The masses were listening. They cried “Aren’t we also Pakistanis? Why are we so miserable?”
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