However much historians may argue about the partition of the subcontinent, there is one point on which there is general agreement i.e. that without Jinnah, there would have been no Pakistan.
The other point on which there is consensus even among the rabid anti Jinnah writers of history is that Jinnah’s integrity was without blemish, and it is this, backed by unbending resolve, which drove Jinnah to success.
Thus it would be fair to conclude, that if it was integrity of the father of our nation which gave us the gift of independence, the opposite must also be held to be true i.e. that if anything was to wreck our country, it would probably be dishonesty and fraud by a succession of our leaders, with the malaise flowing down to contaminate all that it touched.
This is precisely what has happened. The spoils of evacuee property set the ball of corruption rolling very early on after partition. And this ball has now balooned to become a gargantuan ogre which threatens to destroy the existence of Pakistan. The sale of personal integrity of those holding various offices of power, at the cost of interests of the nation, threatens doom. This is the mother of all evils. When plunder is accorded priority, the total focus of the mind is usurped by theft. When this happens things that the government needs to do, remain undone. And there is incremental degeneration from poor governance, to no governance whatever.
This is exactly where Pakistan stands today. Unless there is a remarkable turnaround, the country will not survive much longer. Those who through excess of piety assure us that because God has given us this country, it is He who will ensure its continued existence, should just take the trouble of revisiting the Battle of Uhud, where an unguarded pass led to the defeat of the Muslim army, despite the fact that the Holy Prophet [pbuh] was himself in command of this army.
God will indeed protect His people, but He will do so only if they stand guard against all such forces which are arrayed to destroy them. He has given us the rules. And nowhere in history is there an example of His partiality for those who make light of His commandments. [ Take a second look at Abbasid Baghdad.] He may perhaps forgive theft, but when this is reinforced by naked and virulent hypocrisy, I think it would be a bit much to expect divine intervention to come to its aid.
Yet one can understand the cry of irresolute piety as an attempt to dredge up some hope from a hopeless situation. But it is the position of the “intellectuals” who have put themselves out for hire, which is truly staggering. Often they are given to explaining the catastrophe which is closing in on us by uttering the hackneyed formula, viz: ” the situation is so hopeless because military interventions did not allow democracy to have a free run.”
This is true to the extent that military interventions did not allow democracy to settle down and mature. But our central problem is not that our democracy has not matured. The core problem is that with very few exceptions, our leadership has been plundering the country. And the intellectuals have never given a single example of when a general held a gun to the temple of Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, Mullah Fazal, Altaf Hussain, Asfandyar Wali, Achakzai, and their cohorts and ordered them, “now, you sons of bitches, I order you to plunder Pakistan, or else. “
The instinct to plunder and rob has nothing whatever to do with military interventions in political life of the country. It has everything to do with poor upbringing. Integrity is learnt at home. It is there that Jinnah learned it. Indeed, it is there where every honest person you know, has learnt it.
This is such a self-evident truth, but it escapes our intellectuals. It escapes them because they, who are supposed to be the keepers of our collective conscience, are paid to stand as an alibi for the corrupt of the land.
If such be our conscience keepers, it should be little wonder that our collective conscience be so disfigured, that most of us who get the chance, will become party to national plunder, and try to outdo the next one in perpetrating fraud. The intellectuals will never hit the most obvious nail on its head i.e. they will not lay out the undeniable truth i.e. that a ” return on investment” system, in which our democracy is rooted, can never bring about a democracy. Dont we all know that each member of parliament, in order to be elected, must begin by “BUYING” his ticket, and then spend crores in order to be elected. Once elected what do you expect him to do but to earn back what he has spent getting there, plus a huge profit. To do this he must corrupt the bureaucrat, without whose services he cannot commit theft, and thus the bureaucracy stands corrupted. The next step for him is to ensure that he is not held accountable, and so he corrupts the law enforcing agencies, and then he corrupts the judiciary, and last, he legislates laws which give him legal protection. And he will end with mangling the very constitution of the state to achieve these ends. To round up the whole nefarious exercise, he will put in place an election machinery which guarantees his re-election- the ultimate safeguard against accountability, and ensure a fresh lease to satiate unquenchable greed.
ALL of the above have happened to Pakistan, beginning with Musharraf’s infamous NRO. This document legalized corruption in Pakistan, and this opened the floodgates of theft and daylight robbery, so that even in polite society corruption is not just openly acceptable, but it is the “done” thing. And this has led to the following:
–Funds that were to be spent on development and various government functions, were stolen by the political leaders and stashed abroad. To fill the gaps created by missing funds, loans were taken. And these loans are so heavy that the country does not have the means to repay them. The country is therefore hostage to its creditors because there was no limit to the greed of its leaders.
–Every institution of the country stands destroyed except the army and the higher judiciary. The Army got saved yet again, because Gen Bajwa turned out not to be what Nawaz Sharif expected. The judiciary, thank God, because of the cards dealt out by the seniority system. Both these are mere chance occurrences.
–The moral fiber of the people as a whole has fallen into an advanced state of rot. Thieving and lying, coated in a rich patina of shamelessness and hypocrisy have become the defining elements of the polity. The “elite” which is supposed to provide leadership to society, floats on top like refuse, its stink breaking through the finery of a plush life built upon the spoils of extortion, theft, and fraud. In short there has been a complete culture change. The ethical infrastructure, weak to begin with, has been totally undermined by the bastardization and prostitution of all that was good, decent, and sacred in society.
If it is conceded that it was Jinnah’s leadership, driven by his integrity and resolve, that gave us independence and freedom, the opposite should be conceded to be equally true i.e. dishonesty and irresolution to arrest its lethal effects will drive Pakistan to its grave.
The time to change course is NOW. What we need to do is to dismantle the ” return on investment” system, without which good governance is not a possibility. And without good governance democracy has no meaning. In its present form “democracy” is a mere euphemism which camouflages the real argument. And the real argument is: “the right to plunder the country should be that of politicians, and not that of the generals, because the politicians have a “mandate” of the people to do so”