KARACHI:
Pakistan has suffered enough. This country was not created to provide sanctuary to extremists who continue to exploit sectarian and ethnic divide; to be a haven for land mafia and cartels involved in black-marketing and hoarding; or to fight proxy wars for others.
There was no place in Jinnah’s Pakistan for the likes of Zia, Musharraf, Ayub or Iskandar Mirza who occupied political roles while in uniform, nor for extremist fundamentalist and politically engineered governments led by mediocrity. This country was created through a democratic political struggle waged by politicians with integrity, unwilling to submit to temptations. It was expected that the Muslim majority would incorporate the Islamic concepts of justice, tolerance, meritocracy, and pursuit of knowledge in science, technology, economics and welfare. Instead, religion was exploited and systems of governance were corrupted.
Half the country was lost when Pakistan, under debauched dictators, refused to hand over power to the elected representatives on one pretext or another. A country created with the vision of establishing a modern democratic welfare state was derailed by opportunists exploiting religion and today we face danger of chaos.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, July 14th, 2021.
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