KARACHI:
I am among a handful of people who have lived long enough to have witnessed Pakistan from its creation to its current sorry state. We experienced the joy of freedom, the pain of losing half of it, and then continuous downward spiralling to where we stand today. The Founding Father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, left us in 1948 and after the death of Liaquat Ali Khan, our first Prime Minister, in 1951, there was no looking back.
Selfishness, lust for power, and corruption started weakening the country like termite. Most of the governments — whether by dictators or democrats — focused on projects for personal glorification and power gains rather than the needs of the country. No big dam was built after the 60s and our economy got into the debt trap where we borrow to pay for borrowings. This model is not sustainable, but our ruling elite seems oblivious to this fact. The PTI rode to power on the back of slogans of justice and fight against corruption. Little did we know that they were not prepared at all to deliver on their tall claims at all. It has been almost 3.5 years, but the ruling party seems in disarray. There is no coordination and most of the projects are suffering because of their inability to work as a strong coordinated unit.
Unfortunately, the country is not able to further sustain corruption of the past or incompetence of the present. The PTI must realise this before it is too late. They must stop sloganeering and seriously focus on rebuilding the economy. They must speed up work on building dams as water shortages may become a threat to our existence. Similarly, they must figure out how to stabilise the economy and get out of the debt trap or we may become, God forbid, a completely failed state.
Raja Shafaatullah
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2021.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
