KARACHI:
Many Pakistanis wonder why Jinnah’s vision of a modern democratic welfare state was derailed and converted to a security state whose citizens are insecure and facing the curse of terrorism and extremism. State sovereignty was compromised when different leaders took over and decided that Pakistan would serve the interests of foreign powers jeopardising the long-term national interests of this country.
Over the years, leaders failed to focus on developing human resources by investing in education and health and boosting our agricultural produce. Resultantly, today we face basic food shortages, brain drain, and flight of capital. Natural oxygen-generating trees are being felled around the periphery of Lahore reducing the city of gardens to the most polluted city whose citizens inhale toxic air. The once-green pastures in the vicinity of Shahdara are the latest victims of this insatiable greed. Lahore was already facing issues of smog because thousands of trees and agricultural land towards the Kasur and Indian border were wiped out and converted to concrete jungles.
Similar is the fate of all major cities of Pakistan. Food shortages are the net result of this mad rush. Whilst the population is increasing, the agriculture-producing land is shrinking. The chickens have come home to roost. Pakistanis are facing hardships, food price escalation, energy shortages, and a threat to their lives and private property. The political leaders are totally oblivious to the plight of citizens and the national economy. They are busy with power struggles and political manoeuvring irrespective of which political party is in power or whether the country is under dictatorial rule. They all seem to be in nexus with the real estate mafia as all former governments have granted amnesty schemes to the real estate sector, which is now affecting the country.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2022.
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