We need to ask ourselves why we allowed Quaid-i-Azam’s vision of a democratic welfare state to be reduced to a fiefdom
LAHORE: As we get ready to celebrate this Independence Day, we need to ask ourselves why we allowed the Quaid-i-Azam’s vision of a democratic welfare state to be reduced to a fiefdom run by a coterie of individuals and institutions. The problems arose immediately after independence when a class emerged which had accumulated wealth overnight through fake claims and which over time acquired political power. This class was joined by the remnants of the British Raj, such as the Unionists of Punjab, who then went on to negate the vision of our founding fathers. We failed to change and reform the mindset of a civil bureaucracy that had been established and fostered by a colonial power and whose primary responsibility was to be at the beck and call of the institution that created it.
Pakistan can only survive as a sovereign modern democratic welfare state if it functions as a tolerant democratic society, where the writ of law is enforced and everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2011.
