ISLAMABAD: There is a proverb stating “Happy is the nation which has no history”. Pakistan, unfortunately, has a history: a history of treachery and betrayal of the objectives of the creation of a separate homeland; a history of flouting and undermining the vision of the founder of Pakistan; a history of pummeling the Constitution and governing through extra-constitutional steps; a history of politicians subverting the continuation of democratically-elected governments by urging military takeovers to settle scores with their opponents; a history of generals presiding over the dismemberment of the country and derailing the democratic process and destroying the institutions of the state to assuage their lust for power; a history of generals indulging in arm-twisting of the civilian governments even when they were not in power; a history of generals conspiring the fall of representative governments; a history of turf war between the generals and the civilian governments with the former having better of the latter; a history of politics of graft and entitlement; a history of feudal lords and elites of the civil and military bureaucracy making common cause against the masses and a history of total moral degradation as a nation.
Pakistan, therefore, is grieved and lying flat on its back. God knows how long it will take the nation to extricate itself from this quagmire? However, despite this gloomy spectacle, I do not believe that everything has been lost. A ray of hope has emerged from the Supreme Court’s decision in the Asghar Khan case. For the first time, those who have been tormenting the nation and considered themselves above the law, have been identified and held guilty of committing unconstitutional acts and conspiring to steal the public mandate. Apart from the generals, the list includes a number of political stalwarts.
In any society, the public leaders are expected to be on the highest rung of morality but our leaders are not even on the lowest station. Nevertheless, the country has to move forward and find the direction envisioned by its founding father. We need to strengthen the process of culling the black sheep from our political landscape.
Malik Muhammad Ashraf
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2012.
