KARACHI: This is with reference to Pervez Hoodbhoy’s article, ‘Why Maulana Qadri and Cricketer Khan can’t save Pakistan’ (January 18), which raises several issues and answers none of them. Were one to be as dismissive of an alternative view as the professor is, one could ask why a professor of physics is pontificating on statecraft and government policy. Why does he not remain in the area of his expertise?
What an argument Mr Hoodbhoy makes. The rest of the world has done very well without bothering about unethical practices of graft and corruption of its leaders. If these states can survive and prosper with crooks as leaders why can’t Pakistan?
There are two answers to this. Pakistan does not have the resources and its population will starve if the present loot and plunder continues and the people’s genuine demands are not taken into consideration. Population in the country is exploding and scarce resources of the state to provide for safety and growth are becoming scarcer. It is an alarming situation.
The second answer is that if Pakistan follows the rest of the world into a cesspool of corruption, it will be abandoning its system of religious values, which if followed, can lead to an even greater level of prosperity than the failed economic model of the West that Mr Hoodbhoy is referring to. It is time to rediscover our Islamic roots and reclaim our great heritage.
Iqbal Ismail
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2013.
