What is the spark that will light a raging fire and motivate our youth whose purpose is to get out of Pakistan fast.
MCLEAN, VA, US: This is with reference to Asad Zaman’s article “Changing the world” (September 28). This is a very impassioned plea and is heart-moving. But where is the critical mass for change going to come from? I know I have been waiting for 63 years and time is running out — at least for me.
Things seem to get better for a while and there is a flicker of hope. Then it all turns ugly and everything goes down the tube. It usually starts with deals with maulvis and thugs. We have gone through this alternating cycle of hope and despair many times before.
Ayub Khan was the last person to build institutions and I offered a couple of examples. Every ‘saviour’ since then has systematically destroyed all of them — although I do admire the (belated) emergence of our brave (if imperfect) media and the judiciary. These two, for all their imperfections (including a bit of comedy), are Pakistan’s shining stars.
I have misgivings about your characterisation of the “vast majority” of Pakistanis being people of “integrity and honour”. Oh, dear. I think they are the crux of the problem because they (we) are neither.
What is the spark that will light a raging fire and motivate our youth whose single purpose in life is to get out of Pakistan as fast as possible? Unfortunately, those who remain in Pakistan and work there are branded ‘failures’.
Meekal Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2010.
