Our ability to think is rapidly deteriorating, with the misuse of religion & politics being the two main causes of it
KARACHI: I hail from a family that staunchly supports a political party that is considered a party of the middle class. Since I was 12 till this day, I have been led to believe that the person leading the party is my leader and what he says stands true. But since I have turned 16, and while I sit down and think about things with a certain level of maturity, I have come to realise that our nation has been completely lost in confusion. The class I belong to consists of those privileged people, who get their education from the best institutions, yet our thinking is still restricted to what Imran Khan will do next or whether these elections were rigged or not. Now tell me, when was the last time you contributed anything in any way for someone suffering from absolute poverty, or even thought about doing so?
Our ability to think is rapidly deteriorating, with the misuse of religion and politics being the two main causes of it. Promises are made to us, which we readily believe, although knowing full well that these leaders may never uphold them once they are elected. Religion is a journey of self-discovery; it’s about reading the Holy Quran, not because you have to but because you want to; covering yourself with a scarf not because you have to, but because you want to.
Our country has gone too far ahead in the wrong direction and this is what we need to change. We are divided into sects, classes and castes. We need to realise that we are not rich or poor or belong to one caste or another or one ethnicity or another; we are all humans and Pakistanis. So we should unite against ignorance, unite against insensitivity, and unite for the benefit of our country. The grave state which our society has fallen into is nobody’s fault but our own. The only solution is to stand up, oppose foolish beliefs and think because something like the Peshawar attack must not be repeated. December 16, 2014 was another dark day for Pakistan. We must work towards not letting other such days darken our future.
Mustafa Ali Imam
Karachi Grammar School
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2015.
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