Rust in peace

The first solution to a problem is accepting that there is indeed a problem.

Since 1947, a single rhetoric has been used widely to address any and all problems of our beloved country: “The country is going through difficult times.” Be it poverty, lack of education, rising inflation, worn out judicial system, depreciation of Pakistani rupee against US dollar and/or terrorism. Fast forward 74 years, the same problems continue to haunt us and so does the rhetoric.

It is now an established fact that countries who invested massively in public education are now miles ahead — both technologically and economically. An educated workforce constitutes the limbs of a country, if not the spine. In essence, Article 25A of the Constitution categorically submits that the state shall provide free compulsory education to children from five to sixteen years of age, but such a provision sounds good in the books only and statistics related to the out-of-school children speak for themselves. Even after 74 years, Pakistan has the second highest number of out-of-school children.

One may sum up the entire Pakistani Judicial System in one sentence: “I am holding brief on behalf of Mr X as the latter is busy before another bench.” Take an example of the Latin phrase Fiat justitia ruat cælum, which translates as “let justice be done though the heavens fall.” Unfortunately, justice in Pakistan is only limited to demolition of ‘illegal’ high-rising buildings and ordering execution of schizophrenic patients, which was though stayed later due to international media backlash. Currently, the Pakistani legal system is rife with unexplained delays either due to laxity of legal counsels or “the bench being unavailable”.

High time that we face it, the system has failed. The system has failed and no amount of elections or presidents will fix it. It is intuitive that if the system favours the ones in power, why would they change it? In a ‘democratic’ country, even if mass reforms are aspired, they are bound to come through the reins of Parliament, but the Parliament is packed with those whose livelihood will be jeopardised if reforms are introduced. No amount of judicial granite can fill the cracks of corruption. Mass rebellion, at this point, seems like the only way out of this grassroots corruption. The country faces a pandemic of deceit but there exist no scientists to develop a vaccine and why would there be a vaccine, if the pandemic ends, the big pharma stops earning massive profits. The big pharma in this case are those factions who run the country.

Let it be understood that no man has the power to give rights, for they are innate. He can only withhold them. Article 19 of the Constitution ensures freedom of speech and yet the present government is working tirelessly to regulate social media in order to ensure that its naïve citizens don’t get misled by a flood of false information. Mother Teresa, eat your heart out. Notwithstanding that the government’s minister for aviation was the primary source of false information when he submitted on the floor of the Parliament that all Pakistani pilots possess fake flying license. But of course, the government cannot regulate its own ministers, let alone those who blame their institutions for being ‘the opposition’s headquarters’ (Election Commission, ring any bells?).

Year 2022 will arrive soon, will we continue to be victims of a system that operates upon extinct 1908 laws or is change imminent? But before change is advocated, will mass rebellion even soothe the wounds or will it result in a Tiananmen Square 2.0? Currently, the pied piper is leading the entire population to a cliff and unfortunately the conditioned creatures are swaying to what will eventually become a symphony of destruction. No more opium should calm the masses.

Let us be the change we want to see, from honesty to kindness, from justice to equity because history bears witness, a country that’s divided, will surely never stand.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2021.

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