Freedom in chains

After two days, we will celebrate our beloved country's Independence Day. On that day, as usual, passionate speeches will recount how our nation's founders gained freedom from British colonial rule. Yet, without questioning whether the country and its people are truly free in a real sense and reap the benefits of freedom, the day will be marked by highlighting its significance for the country and its people. The public will be reminded about the significance of freedom, but what has been overlooked for over three quarters of a century is the existence of freedom. That is, what has gone unattended, or more appropriately, unquestioned, is the freedom of our freedom. How free are we? Though the answer might not be absolute, a candid appraisal barely suggests an optimistic picture. In other words, we exist in a state of partial freedom, with neither absolute freedom nor completely chained.

Just as we have ever-widening socioeconomic, political and digital divides, a freedom divide also exists. That is, some are free, while others are more free. On the one hand, there are a select few who enjoy absolute freedom from and impunity over laws, conscience, morality and the Constitution. Their unbridled freedom comes at the cost and constraint of the rest, who are deprived of the same liberties. They have the freedom to undermine democracy and subvert the Constitution at will. They have the freedom to oppress people and thrive on their rights and efforts. Institutions claim to be the state.

They are at liberty to plunder public resources, transferring the spoils to their foreign homes, and yet they reward each other for such actions. Their freedom is self-serving, disregarding the consequences for the broader public or the country. They enjoy near-total impunity and are rarely held accountable by the law. Instead, the law appears to have been manipulated to serve their interests through selective amendments, omissions or commissions.

Why is this so? Perhaps it's because they are, unfortunately, part of what they shouldn't be. In societies like ours, politics, national security, patriotism, religious beliefs, justice, conscience, truth, morality, law and the Constitution have become lucrative commodities, traded by their champions for financial gain and impunity of various kinds. Together, they have hijacked the country's freedom from within. They have robbed the country and its people of their destiny and added to their own. Although the blessed and bountiful land of the pure has gained freedom from alien colonial rule, it has slid down the path to muscular chains forged by the country's deep state and reinforced and carried at the grassroots level by political dynasties, bureaucracy, judiciary, corporate and media elite, clergy, feudal, pirs, civil society activists and so-called journalists. One might rightly wonder if this is the rent the country pays for getting its freedom protected from external threats.

On the other extreme are most of the public, with their freedom constrained and their lives improvised. Freedom of thought and expression are suffocating. Questioning elite's excesses and demanding rights is often seen as unpatriotic. Constitutional rights remain elusive dreams. Far from being the real source of state power, the public is treated as a non-entity through policies. This is evident in the multitude of miseries the public has been desperately struggling with. Worse still, the lives of labourers and the poor have drastically changed for the worse over the past two and a half years. Perhaps the only unconstrained right or unbridled freedom they have is the freedom to die.

Today, the country's fate hangs in the balance, and the current civil, military leadership seems clueless about its future. The sentimental speeches and patriotic songs are unlikely to contribute to the country's freedom and prosperity. Real freedom requires rising above diatribes and taking practical steps aligned with the constitution. The judicial, political, clerical, bureaucratic and security establishments need to surrender to the law and the people, lest the growing public fury explode and rightfully undo their stakes altogether.