Pakistan is the best country in the world

Letter August 14, 2013
On this August 14, we should tell ourselves that we are proud nation of 190 million people, we are brave, progressive.

RIYADH: The father of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, once said, “Remember that your government is like your garden. Your garden flourishes by the way you look after it and the efforts that you put in towards its improvement. Similarly, your government can only flourish by your patriotic, honest and constructive efforts to improve it,” (Address at Islamia College, Peshawar, April 12, 1948).

This message by the Quaid is very enlightening and holds good for the present day as well. While the Quaid earned this heavenly abode — Pakistan — we all must now do everything we can to preserve it. Rome was not built in a day and this fact is very important to keep in mind for an insight into our history — especially for the young generation. The journey to present-day Pakistan has been a long and painful one.

It began on December 30, 1906 when the All-India Muslim League was founded at Dhaka, under the initiative of Nawab Salimullah Bahadur. It was the sheer acumen and imposing leadership of the Quaid and his disciples that Pakistan was created — and that too against the backdrop of serious opposition from the Indian National Congress. This is a very important aspect of the entire issue and is worth noting. An equally important point to note is that the Pakistan movement was, by and large, peaceful. However, it is a great tragedy that millions of lives were lost in senseless killings from both sides as soon as it became evident that Pakistan’s creation was inevitable.

On this 14th of August, we should tell ourselves that we are a proud nation of 190 million people and that we are a brave and progressive nation with countless reasons to be proud of. We should take pride in ourselves. It is a fact that our Pakistani men and women are acknowledged as among the best doctors, engineers, lawyers, bankers, business professionals and soldiers in the world.

Furthermore, the country is gifted with a large area of arable land, something which many countries in the world do not have. We are blessed with the perennial rivers and have one of the finest irrigation systems in the world.

We must remember that we should stop being ungrateful and shun despondency, and make a solemn pledge to remain united and rise above all petty issues. We should pledge to work as hard as we can to reconstruct our wonderful Pakistan. Last, but by no means the least, it is time to stand up and be counted — against all those evil forces that are hell bent upon destroying the very fabric of our beautiful country.

Faiz Al-Najdi

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2013.

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