Pakistan:  Independence Day Message

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

Throughout the Pakistan independence movement, Mohammad Ali Jinnah- Quaid-e-Azam continued to teach, focus and emphasize the moral and intellectual facets of freedom -- Faith, Unity and Discipline. He was a visionary leader and knew the integrated essence of freedom. After Jinnah’s sudden death, those who embraced the political power through backdoor conspiracies betrayed the moral and intellectual foundation of Pakistan.  The British colonial master transferred the power to the Muslim League on August 14, 1947- the only time Pakistan’s history witnessed a legitimate occasion of transfer of power, all those who came afterwards were feudal lords popped up by the British Raj or most incompetent and uneducated conspirators who saw the corridors of power through political intrigues, corruption and treachery to the principles of the Pakistani’s Freedom Movement.

The historical record shows Pakistan is being governed by the wrong people, with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things. Pakistan Needs a navigational Change, away from the corrupt politics of the few egomaniacs and criminals called politicians. They are all hired puppets to perform at the stage and nothing else. Pakistan must return to its Islamic value based roots and institution-building, its originality and a system of governance free of corruption and subservience to the former and current Masters in the West. The THINKING people of the nation must initiate planned steps and organize collective ideas and ideals to safeguard the integrity and future of Pakistan.  The priorities must be focused on developing a new system of economic and political governance by disconnecting the interdependence on foreign aid, debts and dictates. The nation is at its critical and painful juncture of very survival. Under the circumstances, what is there to celebrate? The symbolic Pakistan Independence Day celebrations will remain devoid of much needed change and reformation aim of the institutionalized corrupt system of governance. The core message is that Pakistan is in desperate need of a New Political System, New Political institutions, New Educated and Intelligent leadership befitting to the changing needs and aspirations of the people and Islamic values to ensure a viable future.

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Today, Pakistan is not what it should have been – a Progressive Nation united to be recognized and respected for its faith, moral and intellectual precepts and strong progressive in the encompassing domains of people’s governance, social, economic, law and justice, trades and global relationships. There is no thought of understanding the present self-generated catastrophic tragedies and looking beyond and above to the future making. In a rational stance, it is nowhere except a broken land of divided people, fighting amongst themselves for no obvious intelligent purpose, away from Islam and its primary values and torn apart by the indicted criminals who have assumed political names and titles to destroy its foundation and principles on which it was established. Most people have become silent spectators as if nothing is wrong. Recall, history points out in clear terms when a nation becomes rotten for all its ideas and ideals, thinking and believing that nothing is wrong, surely by the Laws of God, it is set to be a target for self- destruction. Are there any THINKING people in Pakistan who could take notice of the URGENCY and Plan for a Navigational Change?

Foreign Masters have targeted Pakistan to be disintegrated via their agents of influence-  the known thugs - the loyal puppets ruling Pakistan (PPP-MQM- current Muslim League groups and so on) – all are complacent to create chaos and political turmoil, unthinkable distraction from the real issues of change and reformation of corrupt  franchise of politics of the few. For over a half of a century, the Generals and their by-products - Bhuttos, Zardaris, Sharifs and Chaudries and so many other sadistic tutelage – all an insult to common sense and a disgrace to a conscientious and educated Pakistani generation of the 21^st century. No mater how sincere and committed is Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudry- the Chief Justice to articulate logic and reasoning for change and corruption free political governance,  societal reformation and nation-building are not the legislative issues - laws, rules and legal jurisprudence do not develop the nation nor change their thinking and behaviors – but educated and visionary intellectuals and leaders do. Are there any THINKING People in Pakistan concerned and active about change and reformation of the filthy politics, if there is such a thing?

How did America and Britain labeled Pakistanis as terrorists? General Musharaf, the then self-styled president was hired and bought to make common Pakistanis look like “terrorist” -  the image America and Britain wanted to carve out of the Muslim nation befitting to their plans. Musharaf and his comrade Generals made millions and now lives happily in $1.4 million mansion in London under 24 hours British security protection. Should General Musharaf not be tried in a Pakistani court of law for his treachery to the nation? If you want to analyze the progress and history under broader perspectives, most pages will go blank for the chapter on Pakistan. Intellectual and moral data ceases to exist because there was no moral or intellectual leadership to generate such vital information. Comparatively, India could gather data and considerable insights to illustrate its own contemporary progress and ancient history-though mostly developed by Muslim rulers and Islamic civilization. What freedom meant to India, is not the same to Pakistan. India enjoyed continued political leadership and systematic institutionalized development, whereas, Pakistanis with Jinnah’s death, lost what could have been their ideological foundation and viable political values. Secular India developed parliamentary system of government, short and long range planning models for public institutions, sustainable economic and industrial infrastructures, educational development and strong armed forces. It can celebrate what it has achieved so far. Painful as is to find a rational space – an open slot to have celebration for the Pakistan Independence Day. After more than six decades of freedom from the British colonial rule, almost 50 years were stolen by the military Generals, who could not think right nor act as Muslim Generals in the interest of Pakistani nation. The ordinary folks are still looking for recognition of basic human needs, rights, equality, security and justice. There are full time high life privileges for the affluent class but nothing for the ordinary citizens except demonstrations, social and intellectual deprivation and lost sense of identity. How would the nation reconnect itself to the forgotten purpose and meaning of the Lahore Resolution of March 1940 for an independent Pakistan?

America and British policy planners are happy, their plans and strategies are effectively in place to break up the integrity of Pakistan. Conflict-making and conflict keeping is the order in Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier provinces and the adjacent tribal areas. American sponsored daily drone attacks murder thousands of innocent people and destroy their habitats, just to maintain data under a bogus “War on Terrorism.” Their plans are working to further disintegrate Pakistan through its own paid mercenaries living in Islamabad. The foreign strategic planners claim that the Baluchis and Pakhtoons as minorities in Pakistan. The new media propaganda is poisoning the minds of the people as Indian did back in 1970-71 to separate East Pakistan. The real traitors are inside with all the freedom and money to stab the left-over nation of Muslims in the sub-continent. You do not see these real world problems on the military radar. India will be keen to see more dismemberment of Pakistan. In recent months, the BBC broadcast several bogus interviews with political activists and so called specialists on Pakistan. These planned efforts are aimed at to fuel the provincial insurgency and conflicts and disintegration of the Muslim nation. American drone attacks and the war in Afghanistan have made things worst for the security of Pakistan. After Ms Bhutto, Sharif, General Musharaf, and now Zaradri is the best hope for futuristic hegemonic rule both of the US and India. Therefore, to appease the friendly nations, the ruling elite must celebrate Pakistan Independence Day to forge relationship with the ideology of Muslim homeland. They are stranger to the essence of the Pakistan’s freedom and its historical rationale. The Generals, Bhuttos, Zardaris, Sharifs and Chaudris are dead entries in Pakistani history. How could dead people be a hope for the future of Pakistan?  Would the Pakistani history offer any honorable reference to thugs and indicted criminals?

Leaders create leaders. The Generals, Bhuttos, Sharifs and Zardari are not the leaders but bootlickers of the West and the by-products of the neo-colonial military rule. The British system produced subservient subjects, not visionary leaders for the Muslim nation. Those so-called self-appointed leaders who have been living on stolen wealth and borrowed time, how could they offer any proactive leadership vision for change, reformation and nation-building? There is nothing to celebrate except a time for soul searching – grab the mirror if you can or have the rational mind to reflect at our own wrong thinking and incapacitated state of the national affairs, so helpless that instead of being active reformers, most have succumbed to be pacifist spectators. Pakistan needs change but there is no systematic mechanism to foresee or visualize a democratic plan for political change and future-building. Some 30 years earlier while student in America, I wrote to General Zia ul-Haq, what would our history say, why the succeeding generations of Muslims failed to produce leaders like Salahuddin, Allama Iqbal, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Qutb, Al-Mushraqi, and Mowdoodi?  Only the martial law administrators who kept the nation together by law and order and nothing else. He replied without attempting to answer the vital question.

India and China are the emerging new superpowers, acknowledged and considered by the Western strategic policy interests and economic development agendas. Nations do develop where there is freedom of thoughts and action, open commerce and trade and honest and competent people come to assume the leadership role. Nobody would invest in a society governed by military Generals and indicted criminals like dead Ms Bhutto and Zardari, as they have neither relevance nor value in the contemporary global affairs. India with the blessing of the Western powers is assuming to be a superpower, and have plans for “dissecting” Pakistan, and ‘slicing’ it into half in its preparation of the war games. Ironically, most will agree, this is not the time and age for the secular military Generals to run a culturally sensitive, Islamic value-based nation of Pakistan. Those fellow Pakistanis with living conscience and Thinking Power, must contemplate the facts of life, how the corrupt politicians and their accomplice military Generals, devoid of reason and intellectual foresights, could possibly help to reform and rebuild the nation? If agreeable, what are the practical solutions and a way out of the accumulated insecurity and instability? Another military coup?  No. Obviously, that is going to create more problems than resolve any peacefully. With political institutions dismantled by the Generals, the nation does not seem to have the intellectual capacity to come out of the problematic box and see beyond for its sustainable future and protective measures for its integrity. Understandably, when people are governed and victimized by ignorant and insane politicians, they lose sense of rational thinking about the self and the environment and become void of productivity. This appears to be a clear burden on human conscience prevalent throughout the Pakistani culture.

Pakistani Nation must see the MIRROR. What went wrong with its own thinking and behavior to build a progressive Pakistan? Imagine, if Iqbal,  Chaudry Rehmat Ali,  Quaid-e- Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Liaqaut Ali, Khawaja Nazamuddin and Mohammad Ali Bogra were alive today, most likely they would have refused to be identified as part of the Pakistani political culture. The major paradoxes of Pakistan’s history illustrate that its time for change, opportunities for development and resources for progress were stolen by its own egomaniac and insane rulers. To undo the darkened past and reshape the present, Pakistan urgently NEEDS educated, visionary and proactive leadership and public institutions to rebuild its essential capacity to safeguard its integrity, survival and future as a Muslim Nation moving forward to pursue change and social and economic development infrastructures for the deprived people. The Generals, Bhuttos, Sharifs, and Zardaris are part of the problem, not a solution. The solution must come from the THINKING people of the new educated generation - the intelligent and proactive Pakistanis to facilitate HOPE and PROMISE for a sustainable future of the beleaguered nation. This should be the framework of the message and active agenda for change and reformation as the core of the celebration of the Pakistan’s Independence Day.  Any neglect will amount to dreadful treachery and violation of the principles and values of the Foundation of the Nation. If you reject cynicism, indifference and perversion, YOU (the people) have the capacity - YOU can do it. It is not too late, despite the odds and self-geared moral, political-economic ruins, if Zardaris-dead Bhuttos and the Generals are fixed and removed from power, YES, you can be changed unto a strong progressive Nation under intelligent and honest new generation leadership fostering the ideas and ideals of Mohmmad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-e-Azam and reconnecting and integrating the present and future generations to the making of a promising Future.  Now, it is up to YOU (the people) to make it or break it.