Happy Independence Day… but

Our elders made great sacrifices for the independence of Pakistan. In particular, Pakistan became independent after the tireless efforts of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Had we not become independent, we too would certainly be suffering humiliation and wretchedness today, like the tens of millions of Muslims living in occupied Kashmir and India. Perhaps we too would have been a part of the way minorities are treated there, but I salute the great leader Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who handed over to us such a large homeland. That is a separate debate: we could not protect this homeland.

Every year the month of August comes and goes. Every year, at the official level, we hear and read the same hackneyed statements that we have been reading for many years: that they will change the destiny of the country; that they will make the Islamic Republic of Pakistan the fortress of Islam; that they will make Pakistan an Asian Tiger; that the dreams of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah will be realised; that they will give Pakistan an identity across the world. These are a few of the official statements that, perhaps, have been written by one writer for many years. So much so that the writer has not even been changed in order to change the official statements. Certainly, if the writer were changed, the statements would change too, but these are the same statements that the public no longer even wants to read. Because the public has grown weary.

With such hollow statements. Seventy-three years since independence is a long time. Nations that mean to progress achieve so much in twenty years that one is left astonished. But here, in all these years, nothing has changed. The same faces kept returning under new party labels, showing the public false dreams. Whoever came after Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah sold his own snake oil. They abused past leaders, put all the blame on them, and then set about building up their own assets. To this day, no one has spoken about the people's problems. No one has understood the people's suffering. Whoever came kept borrowing in the name of the people and left them deeply in debt. And why would the people not be in debt? There is a strange system in this country. First, a road is built at a cost of tens of millions of rupees. When the road is finished, the Sui gas people tear it up to lay a pipeline, and disappear once their pipeline is in. Then, after some time, the water supply people finish off whatever is left, and what still remains is completed by the sewerage line people.

This is the system across the whole of Pakistan. To build a small kitchen at home, 15 advisers are consulted. The opinions of masons are sought. Strange are the people who run Pakistan's system. They spend tens of millions of rupees, but no one has any planning. Developed nations plan for the next several hundred years. If you do not believe it, look at the great bridges, railway stations and railway tracks built by the British in this very Pakistan. You will be convinced. Looking at the state of Pakistan, it seems as though those running this country are not its inhabitants at all, but have come from some enemy country and are settling a score with the people of this God-given land of Pakistan. In the capital of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a new accident occurs every day.