In answer to the question with which the first part of this article ended, I say, why should we not further indulge ourselves towards our own obliteration? Why shouldn’t we do what the Americans ask us to do? Do we deserve better than our current conditions? To explore the above questions we first have to explore the current scenario. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2009, Pakistan stands proudly with the ranking of 139 out of 180 countries. We share this position with three other countries including Bangladesh. Considering that one of our neighbours stands second last and another is at 168, maybe we should rejoice. As far as the accuracy of the CPI is concerned, it is none of our concern, what concerns us is that in an index of 180 countries we stand 139th, assuming that this position is alarming, what should Pakistan do from now onwards? But to answer yet another question, we first have to explain how we managed to get the coveted position of 139? We will now deal with each of the above questions along with new ones arising from the answers.
The whole world probably knows about Pakistan by now but even so I would like to give a small introduction. On 14th August 1947, after many sacrifices Pakistan came into being. Today, according to the government sources it has a literacy rate of 56%. Its founding leader known as Quaid-e-Azam (The great leader), Mohammad Ali Jinnah, gave Pakistan the motto “Unity, Faith & Discipline”. Today, even though East Pakistan is now known as Bangladesh, (incidentally it shares the coveted 139th place in the CPI with us), the West part is still very much Pakistan. Our great leader envisioned a democratic state. Today, Pakistan still stands a democracy, withstanding four military rulers and three constitutions. The ideology behind Pakistan was freedom for the oppressed Muslims. Today, Pakistan stands as the sixth largest population in the world with over 168,000,000 people, of whom we suppose that over 90% are Muslims. The first war with India took place in 1947, Kashmir was the issue. We have had a total of four wars with three due to Kashmir and one led to the creation of Bangladesh. As promised the history of Pakistan has been kept short.
Moving on, the first topic under consideration is literacy. Currently the rate of literacy is 56% as given in the Pakistan Economic Survey 2008-09. Even if we were to take the information provided by the relevant authorities to be factual, which in reality might not be that factual, 56% is not enough. What does high illiteracy breed? I can tell you that literacy breed’s development and it is the opposite of illiteracy. Pakistan as unique as it is, faced a peculiar problem due to high rates of illiteracy amongst others, a rise in the authority of Islamic clerics better known as Mullahs. This problem not only hit the rural areas it started urbanizing rapidly. As illiteracy was already rampant in the country, the Mullah’s, were no better. Those uneducated clerics did what they have always done best, hinder any kind of development and ensure that change is considered blasphemous. Gen (R) Musharraf, in order to gain political leverage, let a religiously oriented coalition of a political party loose on the province of Frontier, I am assuming he let them loose as he was no doubt extremely powerful back then. The people of the Frontier have always been inclined towards religion more than the other provinces, hence prone to impressionability. What this coalition, after coming to power, achieved manifested itself in the later years of his regime, sympathy for the Taliban at the grass root levels. Though it should be pointed out illiterate clerics corrupt Islam. ‘Islamization’ as the word has been coined is completely wrong but that is another topic. And it took a long time for the masses to realize that the so called Taliban would inflict misery upon them, after being targeted and losing lives.
After attempting to establish that illiteracy begets a distorted and a corrupt religious core within a community, through a live example, we move briefly to the other aspects of illiteracy. When in nation elects a certain person into the highest office it has and is left with no choice but to remove the person forcibly due to high levels of corruption before the designated time is over, it is assumed that the nation would have learnt a lesson. Pakistan repeated the same mistake four times as a nation. Either the whole nation has bad memory or there is high levels of illiteracy within the nation it could also be blamed on stupidity on behalf of the nation. As it is rumoured, the head of Pakistan is one of the most corrupt people in the world, it’s just a rumour. Something irrelevant but interesting is that the Bush government ran for two consecutive terms, maybe illiteracy is a problem in the USA as well, but those are just random thoughts. Coming back to the topic, surprisingly most Pakistanis are up to date on all current affairs, may it be a rickshaw driver or the barber, everyone has an opinion, which does make one wonder. So who is suffering because of illiteracy? The politicians, the rich, the Americans or the week and feeble men and women of Pakistan? The answer is simple enough if we but look for it.
Unity, Faith and Discipline, a term coined by Jinnah. It encompasses everything a nation requires, if the nation is educated, if not, honesty should be added. There is a general feeling amongst the people of Pakistan that good virtuous men no longer exist. It is a natural phenomena, after having successive failures for governments, may it be military or civilian. Pakistan is currently struggling to keep its four provinces united. Every province feels enmity towards the only fully developed province, is this feeling of enmity justified or not is not the question, the question is why there is this feeling in the first place. People have been wronged, steps have to be taken to right all those wrongs incurred. What actually led to all of this chaos within Pakistan? The answer is yet again simple, politics. Democracy or no democracy, the common man is never heard in Pakistan, which has eventually led to this chaotic situation, it is what some people believe. The ideology of Pakistan was freedom for the oppressed Muslims, today due to the instability and constant threat of terrorism, Muslims, who account for over 90% of the Pakistani population, are fearful of practicing their religion openly. Who would have imagined that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Muslims would be scared to offer prayers in Mosques? That is the current state of affairs.
What does all of this have in common with corruption? It has turned Pakistan into a country that totally relies on the term survival of the fittest. Every individual pushes forward for self interests. Pakistan is losing the virtue of being a society, let alone a good society. People don’t care about people anymore. This evil has also sprung from illiteracy. Those who have attained power are not willing to forgo it, hence snubbing any attempts for development as is evident in most of the rural areas of the country. The heads of certain families rule over a number of tribes with an iron fist, no education no development, probably the closest form of bonded slavery in today’s world. Again those few who attain power go through any lengths to maintain that power. It is always at the cost of the week and feeble. So how did we get to the coveted position of 139th in the CPI? It would be safe to assume that corruption begets corruption. Our corrupt leaders through the decades have been motivated by the assimilation of power and blinded by riches, through the decades they have been armed with illiteracy and discord, through the decades they have distorted the very infrastructure of Pakistan so much so that now Pakistan is no longer recognizable. So we thus establish that the continuous deterioration of the infrastructure Pakistan has led it to be in its current state, as far as corruption is concerned.
World politics, power struggles amongst the corrupt politicians, a frame of mind which accepts the survival of the fittest as the only rule of life has had its impact on the weak and feeble of Pakistan. Are the weak and feeble as innocent as they claim to be? The answer should be no, if for once they stood up for their rights, they could make a difference. A difference for themselves, a difference for the new generation. The people of Pakistan are humans and they should be treated as such. It is no doubt a fact that they have erred, once too many, but still they deserve another chance. They deserve a chance to be understood, just as the Americans deserve a chance to be understood as well. An American is a very good man/woman, there should be no doubt about that, it’s the American government that is playing havoc with the world. A normal Pakistani is a very good man/woman as well, so who is the bad guy in Pakistan? Some say it is the politician, others say it is the army, many say it is foreign intervention, whereas everyone believes it is the terrorists. Thus we conclude with answers to the first two questions, should Pakistan obliterate itself? No, Pakistanis deserve a chance especially since the common man has started to show the revolutionary instinct. The common man has finally started to stand up for himself. The week and feeble have realized that they are human as well, the ‘realization’ is another topic which will be discussed some other time. The second question being related to the Americans, for a change the Americans should be asked to step in the shoes of Pakistanis and then tell us how they feel.