Missing yesterday

Not only Pakistan, but other Muslim countries are in a mess of one kind or another as well. Some of these problems are of our/their own creation while some are thrust upon us.

A few days ago, Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir said that his becoming active for Muslim unity was not liked by the West. Actually, this campaign against Muslim nations was started by the West immediately after World War I with the decimation of the Turkish Empire by the British, French and other participants. Of course, the Arabs were also partly responsible. They collaborated with the British and the French in order to get rid of the Turks. In return for their 'efforts', they were taken over by Western exploiters. This resulted first in the creation of Lebanon and then Israel.

It was an extremely bad deal for the Muslims, resulting in thousands of deaths and the loss of huge tracts of land. The Palestinians are still suffering. In all this misery, the Arab countries played a big role in not helping create a Palestinian state.

Let’s take a look at what happened to the Muslim countries, the West having played a role in all of them. Iran: the government of Dr. M Mossadeq was overthrown and his foreign minister was murdered. Pakistan: the country fell to a military dictator and joined Western defence (rather, offence) pacts. Turkey: Adnan Menderes, the prime minister, was murdered by a dictator. Saudi Arabia: King Faisal was eliminated. Iraq: Amir Abdullah was eliminated. Egypt: neutralized and forced to play stooge to the West. There are more such examples.

Not satisfied with what they had already done, the West created communal hatred in various Islamic countries, thus destabilizing them. Even today, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Libya and Pakistan are struggling with some internal turmoil. Our own country is caught up in many problems.

The current ruling party promised the moon to the public and the prime minister gave them the false hope of a change for the better. Unfortunately, Pakistan and its people have never been in such a bad state as they are today. No law and order, high inflation, shortage of edibles, lack of health and medical facilities, limited public transport facilities, etc.

The situation is more or less the same as that of our hockey team – you change the players, the captain and the coach, yet the end result is the same. Our leader is inexperienced and has picked friends and sycophants, not people on merit. Outsiders are offered facilities and perks but have no loyalty to the country and will leave as soon as the wind changes. At least one of his claims has come true – a number of expatriates came back to seek a job with him and become special assistants.

Lately, one scandal after the other is troubling the government. We have seen wheat and sugar scandals, corruption at high levels, terrible inflation, prices of edibles going beyond the means of the common man. It seems almost like it is not poverty that the government wants to get rid of, but the poor themselves.

The Peshawar Metrobus is another glaring example of mismanagement, not to talk of the Islamabad/Airport Metro and the street lights from the airport to the city. Are our highway engineers so incompetent? Then why are they holding these jobs? For example, the highway partitioning wall is so low that the headlights of the cars coming from the opposite direction shine directly into your eyes. Is there no one to point out these flaws or do they not take advice because they know it all?

In order to please the loan givers, the government is increasing the prices of items of daily use and utilities. So much loan has been taken that future governments will be in real trouble. Despite the hardships of daily life for the ordinary people, TV programmes continue to praise government policies, as do the special assistants. People are right in saying that conditions were much better during previous regimes. What was previously financially enough to last a whole week now lasts no longer than three days.

Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com