Letter to Jinnah

Dear Jinnah,

Your Pakistan is turning 65. Some would say that in the lives of nations 65 means they are still in the infant stage, others may argue that there are nations who now are well on their way to development and prosperity in lesser time. No one is implying that Pakistan hasn’t moved forward in these years since its birth, but let us admit that it has suffered from stunted growth.

It lost its founder when it was a few months old, and suffered a war when it was less than a year old. In 65 and 71, again it was subjected to the tyranny of wars, the latter resulting in an amputation. It had to go, Mr. Jinnah, when a body cannot be fair and just, cuts down the blood supply to its own organs; it develops the gangrene of political dissent. Finally, at 26 we were able to agree on some foundation for this country by providing it a constitution. Why were we so late? But of course Mr. Jinnah, there were vested interests of the people at the helm, besides after you went away we suffered a major crisis in locating our North. After years of Musical chairs between the Army and the civil governments, I am proud to inform you that we did become a Nuclear Power. Wait, well that too isn’t without controversy.

On its 65^th birthday the picture of your country, Mr. Jinnah, is very grim. Its people are crippled under the weight of an economic crisis which continues to worsen by the minute. Your average person cannot even afford the basic needs, electricity is rare, and his children are many; health care is an unheard of concept, for him education is a luxury and life is cheap.  

Mr. Jinnah, your city, Karachi has its streets washed in blood every few days, owing to power tug-of-wars. Due to this dirty power play, on this eid and on the rest to come, many children will not have their fathers to give them eidi. A similar fate, for many Baluch families, who are still looking for missing loved ones. But this is not the worst news yet, the worst is that the people of this beautiful land have become morally corrupt and ethically depraved; they are numb to the sufferings caused by their own actions of intolerance and dishonesty. They are willing to take a life if it does not adhere to their religious or political point of view. Your people are in a race to get their hands on “more” by any means. Our rulers simply depict what we have become callous & dishonest.

Mr. Jinnah, you turn your face away, like a father betrayed by his own son. Wait sir, this bleak picture may be true, but there is more. Pakistani’s may have lost their course but the soil they are made of is resilient and courageous. We may bear battle scars and are travel weary, we may have lost our tolerance to accept the different opinions and ways of life but we are still, at our core, sons and daughters of this soil. I desperately cling to the hope that these dire circumstances will wake in us some humanity, some degree of tolerance. The sickness we witness everyday will make us abhor violence in all its forms, that we will again believe in honesty and integrity of work. I desperately pray, that we will rise from these dark days a better people and the dream you dreamt for us, will ultimately come true.