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Saturday July 19, 2025

Appalling deviation

By Akram Shaheedi
February 13, 2017

Head of PPP Media Cell

As a nation, we had been deviating from the vision of the Quaid in the nation building process since independence. The only eloquent exception was the period of Great Bhutto who set the ball rolling of building the country as per the vision of the Quaid notwithstanding the heartbreaking aftermaths of 1971 war. His statesmanship was fully devoted to realise the dream of building a stronger Pakistan, prosperous Pakistan and democratic Pakistan but a tyrant dictator blatantly circumvented him half way through at gun point. However, he had laid the foundations of a new Pakistan during the time at his disposal.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto gave unanimous constitution to the nation within months providing federal parliamentary democracy. He concluded peace agreement with India and retrieved thousands of square miles of territory without any quid pro quo. He held Islamic summit in Lahore to make Islamic Block as a force to be reckoned with at the international level. He advised the oil producing Muslim countries to use oil as weapon to enhance their strategic and economic vital interests. He confronted the status-quo forces within the country to wrest the space meant for the poor masses. He introduced reforms in all walks of national life to empower the most neglected and exploited segments of the society.

Above all, he made Pakistan nuclear power to restore balance of power in the region so critical for peace in this part of the region, and also to keep the Indian nuclear blackmail thoroughly at bay. It was terrifying to imagine as what India had done to Pakistan if the country had not been a nuclear power. The nation was very much beholden to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for his unparalleled contributions devoted to safeguarding the independence and territorial frontiers of the country -- a handsome tribute to the Father of the Nation. He stood out as a great follower of the Quaid in words and action. Benazir Bhutto took baton of his father’s mission but the same forces’ notorious habit of rocking the boat ruined the momentum yet again. But, her augmentation of the defence of the country by equipping the country with the state of the art missile technology capable of pin -drop accuracy was the continuation of the struggle to accomplish the mission of her illustrious father.

The Father of the Nation illuminated the path to be traversed by the future leadership of the country in their struggle to make it as one of the respectable countries in the comity of the nations at ease with itself and the rest of the world. But, the dream could not become reality because the leadership lost the sight of his vision. Today’s political, economic and security royal mess and host of other chronic problems facing the country were the direct result of paying no heed to Quaid’s political wisdom and foresight. He dotted, as mentioned below, the clear guidelines to deal with the complex problems the new state was going to confront in the near and distant future.

The Quaid underscored the importance of religious freedom to all citizens, he favoured the foreign policy based on friendship with all enmity with none, he stressed the officers to extend unqualified allegiance to the constitution as per oath, and he unequivocally advocated the role of women in the nation building that could only be achieved with their effective participation. Today, if we turn the pages of history of the country it will not be difficult to understand the reasons of our abject failures not to attain the status of a developed and civilized nation on the international horizon. Leadership’s making volte face to the Quaid’s principles at the altar of petty politics indeed queered the pitch.

Then, the country remained under the yoke of either dictatorship, or underwent periods of political turmoil after the post-independence era because dictators threw the sanctity of oath out of the window. Our foreign relations and security policies remained subservient to the institutional preferences and resultantly had a few friendly countries while the sword of diplomatic isolation was hanging constantly. We were fighting the war against terrorism because dictators pushed the nation in the Afghan inferno in pursuance of the fulfillment of their political ambitions to perpetuate their rule. We had been paying heavy price both in terms of blood and treasure of the poor judgments of dictators and still counting. Paradigm shift was the preferred modus operandi as treading on the beaten tracks was analogous to Einstein’s lunacy. Hopefully better sense would prevail as we were now in a situation between the deep sea and the rock. 

In the following, we will now focus on the negligible role of women in the mainstream of national life despite importance given by the Quaid. The disclosure of the World Economic Forum in the field of gender inequality sends the shiver down the spine of the countrymen as it places Pakistan in the index at 143 out of 144 countries followed by Yemen. Other countries of the region, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, are better placed as these countries have registered improvement in gender equality and the trend is sustaining at satisfactory pace. On the contrary, heart –wrenchingly, this country is standing at the bottom rung due to the worst demographic indictors. Pakistan is also known the world over for the wrong reasons and the marginalisation of the women folk is one of them. The only good thing worth mentioning in the country is the continuity of democracy with Damocles sword hanging by thread.

The people of this country do not grudge the achievements of the countries of the region in gender equality but are quite upset as why Pakistan has been lagging far behind in this count. Their anxiety exacerbates as there is no noticeable matching effort to improve the equal access of opportunities to women in the public sector. The prospects of improvement in the future look slim because women development does not duly figure in government’s development strategy. Pitiably, the worst gender-imbalance has failed to wake up the policy planners from the slumber as the trend has been going from bad to worse. The meager budgetary allocations for the last many years are enough proof of their flawed thinking and unforgiving apathy.

Reports in the media are abounding of poverty stricken women committing suicide along with their children as their final choice to get rid of the unmitigated miseries of this life. The blanket social security is almost non-existent. Half of the population is living below the poverty line. Poverty bites women the hardest because of their humble social status in the family and in the social set up. Misogyny is another curse that is deep rooted in our society. It sanctifies domestic violence against women. The law of the country makes such violence as culpable offence but poor enforcement has not changed the ground realities as there is no noticeable reduction in such crimes. The religious lobby (Council of Islamic Ideology) also condones violence against women under conditions. Women are indeed largely deemed as second class members at the social level. They are facing the worst form of discrimination at all levels and the turnaround seems to be a far-fetched cry. 

This marginalisation of the half of country’s population to the brink makes it easier to understand the perspective of socio-economic backwardness of the society. The outlook of the majority of the people towards life continues to be mired in traditional fixations analogous to retrogression and stagnation where women are invariably discouraged to play meaningful role. The leadership of the country has also failed to project women as an important national asset. What is required is serious thinking to address the women empowerment issues holistically because the continuation of the present sorry state of affairs of women will not absolve the government of the criminal negligence.

How despicable that the cruel customs like veeni, Karo Kari etc. are still in practice in some parts of the country even after seventy years of independence. Our hearts go out to the women who are subject to such inhuman and un-Islamic customs used as currency to settle disputes and point scoring in the name of misplaced concept of honour and prestige. The law of the country makes the practice of such customs as culpable offence but implementation of the laws is inconsequential. The mushroom growth of free media has led to some improvement because the courts sporadically take suo moto on the basis of media reports. Such judicial actions have served as a deterrent on the potential criminals. The admonishment of the local administration by judiciary on their dereliction in the implementation of law has also improved the environment to some extent. The improvement is there but far from satisfactory because such crimes against women are continuing in the remote areas. The strong arm of law should take the evil undertakers by their necks for bringing them to face the wrath of justice expeditiously. The certainty of punishment after pining down the criminals will make the day of the women of Pakistan, almost half the population of the country. Mobilise the resources to rectify the situation and save the country from the stigma of the worst gender inequality.

muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com