People want a leader to work with

There is no difference of opinion among people as regards socio-economic, health and education problems they have been facing for a long time and still wait for someone to come up with courage and determination to solve them.

This is up to experts to decipher why majority of people remains unsatisfied despite frequent change of administration. Do they want change of system?Not heartened by performance of their leaders, they feel there is a crisis of selfless and dedicated leadership like the one provided by Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his right hand Liaquat Ali Khan.

The irony is there is no dearth of ‘leaders’ who claim they are following in the foot-steps of the Quaid-i-Azam whose picture is printed on currency notes of various denominations as homage to the father of nation.

There are half a dozen Muslim Leagues, their activists are duty-bound to resurrect in their mind the Quaid who had plainly said that only one thing could unite people and energise them to regain their lost ground, and that is, they must first recapture their own souls and stand by their lofty position and principles which form the basis of their great unity and which bind them in one body-politic.

Pakistan, to its founder, was the embodiment of unity of the Muslim nation, and he expected of his followers to guard and preserve that unity zealously. The father of the nation was mindful of the military and he did not underestimate its role in the context of the country’s unity, freedom and sovereignty.

What he said to Muslim Leaguers was also directed towards army men. Worth recalling is his address to the Tribal Jirga at the Government House in Peshawar, which has a point of wisdom for civil and military officers who believe in serving the masses selflessly.

The man, as the country’s governor-general, emphasised to the defenders of homeland that the weak and the defenceless in the imperfect world invite aggression from others. “The best way in which we can serve the cause of peace is by removing the temptation from the path of those who think that we are weak and, therefore, they can bully or attack us.”

The unity of thought, word and action, which the founder of Pakistan wanted to create in the people, was effectively demonstrated during the September war between India and Pakistan. The national unity was exemplary in the sense that the masses and the armed forces put up a grand show of solidarity and harmony to repel the foreign aggression.The people want a leader like Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to work with. “Only then Pakistan will regain the lost glory,” people say.

zasarwar@hotmail.com