Working together for salvation

Citizens, employed or running business at different scales, claim they’ve experienced and learnt many things from what they call ‘games’ of politics. “We have come to the conclusion that we should better try the real direct democracy by choosing our president and the prime minister directly so that we’ve the Pakistan the father of the nation had envisioned.” No harm in doing that for the common man’s social and economic betterment.

Educated people, whether middle or lower, say they believe Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had long struggled for an independent sovereign welfare state for Muslims of the subcontinent by peaceful means through unity of the masses.

They assert the undisputed leader was dedicated to the cause of the downtrodden. Ask any educated citizen he will say the first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious belief of its subjects are fully protected by the state. The administration, one can say, is trying to move in that direction.

Elder citizens recall the words of the Pakistan’s architect that “if we want to make this great state happy and prosperous we should wholly concentrate on the well-being of the people, especially of the masses and the poor.”

The fact is the founder of Pakistan believed in Islamic principles and democracy and he advocated the cause of Pakistan and its people, irrespective of cast, colour and creed. The use of the Islamic idiom was not limited to confrontational situations involving India but extended to domestic reconstruction.

The point we have to keep in mind is that our salvation lies in following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our great law giver Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Is the present administration not laying the foundations of democracy on the basis of truly Islamic ideal and principles?

The educated unemployed youths say they too have the same dream, they too visualize a welfare state. Was the architect of Pakistan not concerned with the problem of poverty and backwardness among Muslim masses for the eradication of which they looked, on the one hand, to the urges of dynamism, struggle and creativity in Islam and, on the other, to the Islamic principle of distributive justice?

The youths, inspired by the vision of the founder of Pakistan, appear waiting for an honest and selfless leadership to emancipate them from exploitation, poverty and soaring prices. They believe that salvation lies in working together.

zasarwar@hotmail.com