Who loves the country most?

Who loves the country most? That’s the first and foremost question citizens ask each other while waiting for a wagon at Faizabad stop in the vicinity of Metro bus station.

“It’s the poor who love the motherland most,” loudly speaks a young man dressed in second-hand coat and pants.

“They do it out of purity of love and because they believe and proudly say their elders sacrificed their life and property for the sake of it,” asserts the other who apparently is an unemployed graduate.

One could rediscover the fact buried in the mind of the commuters of the age between 35 and 40 whose parents had travelled long distances first to Lahore and then to Rawalpindi from various towns and cities of undivided India.

The journey was arduous, bloody, costly and painful, but the migrating people showed great perseverance in the face of hardships. They didn’t lose heart: instead of surrender like slaves they battled against prejudice, attackers, looters, murderers, kidnappers and violators of chastity of woman.

The journey was for a cause: freedom, peace, human rights, fellow-feeling tolerance, labouring together for prosperity. But, unfortunately, many were deprived of their belongings during the bloody migration and they landed in the new homeland as victims of hunger and poverty. They had little money in their pockets. Even then, they didn’t turn beggars: they worked hard as vendors, pedlars, shop-keepers selling betel and nuts in retail.

What soon became popular among the locals were food items like beef ‘seekh kabab’ and ‘shaami kabab’, ‘haleem’, mutton and beef ‘pulao’, ‘kheer’ and ‘firnee’, ‘phulka’ (a large-size thin round bread cooked on a griddle) and ‘kofta’ ( a dish of meat mixed with spices, crushed and shaped into ball) and ‘korma’ (a meat dish).

Such different kinds of delicious food prepared by the ‘homeless’ migrants living in one or two-room rented houses attracted customers in large numbers simply because of low priced fair quality food items. Hard work, honesty and humility combined with will power and self-reliance helped them stand on their own legs.

They had learnt such a secret of success from the architect of Pakistan who was inspired by state builder Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Their sons and daughters availed themselves of education to serve the homeland in any capacity in any department---civil and military. Dedication has always been to the cause of Pakistan as that was in September1965.

Vicissitudes of life didn’t spare them: both old and young felt they’re victims of misrule and nepotism as well as of the system which had been opposed and condemned by the founder of Pakistan five years before the new homeland came into being.

Recalling the long distance travelled by elders long time ago for a cause, the frustrated youths say: “our elders weren’t poor in thanks to Almighty God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah; nor are we---the poor---we love the country most.”

—- zasarwar@hotmail.com