Working together for noble cause

Elders who as growing children either participated in or witnessed others fight for Pakistan under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah say they’ve valiantly countered terrorists by backing the armed forces for survival with dignity and honour.

What was the ideal for which our elders struggled after March 23, 1940? Why that ideal hasn’t been achieved actually so far? What kind of state the Quaid and the common people who backed him had in mind for an overall improvement in standard of living. Why socio-economic justice is still foremost in our minds?

The Quaid and his sister Fatima Jinnah had never wanted a state ruled by landlords and capitalists who flourish at the expense of masses by a vicious and wicked system which makes them selfish. What prevailed before August 14, 1947 has not yet come to an end, the city elders argue.

The Quaid had rightly pointed out that greed and selfishness make such elements subordinate to the interests of others in order to fatten themselves. There were millions of people who hardly got one meal a day then. So, the Quaid couldn’t help saying: “If that’s the idea of Pakistan I won’t have it.”

Unfortunately, the situation hasn’t yet changed for the better, so people hit by food price hike and overbilled electricity are in search of Pakistan millions had dreamed---and that was an exploitation-free state with a government of the people, for the people and by the people, say city elders.

By the way, mutton, beef and chicken meat are beyond the reach of the lower people. The common man says he can’t think of buying fruit for children.

How to evolve a peaceful and prosperous entity? The task may look gigantic, but that’s certainly not beyond accomplishment provided we get united with iron determination to translate the dream.

“For that, as true Muslims, we’ll have to zealously guard and preserve our unity. “We’ll have to think of ourselves as Pakistanis first, not Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochs and Pakhtuns and so on. And as such we must feel, behave and act in the collective interest,” say the city old men and women.

Necessity is the mother of invention and law demands we must do something without loss of time to save the country from enemies and make it a welfare state where people do not die of hunger and poverty and disease.

That’s possible only when we stop seeking monetary help from others, surrender to the will of God and mentally decide to serve the cause of motherland. “That is a noble cause.”

The people have realized they are the final arbiters of their destiny: adoption of any imperialist economic theory and practice won’t help achieve the goal of creating a happy and contented Pakistan.

— zasarwar@hotmail.com