The good old days

Call it nostalgia or whatever, but to me it seems that in the good old days people used to have limited needs and wants. People used to live simple lives, working hard to earn enough to meet their needs and to save some. Political leaders were more devoted, honest and focused on their cause. Similarly, workers were selfless and devoted. After 1947, things started to change rapidly. It seems that after achieving our main goal of getting a country of our own, we lost our way. Our politicians became power hungry and selfish. Instead of working towards achieving a goal to make the country prosperous, they exploited the public for self-serving purposes. We started to lag behind in the economic, education and health sectors. Our rulers, instead of correcting their course, took the easier way of borrowing to finance their self-gratifying, often useless, projects.

Whichever political party came to power blamed the poor health of the economy on past rulers, and borrowed more to keep doing what its predecessors did. Beside dictatorial rules, the two mainstream political parties, PPP and PMLN ruled the country for a long time but failed to balance income and expenditure, leading the country into a downward spiral of debt trap. The PTI came on the promise of change but very quickly fell into the same trap. Now they find themselves in an economic and political quagmire, which they find difficult to get out of. Our PM has said on several occasions that his government will learn from the Chinese model to revive the economy. Chinese President Xi recently said to his government officials that Chinese officials must not use the fight against corruption as an excuse to sit around doing nothing. It is for the PM to interpret and understand Chinese wisdom.

Raja Shafaatullah

Islamabad