Course reversal

This refers to the article ‘Course correction’ by M Zeb Khan (December 21). The writer has asked a burning question “Is today’s Pakistan what Quaid-e-Azam had envisioned for us or is it one reflecting a hate-all-hit-all country of General Zia?” The answer is quite obvious, yet no one seems concerned. To add to our misfortunes, the country’s prime minister seems to be using Zia’s disastrous methods to strengthen and prolong his hold on power – his embrace of the TLP and attempt to do the same with the TTP leave us in no doubt about this. His attempts to promote excessive religiosity through the Single National Curriculum (SNC) and other such measures provide further proof of this.

What we need now is not merely a ‘course correction.’ Pakistan is in a dire need of a ‘course reversal’. The country has not just slightly deviated from the course charted by Quaid-e-Azam. Rather, it is heading in the exact opposite direction.

S R H Hashmi

Karachi