By Huma Imdad
June 16, 2018
I have a dream, a dream of CLEAN Pakistan, clean from all malice. Free from clutches of dirty politicians.
I have a dream of people taking pride in being a Pakistani, I dream of people having a sense of belonging for their motherland.
I have a dream of people cultivating this sense of belonging, of realizing their responsibility towards the nation.
I do not expect them to make Huge sacrifices or change their lifestyle drastically or overdo their responsibilities or change everything overnight, I only expect them doing the basics, as they say when nothing is going right for you then try to stick to the basics and try.
I want to see people actually fighting the self-made evils; I just want every individual to do their act right.
I want to see people actually respecting the fellow human beings, treating others ‘normally’ without any disdain or hatred.
I want to see people actually respecting the fellow human beings, treating others ‘normally’ without any disdain or hatred.
I want to see people following the laws and when a need arises raising their voice against some weird out-dated laws.
I want to see people standing in queues in a civilized way.
I want to see people driving as per laws because one idiot can cause traffic disruptions, resulting in time-loss of hundreds.
I want to see people not spitting, littering on roads or using every nook and corner as their urinals, at least I expect this from educated people, but unfortunately here education doesn’t come for rescue, most of the people I see doing all this look well off and well educated. Most disheartening is to see parents setting the wrong examples for their kids; all these small menaces have become so much a part of our lifestyle that we do not see any wrong in doing so.
We all are so much self-absorbed in the small gains that we stopped caring for fellow countrymen; forget about the country.
Everybody does all sort of manipulations for their petty gains, manipulations like…..smuggled goods/liquor, fake bills, abetting audio/video piracy etc, we buy movie tickets in black, train tickets from touts without ever realizing once that there is someone who is at a loss.
We cheat on the revenue earned by the government in the form of taxes and other levies, which in turn affect the development plans; Simple. And the most common excuse increasing this rot is….”Sab kartey hai” (everyone is doing it), but two wrongs don’t make a right.In the same manner, as we go higher in the ladder, the level of corruption increases, our leaders, industrialists engage in bigger and dirtier mal-practices without any opposition, and again there is one common loser…. our Country.
I know a lot of people who agree with all this but continue to do so their argument; that we cannot survive in the existing structure/society without these practices, but who will correct the system? Who will stop the rot? I know, not everybody can join politics, but again someone has to take the call, to come forward. It is difficult but not impossible.
I always felt somethings were wrong somewhere and I felt frustrated because this tunnel was too dark throughout, I could not find any light on either end. And it got more pronounced when I came to the US and noticed small things that made all the more differences between the USA and my Pakistan.
I saw people stop at a zebra crossing and let me pass, whereas in Pakistan, a guy in a car is a king and a pedestrian is a non-entity and IT can die and be crushed and no one will bother.
I won’t go on enlisting everything I found different and my true dream is to see Pakistan prosper like the prosperity I see here and I know we, as Pakistanis, can make all the difference in the world if we can see beyond our noses. And I hope, one day my dream of a new changed Pakistan will come true.
In sha Allah!
