Pakistan celebrates Independence day 2011!

Pakistan, the beacon of hope for the Muslims of South Asia beyond, came into being through great struggle waged by the Muslims of the sub-continent under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. On 14th, Pakistan emerged on the world map as the biggest Islamic sovereign country.
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 As the nation celebrates its august Independence Day, predictably it isn’t going to be any different than in the past. The commoners will be out, joyously partaking in the day’s gaieties and festivities wholeheartedly; the elites will be spewing streams of scepticism and cynicism voluminously. Over the past several days, slums and downtowns are humming with excitement. Their dreary lanes are echoing with the joyful cries of children chasing one another with the national flag in their hands spiritedly. And their narrow streets are resounding with the exuberant shouts of their youths racing on their rickety cycles with the national flag on them fluttering majestically. All the while, the upscale and posh quarters of the cities and towns have been presenting a dull spectacle of desolation and wilderness, with no sound of firecrackers that keeps breaking the gloomy air of the shantytowns, rundown neighbourhoods, ghettos and inner cities day and night.But this has to be like that. For, it is in the soul of the commoners that Pakistan lives, lovingly and abidingly. The elites are what they are for Pakistan and Pakistan alone. Yet they are the ones who raise silly questions about its identity and what not and spawn doubts about its destiny. The commoners do not. They accept it as it is, and feel proud of being its citizens. And unlike the immensely-beneficiary-elites they ask not what Pakistan has given them but give it whatever they can for it to grow. With their toils and sweat, they have turned even deserts into granaries for the oppressive land barons to prosper and flourish. And with their hard labours in factories, they raised from the scratch industrial complexes and business empires all over the land for the exploitative captains of industries and businesses to grow rich and become richer. It is the elites who have let them and the country down. Never ever have the commoners showed any lack of spirit or grit or resolve to develop and advance the nation to sit respectably among the comity of nations. They have again and again demonstrated the mettle of a people animated with zeal and strength of great nation-builders. And that mettle remains untapped for the acute paucity of leaders of great vision, great dreams and big imagination. After the Quaid-e-Azam, they had had the misfortune of having his successors who largely were adventurists, opportunists and power-lusty. They needed giants to fructify their huge potentials for transforming their beloved homeland into a prosperous, forward-looking, advancing state. Instead, they got pigmies. They needed sincere and strong leaders to shape up their nation into an egalitarian polity. Instead, they got chicaners devoted to serving the elite. They needed imaginative leaders to make of Pakistan a truly federal polity. Instead, they had had pretenders and feigners. They needed uniters; instead they had dividers. Indeed, they needed statesmen to lead and guide them. But they got leaders who were not even politicians worth the name. And the worst they have had is the present lot across the spectrum, a worthless congeries reeking with unparalleled mediocrity, rank intellectual bankruptcy, insurmountable power-hunger and, more woefully, malodorous corruption and malfeasance. With its shenanigans, the mob has driven the nation into such a dismal predicament as had it not been ever before. By every definition, the people are in a very, very unenviable condition now. Yet this will not sap the commoners’ spirit or dampen their zeal to partake exuberantly in the day’s joys. We will celebrate and celebrate we will in every manner. As in the past, we will wear the best of our washed worn-out clothes, tuck our small children on our shoulders and come out on the streets to enjoy whatever gaieties are there and whatever illuminations are there. We will carry Pakistan’s flag in our hands and wave it joyously, shouting the slogan of “Pakistan Zindabad” with full voice and full throat. We are what we are for Pakistan. We commoners are indebted to it in every manner for what it has given to us. It lives in our hearts and souls. The elites may go and eat grass. They are just ingrates.