In December 2007, Benazir Bhutto was killed and we do not know till date as to who killed her. This was followed by the blast at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and then the attack at the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
Osama Bin Laden was suddenly discovered in Abbottabad and now the recent attack at the Naval Base in Karachi. All of these incidents are coupled with periodic bomb blasts and suicide attacks as if they present the back ground music.Pakistan currently has perhaps the worst security problem in the world.
The heat like each year is unpleasant but the summer could have been pleasant if it had not been for the intolerable and inexcusable load-shedding. I live in Islamabad and the power cuts are bearable to an extent, particularly as they seldom go beyond an hour at a time. But what about the towns and villages that are without electricity anywhere from ten to 20 hours.
Even this would have been tolerable if people had jobs of their choice and the inflation was under control. But despite the country’s economy suffering from recession and hardly any investment taking place, the prices of almost everything is going up.
This is not what the people of this country deserve. They deserve a better leadership. And it is no where in sight. There is hardly a political party in the country that has an ideology and that is also sincere to it. This even goes for the religious parties as shown by the recent Wikileaks which showed that the JUI leaders were approaching the Americans to get them appointed as the prime minister.
And we remain adamant in the midst of it all. We still want Taliban to assume power in Kabul and thus continue to support them clandestinely despite getting western support in billions to crush them. We remain in constant dialogue with the Indians but never achieve a solution to even the minor issues. Our intelligence agencies are more attuned to monitoring the politicians and some of the NGOs than the terrorists. And our rulers continue to live in luxury as if there will be no tomorrow. We all know that they would not be in the country the day they lose power.
The people are blamed for all of the above. But are we really to be blamed? The poor are crushed and can hardly survive. The middle class is constantly trying to make ends meet. Despite all of this, the middle class will have to assume the leadership role and protest. The protest can be in the form of demonstrations, writing letters or simply making phone calls and of course opposing corruption at every level. The last thing that this country needs right now is for all of us to remain silent…
THE PEOPLE DESERVE A BETTER LEADERSHIP