Ayaz Amir, in his article, ‘The leadership crisis in Pakistan’, has asked a very pertinent question, ‘Can the Metrobus Managers handle it ????’, something that many of us have been asking ever since the Nawaz Sharif government won the elections and came into power. As Ayaz has pointed out, ‘Our leaders cannot look beyond their noses and are not capable of focusing on the real threats and serious issues facing the Nation’.
While an editorial in the News dated June 16th, reads, ‘Pakistan’s ruling elite’s collective sleepwalk towards a looming disaster is mind-boggling. No murder, no incident of mass butchery or bombing is able to wake our high and mighty from their sleep. No horrendous attack on our airports, defence installations, the slaughtering of soldiers or destruction of schools manages to wake them from their mysterious deep slumber’.
(http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-256325-Drift-towards-anarchy).
For the last two decades, we have suffered from dysfunctional governments, led by leaders with no vision or skills of governing, especially a fragmented nation, infected with sectarian violence and corruption, that has become a haven for terrorists and extremists. The country has been run by a bunch of incompetent, greedy and corrupt individuals, who have been appointed to key positions on the basis of cronyism rather than on merits or qualifications. And these ‘self above all’ individuals have destroyed our institutions and system of governance.
Due to a lack of sincere and honest leadership and mismanagement by incompetent ministers and bureaucrats, the country has lost the respect and credibility it enjoyed in the 50’s and 60’s.
Sometime back, I had received a video clip by email, of the visit of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, the God Father of Pakistan’s first Martial Law, to the US in 1961 and was amazed at the respect that was shown to the Pakistani President by the American government, even though he was a military dictator. (http://www.hazara.com.pk/videos/video.php?id=243).
The visit was indeed a proud moment in the history of Pakistan. Trumpets had heralded the arrival of the Pakistani President and President John F. Kennedy and his entire cabinet had been there to welcome the Field Marshal. ull military honors were laid out for the President and he was given a rousing welcome wherever he went. And in those days, Pakistan was referred to as an ‘Important and Powerful’ country. But that was in the glorious past.
Today, no nation wants to deal with us, as they do not respect or trust us. They know that our leaders are prepared to lie, cheat, kill and even sell their souls to the devil, to satisfy their ego and their thirst for power. Even our once proud army seems to have lost its professionalism and has become a giant conglomerate, more concerned in protecting the interests of its officers, rather than the country.
At one time, there was a joke going around the internet that every country has an army, but in Pakistan, it is the army that has a country, suggesting that it is the armed forces that indirectly own this land of the Pak and the Pure. The Defense budget sucks up over 50% of the country’s finances and much of our resources, which leaves little to improve our education and health facilities.
However, the army, though still a major stake holder, both politically and financially, has been replaced by the corrupt, dishonest and incompetent ministers, politicians, bureaucrats, heads of our institutions and the law enforcement and security agencies, etc., who have become the owners of the nation’s wealth, which they have stashed away in Swiss and off-shore accounts and in real estate property around the world. According to the National Internal Security Policy (NISP) report, there are 33 Organizations that spend billions of rupees, yet, they have failed to protect sensitive spots, including army and naval installations, from terrorist attacks.
(http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-255179-33-organisations-spending-billions--could-not-protect-sensitive-spot).
These security organizations including, all the intelligence agencies, which deal with internal security, have more than 600,000 personnel, exceeding the strength of Pakistan’s standing army, but still terrorists have hit the Karachi airport and other sensitive installations. The nation’s targets, which include hundreds of soft targets across Pakistan, cannot be defended under the present conditions and terror squads continue to roam freely across our cities carrying out attacks against military installations, airports, schools, mosques, etc., as they please. Over the years, Pakistan, like the Titanic, has become a battered ship, with 180 million citizens, carrying a highly dangerous nuclear cargo on board, adrift in a stormy sea, without a rudder or a captain.
And because of bad leadership, the country has tumbled from one crisis to another, coming across numerous cross-roads, which make the head spin. But somehow, we have survived, but now, it seems, we will have to pay for the sins of commission and omission of our leaders.
The question that is being asked is, whether we can protect Pakistan's vital military installations from well-armed, organized and trained group of gunmen such as those who have repeatedly attacked our sensitive targets in the last two years, including the recent attack on the Karachi Airport?
There is also talk of the invasion of Pakistan, in order to secure Pakistan's nuclear warheads and there is a report which states: ‘Fears of destabilization inside Pakistan might prompt the United States to occupy Islamabad and the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Baluchistan, in an attempt to secure Pakistan’s nuclear warheads’. (http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/05/globalists-pakistan-war-plan.html).
The recent return of the fiery, finger waving Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri and the knee jerk reaction by the government and the fiasco that followed, clearly shows that the government feels insecure and threatened by his presence in Pakistan.
What his real agenda is, still not clear, but for Dr. Qadri to return at this time and talk of a revolution, especially when the country is facing a serious threat from the Taliban and talks of the invasion of Pakistan, is very disturbing. Therefore, do the present leaders or the new born Quaids, have the potential to stop this looming tsunami of anarchy and chaos that is building up, from sweeping us into the sea? If not, then who will save us from the Dooms Day scenario?
But more on the Qadri Enigma and his Puppet Masters next week, meanwhile let us pray to God, to protect Pakistan from the non-state actors and pseudo revolutionary Quaids and the crisis of leadership that the country faces!
The writer can be reached at trust@helplinetrust.org.pk