Pakistan and every thing that is wrong with it

Pakistan – The Land of the Pure. The country where I was born, the place which I call home. The streets, the houses, the trees, the shops, they are all home to me. When I started thinking about this post, I tried to come up with the positive aspects of Pakistan, but all I came up with were negative ones. Don’t get me wrong – I love Pakistan to the core. I love it deeply, with its aura and its patriotism and its environment. But there is so much going on about which we were blissfully unaware. So here I go.

Contradictory Constitution – The first and foremost would be the constitution of Pakistan which forms the basis of all the law and order in Pakistan. I have read most of the constitution and every article of the constitution is contradictory. Article 19 says every citizen has the right to freedom of speech. No religious minority has any freedom of speech. Art 20a says every citizen has the right to practice his religion. Art 9 says no person shall be deprived of life. Art 10a says in any criminal charge, a person shall be entitled to a fair trial. Asia Bibi still sits on death row. Art 14 says no person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidence, yet the police torture the suspects in order to do exactly that. There are so many other articles which are contradicting each other and still this constitution just serves as a weapon against the minorities and innocent people.

Religious intolerance – Most of the minorities including Christians, Hindus, atheists, Ahmadis and Shias have been subject to religious persecution with maulvis declaring on social and printed media that they should all be condemned and spewing hatred against them. This has not only resulted in publicly ostracizing religious minorities but has also led to target killings, rapes, murders and kidnappings. Even various sects of Sunnis are always fighting with each other, declaring the other non-Muslim or Wajib ul Qatal.

Women rights – Even though, in recent years, women have been allowed to go out and get education and go for jobs to earn livelihoods, in most of the rural areas, basic women rights are still being denied. Women are not allowed to read or write, their men saying that they are supposed to stay at home and make food and look after the house. They are not allowed to work being given the excuse that they are not supposed to be the one working. They are not given freedom of speech. They are looked at more as an object rather than a human being.

Politicians – I think all of us would agree here that most, if not all, of our politicians are more inclined towards power and money and success rather than working for the welfare of our country. Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Bhutto, Zia, all worked for their own personal success, and nothing was done to help the country prosper. Which is why the country is usually in debt and our ties to other countries are not as strong as they should be.

Load shedding – When I was a kid, believe it or not, there was little or no load shedding at all. Now, 20 years later, there is no light in Islamabad for 12-13 hours, while in Lahore, Faislabad and other cities of Punjab, there is unannounced load shedding for up to 5-7 hours. In small towns and villages, there is no light all day or for up to 20 hours. Factories have been forced to close down because of power outages. People have been dying of heat strokes. Shops have been closed. People are restless, and even their protests are not doing anyone any good since the power outages remain. In Ramadan, it was promised that no load shedding would occur during Sehri, Iftar and Taraweeh times but even that promise was not fulfilled

Police force – Pakistan has a very good police force, by the Grace of Allah, but a lot of them are very corrupt and can easily be bribed to change their statements. I have heard of so many cases where the police were bribed to give a completely different statement in a court case. There are also cases where they found girls going somewhere at night, and they would ask them for money, or if they did not have money, they would rape them. Gang rapes have been heard of in many areas of Pakistan, by the police force.

Domestic Violence – Pakistan is becoming increasingly prone to domestic violence and suicides. There have been murders on very petty disputes. There have been honor killings if a girl has a cell phone or if she is “thought” to have an affair, or even if she was raped. Men beat their wives, eventually killing them over petty disputes, related to money or relatives or children. And then there are the suicides. A boy killed himself because his girlfriend broke up with him. A man killed himself because he lost his job. A man killed his family and then committed suicide, in a moment of frustration. A man amputated his wife’s legs because of a fight. An argument between a husband and wife caused them both to separately commit suicide.

The men and their stares – Men in Pakistan are most known for staring at women. They stare like they have Xray vision and they don’t even bother looking away when you’re staring back at them. They will keep staring at you till you’re out of sight and their stare is so disrespectful, it’s disgusting to even imagine what might be going through their minds.

There are so many more issues, our outdated education system is also a major problem. Children nowadays are being taught the same thing that children of the 1990s were taught. The books are outdates, the teachers are not experienced, and the school environment is not child-friendly. That is why so many children detest going to school, or prefer to drop out and work instead of learning to read and write. Then, there is the problem of people in the rural areas being paid Rs. 300-400 barely a day, which is not enough to feed a family, let alone pay the high taxes that the government has imposed on them. Most of them starve in order to feed their children, eventually dying because of malnutrition and starvation. Pensions given to elders of the society are also not enough to survive a fortnight, let alone a month.

We, as a nation, lack sensitivity. When people die, to us, it has just become stats and number. We see 100 people dying in a blast. And we think oh 100 people died, that must have been a huge one. But we do not realize that 100 people lost someone they loved. We do not realize that their houses will now feel a huge absence. And a lot of times the people they lose are their source of income and food. We have just started thinking about ourselves. As long as we are okay, it doesn’t matter at all who else is dying. Better them than us.

There are a lot of negative issues in Pakistan. I agree. I have only mentioned a few of them. But that does not mean there aren’t any positive things in Pakistan. Tourism is still trending in Pakistan, we still have our northern areas to be proud of. We have our designers, actors, singers and models to be proud of who  have become a symbol for Pakistan and who are representing Pakistan in various other countries of the world. We have our symbols like Edhi, Mehdi Hassan, Arfa Siddiqui and so many others who are Pakistani and the whole world knows about them. We have such intelligent minds which if stayed in Pakistan would help in the prosperity of Pakistan. We have our TV shows to be proud of. We have our Desi food and culture to be proud of. We have our clothes, which are sent worldwide, to be proud of. We have a lot to be proud of. Needless to say, I love Pakistan from the core of my heart and I always will. I just want to create awareness about all the things that are presenting a bad image of Pakistan. Maybe with time, when they are rectified, Pakistan will be one of the best countries in the world.