Life Long ‘Burden’

Asem Mustafa Awan

Islamabad: In other countries where human and human dignity is honoured, this old man would have rights and privileges where those who work hard become in anticipation that in the later part of their lives the state will provide for them.
In those countries, the state honours their services and pays them back with subsidized housing, food, medicine, travel, and likes. This is not the case in our homeland. We are light years from this.
The world moved leaps and bounds in 75 years of our existence, but we continue to lag behind. While others are moving forward we are in reversal.
The picture shows what our nation has come to. The old man has past his prime. He has worked all his life. He should now be looking to put his feet up in peace and comfort. But there is respite for him or millions others like him. There is no dignity for them even after a life of hard toil to rake out basic living.
This man started as a laborer when young and to date he is doing the same, ferrying loads from one point to other for an honest day’s meal.
Take any service sector from the payment of bills to standing in queues for subsidized bags of flour, the incompetency of the ‘bigwigs’ is oblivious who have held hostage the entire nation.
Amongst the lofty claims of betterment, we are only too aware of embedded widespread corruption in all aspects of governance which the successive governments have failed to root out. It needed a firm of the government like China to root out these evils.
The other neighbours, for example, Iran despite internal strife has developed a model of accountability and scrutiny which by and large have a national consensus.
Afghanistan even after decades of living under foreign oppression is also grappling with implementation of governance systems. We may disagree with many aspects of Taliban-led governance but we can’t lightly dismiss their commitment to try to getting the country back on track on their terms. We can’t say the same for Pakistan.
Justice denied for long is a recipe for social upheaval as we know from the world around. The oceanic divide in Pakistan between haves and have nots has grown unchecked. Millions are living on or below poverty line. The floods have also chronically added to the misery of millions. Their situation is not helped by the virtual collapse of the economy, for example, the textile base. The prospects are dim.
The elites in the country are engaged in fighting each other to retain their hold and control. Their swords are double edged that cut both ways and the poorer are sliced and diced with each strike.
Atomic power for peace is a national slogan. It may resonate with many but only a few days ago the entire country was sent in ‘pitch black’, signalling more black days.
Pakistan with flour, electricity, gas and fuel shortages with these four deficiencies, the government claims that Pakistan will progress in leaps and bounds are somewhat hollow. The rays of hope are dim.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

Photo Credit: Google images