With the nation just recently celebrating its 63rd independence anniversary, its time to reflect on how the story of Pakistan took a twist to the dark side over the pages of history. Where did we go wrong, as a nation. Why is it that we find ourselves in the current situation, mired in both man-made and natural calamities that have steeped us onto the brink of annihilation, almost (God Forbid). Our biggest dilemma as a nation is our constant, perennial and unflinching quest to resort to shortcuts in every aspect of life. If there are two means to get something done, one the long but more organized and just way, and the other shortcut way, we will in most cases resort to the later means.
The desire to obtain fortune and wealth quickly makes us accept bribes as government officials and bureaucrats. It makes the traders sell sub-standard food items, the milkman to mix water with the milk, the butcher to sell the meat of dead animals, the restaurant owners to use old/dirty utensils and so many con-men to conn money out of people who have earned it through their sweat and toil. It is the same urge for shortcuts that makes people perpetrate financial frauds. Our stock exchanges are like casinos where people through collusion and insider knowledge earn quick bucks, often at the cost of small naive investors.
Even our education system is steeped with this "shortcut" mentality. We don't ever learn ethics, morality. We never encourage children to become better individuals, to think out of the box, to be critical thinkers. Instead, the current educational system has no room for independent thinking and produces mindless drones who thrive on rote learning and last minute cramming of books without paying much attention to concept and application.
Our army and defence system follows the short-cut doctrine as well. We thought that the quickest way to fortify our defence would be to acquire nuclear weapons. Instead of spending money on poverty alleviation, improving the health + educational system and strengthening the economy so that we could strengthen from within in order to compete with India and regional powers, we decided to pursue the nuclear programme even if "we have to eat grass". Yet despite having the nuclear know-how and the capacity to obliterate our neighbors off the map of the world, the majority of Pakistani population lives without electricity for 12 hours a day. Whats the use of being a nuclear powered state when we're labelled a failed state. Whats the use of having nuclear power as a "credible deterrence" when everyday scores of our people die at the hands of monsters created by our short-cut doctrine of destabilizing our perceived enemies without waging all-out war. Now we're being short-changed by monsters and barbarians created by our own intelligence agencies.
I know I might sound like a pompous brat but even the poor of Pakistan, of which there are many look for the short cut as a means of sustenance. They find it much more convenient to beg and spread their hands before other people rather than to take an initiative and actually do something sustainable to alter the course of their lives, to work, to earn money through the labour of their own hands. So many times, you see able bodied men and even women, who can easily work to earn money, in a dignified way. Yet they chose to take the short cut and spread their hands before others. This whole mentality diffuses upwards to the government level. We, as a nation are known to have leaders who run to the west, to the IMF and World Bank to raise loans, often at terms that are at the cost of the poor awaam who are crushed under record double digit inflation further fueling the poverty cycle.
We don't even spare religion from our short-cut mantra. Even when it comes to pleasing God, we tend to adopt whatever shortcuts we can get hold of. We take great pride in finishing the Quran in 30 days (within Ramdan) in the hope of attaining (maximum sawaab), yet most of us never ever bother trying to read it patiently, with translation and comprehension of the message. The result is that we rarely adopt those teachings in our lives. We use the shortcuts in Islam when it comes to anything that is convenient for us, yet forget the key obligations, especially our obligations towards our fellow humans (haqooq-ul-ibaad). Islam isn't about just offering prayers (which most of us do without understanding what we're saying) or fasting (in which we indulge in gross gluttony), Islam is a complete code of life which encompasses every aspect of life. We might be praying 5 times a day and fasting yet we abandon common courtesy, of showing kindness, of being tolerant, charitable, of avoiding backbiting, idle gossip and all these key injunctions of our religion. Heck even these damn suicide bombers are brain-washed by the short-cut doctrine. Blow yourself up and you'll get a straight one-way ticket to Heaven with your complimentary 70 virgin Hoors...Its insane! The road to God is the sirat-e-mustaqim. Its just one straight way.There are no detours or shortcuts, period.
You see every single one of us have contributed to this short-cut mentality. It happens when you get your driving license by asking an uncle to use their contacts. It happens when you land a job or an internship in a bank or a chic multinational by using your dad's reference. It happens when you bribe the policeman when he stops you for over speeding or breaking a red light. It happens when you use your mama-chacha's name to get a telephone connection or get something fixed that involves a public sector body like WAPDA or PTCL. It happens when you buy some prize bond or lottery ticket in the hope of earning quick bucks (most of these schemes are scams anyway). These are just some of the examples. Our tendency to adopt shortcuts seems to run in our genes. No one is clean. Our hands are dirty. Thats why our country does not have a system or a systematic way. Thats why its mired into chaos. Thats why the deserving person never gets his due. Thats why frustration builds up. Thats why this whole cycle is self perpetuating. When EVERYONE is using shortcuts, the incentive to use the normal, right way doesn't exist. Its like we as a nation are in the infamous "prisoners dilemma". There seems to be no way out of this except remembering this undeniable truth:
"Kullo Man 'Alaiha Fan Wa Yabqa Wajhu Rabbeka Zul Jalale Wal Ikram: Kullo Man 'Alaiha Fan Wa Yabqa Wajhu Rabbeka Zul Jalale Wal Ikram"
"All that is will perish But will abide forever the Countenance of Your Rabb, The Majestic, The Honourable"(55:26-27)
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