Any Hope for Pakistan?

This constant feeling of doom pervades through my being each day … coming nearer and nearer. Doom for Pakistan. Each day I watch the hapless state of its people on TV & each day I read about the petty squabbles of its power-loving politicians who meanwhile spend colossal amounts of money on their bullet proof BMW’s and special aircrafts. I have been watching and reading for months now, even years. Each time I look helplessly on, like someone enduring the sight of his mother undergoing the most brutal torture ever, his mother being maimed and mutilated. He writhes in agony, struggles to break free from the invisible ropes that bind him. Struggles with all his might. But no, the ropes are like steel. Break them he can’t. He can hear her cries. Feel the pain. He is condemned to suffer every second. Till he goes senseless. Or his mother remains no more. Okay, I think perhaps I am losing myself in the example. This however, is what I feel. What all of Pakistanis feel I am sure, or at least all those Pakistanis who classify themselves as thinking and feeling beings (though we do seem to be having a dearth of them too right now). Pakistan today or the one that has been in existence ever since its independence is not a dream that Jinnah dreamt of. It’s not the dream for which thousands of Muslims were willing to lose everything they had. It’s not my dream. The soil those people kissed, as they put their first steps on it, is corrupted now. I do realize that I am being a bit too sentimental at the moment, but days and days of watching the same people with their insatiable appetites, plundering and besmirching the dignity and pride of your country, sometimes leaves you with no hope at all and in that complete state of powerlessness I am writing this. Not to say of course that there is no hope. There is always hope (as Aragorn says in LOTR movie), definitely. If we don’t see the stars on an overcast sky, doesn’t mean they are not there. We have to wait for the clouds to disappear or in this case, go and disperse them ourselves. So, at least I am ending this on a note of hope. You have to hope. There is no other alternative. But it's easy to say that. Where exactly will that hope come from? From the educated people, in the comfort of their drawing-rooms, who do nothing except launch into their long diatribes against the government? No, only from the people who deeply and zealously care for their country. And I am not saying that we don't have people of that sort. But its such a long long road ahead and countless stumpholes (I am afraid I can't find this word in a dictionary but I do kinda like it). We have to be ready for a long labourious journey. And every tiny step does count. I can only wish for that unity Pakistan's people achieved when the Kashmir calamity struck. Meanwhile, each one of us who realizes the enormous depth of the chasm Pakistan is in, should do his/her bit. So ends this long speech of mine. But its not just a speech. Its something coming out of the extreme frustration I've had. The Kalabagh Dam bickerings raging on these days have a part to play too. I hope there isn't going to be another Bangladesh.

Anyways gotta go now.
Bye.