Calling for a new Pakistan confirms the fears that the existing (Old) Pakistan has failed to serve the purpose for which it was created in 1947. No one seems happy with political leadership, failing economic health, rise of fundamentalism, diplomatic isolation in a closely connected Global Village, nor satisfied with the future visions (if any) of our political parties. In such a gloomy environment, common people on the streets see the general elections in the country, an appropriate and perhaps precisely sharpen weapon to take revenge on those who, they consider, responsible for all this mess.

What is wrong with the existing Pakistan that forced us to dream of a new and better Pakistan? Before the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the Brits were well educated, the best of administrators, knew how to formulate the best state polices at least better than what the indigenous people could and above all governed a magnificent imperialist state, covering over two third of the known world. Why the political leadership of that time revolted against such a competent and well versed government under the British thrown.

The masses were expecting to have better governance, improved health facility, rule of law, tolerance, freedom of speech and above all political sovereignty. Once Pakistan came into being, the overzealous populace gradually realized how badly their leadership was doing. Their first and foremost failure was no move on a constitution which could truly reflect the people aspirations, the state structure, role and responsibilities of each organ and future vision. The absence of constitution and political stability paved the way for Martial law in 1958. Rule of law and constitutional sovereignty was replaced by a despotic and opportunist regime. One man and one vote order was replaced with a weird form of Basic Democracy. Once the primary reason of the state got failed, the rest of the functions started falling apart.

Bhutto, the man who helped the dictator Gen Ayub Khan for years in 1960s as his party General Secretary and Foreign Minister all of a sudden realized the importance of democracy and came out with Islamic Socialism. His candid acknowledgement of going off the established religious taboos in social interaction made him an idol for the so far rejected pseudo intellectuals and armed chairs revolutionaries. No one realized that the situation by then was nearing total annihilation because of denying the majority part of the then Pakistan every possible civil right.

General Elections in 1971, under General Yahiya Khan’s regime though manipulated in some ways but threw the expected results. Sheikh Mujeeb won it with thumping majority from East Pakistan but could not find any member to represent him from the Western wing. It was delicate situation and needed higher caliber of political maneuvering & management skill to deal with. On the contrary the political leadership from the Western wing behaved like a bull in the glass house. It was not the desire of Easter Pakistan to go their own way rather it was the manipulation, jointly worked out between the Army higher echelon and the short sighted Bhutto clique. It was very easy to have kept the integrity intact. Transfer the power to the winning party without any ifs and buts and send the army to the Barracks.

Had a sagacious decision been made by the then political and military leadership and had the value of vote and worth of free speech been considered, the state of Pakistan would have been kept together. We would have not gone through the humiliating scenes of 100,000 military and civil servants surrender to the Indian general. The world would have not been cursing us of Bengalis massacre. Our political history have safely been through of a very turbulent phase and a foundation of politically maturity, tolerance, democratic culture and the sense of co-existence have been laid down.
Unfortunately, even the aftermath of this disaster did not make them realize what they did. A new Pakistan was born; the old Pakistan was buried deep down under the piles of around a million dead Bengalis. A state with new boundaries, cut off from its history of lunacy and political bankruptcy was about to take start. It was good that the new state after a long time got its consensus constitution in 1973; however the rapid opportunistic amendments created a bad taste. A sense of shame and humiliation kept the crazy media and political leadership, including the adventurist generals down for few months but soon a new spate of political victimization and deprivation set in. This time, however the victims were different. Bengalis were replaced by Pashtun and Baloch Nationalists.

The New Pakistan after the 1971 breakup proven worse than the old one. Previously it was only Bengalis alone who faced the brunt of the state reign of terror, but because of long distance between the oppressors and the victims, the intensity was not that strong. Here Baloch and Pashtun were next door and their suppression cost them cheaper and easy. Bhutto’s fascist regime collapsed and followed by another brute and reactionary Martial Law under General Zia. General Zia made democracy, rule of law and respect for state constitution a joke. This time however, the general went beyond the traditional limits and invited terrorists from across the world to push his political cum Jihad agenda in Afghanistan.

Whatever is happening today in Pakistan is not the outcome of our short term fallacies. This deep and dreaded mess has been predicted by some sane voices half a century ago, but none had the heart to have heard them. For social changes the short term possible rout is armed struggled to bring down the prevailing regime and replace it with the ideals, the victorious revolutionaries had in mind. Time and again such revolutions proven short lived rather often paved the way for a chain of bloody takeovers.

Pakistan went through many ups and downs but not yet ready to reconcile with itself. Off late we are hearing the noises from PTI folks to build a new Pakistan. How many times we are going to sail through this sea of blood and fire. Is Pakistan Tehrik Insaf has thoroughly, investigated, diagnosed the illness and prepared the potion we are supposed to drink for cure. Would this not be the repetition of what our previous generation saw during 1970s?

How can we have this new Pakistan, the recipe is very simple. We need to decide once and for all that who rule this country of 180million souls. Who should control the lethal (Nuke) weapons and a million-man standing army? We have to reassess our foreign policy and give up the dream of conquering the weaker nations, particularly Afghanistan. Jihadist is synonymous to terrorism now and the new state of Pakistan must forego the bad and good Taliban alike. People need to have this life in good shape in this mortal world, and the state should forget how they would be treated in the world hereafter. No discrimination on the basis of faith, gender, color or language should stay in our statute book and all those articles barring the minorities from becoming Prime Minister and President must go.

Corruption is, no doubt a grave issue, as per our PTI folk’s assertion but not the lone or the only bone of the entire malady. We have to build a new Pakistan, while learning from developed and people friendly states around us.
Let me remind you that the stakes are high this time too just like 1971.
Separatist movements in Balochistan and Sindh and the TTP knocking at our Northern door are becoming louder and louder. Any unwise decision or step at this critical phase of our political history would lead us to nowhere.

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