One need not answer the question why common people, particularly the youth, want a change: everybody has come to realize the meaning of change in the current situation. The 5/11 general election results are being considered a blow to the dream of the suffering masses who for a long time have been in search of a team headed by a person who would change the destiny of their children by overhauling the socio-economic and political system as was envisioned by the architect of Pakistan.
What a strategy that uncertainty prevails in the country even after the vote has been cast; most of voters think they have been tricked by someone on a well calculated foreign advice. Friendly intervention is always a pretext for promotion of peace, progress and democracy in south-east Asian region, especially when a so-called war on terrorism has already been launched. Whose war is it? And who are the real victims? Whose game it is? Radical wisdom demands of all Pakistanis to ponder seriously and get out of it in accordance with the teachings of Islam and in the light of the examples set by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as head of state, law giver, statesman, administrator, general, and leader of the oppressed. That’s essential for economic survival of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
A pre-election survey by this scribe revealed this time most of voters, including majority of educated youths, had their way of seeing politicians: they didn’t want reincarnation of the ones already tested more than once in 1980s and 1990s. Many said they were concerned to do something not for themselves but their motherland also. Silent they still appear like the neglected poor, actually they are angry and in mood to raise voice in protest. Graduates and post-graduates have many grievances in addition to the bitter fact they’ve not been provided jobs they deserved on merit, and are unemployed. Educated youths, whichever province they may belong to, are looking for opportunities in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad; they belong to middle and lower middle segments of society. They criticize landlords and capitalists who have long adopted politics as their profession to accumulate as much as they can for their children and expand family businesses, little caring for the ordinary citizens.
“Many such old self-seekers have started using the word ‘youth’ for a particular purpose; and that’s their self-interest, not national; earlier they very often used the common word ‘awam’ (masses) for political ends; now they’re exploiting the current situation for their own ends, not truly devoting themselves to the socio-economic cause of the country and the nation,” asserted a number of fresh university graduates, including one of Peshawar. Yet another post-graduate this scribe came across in front of Shifa International Hospital in Sector H-8, Islamabad, supplemented the argument: “awam’ was a term of endearment, now ‘youth’ has been adopted by some gentle-looking politicians as means to gain help of youths, including the unemployed ones, for winning a position in corridors of power while masses have been surviving poverty, corruption and unemployment etc. in an environment of bad law and order, kidnapping for ransom, threat to life and property and heart-breaking food and energy prices over the years---surprisingly, they have managed to come back to political power. How and why?”
The country had crisis of leadership, besides absence of good governance resulting in poverty, starvation and injustice, preference of self-interest to national interest, and stashing money in foreign countries. A post-graduate carried his genuine degrees in an ordinary plastic bag while travelling by bus from Faizabad (Rawalpindi) to a ministry in the federal capital the other day. Asked what he thought about the youth’s role in future development and progress of the country, he spoke bluntly: “My first concern is to get rid of unemployment; many of my class-mates are wandering for job, but it’s not merit but nepotism and bribery that makes the mare go; the nation has been divided as many times into different groups as there are political parties although Pakistan had come into being as the embodiment of the Muslim nation, and so it must remain, but who will bridle the selfish politicians; we also are to blame for this unpleasant reality; don’t expect any revolutionary change from the youths of the upper class and rich families, they always want to maintain status quo; it’s only the educated youths of the middle, lower middle and poor segments of society who want change for the better to make Pakistan a people’s welfare state; we want a change that should liberate us from hunger, slavery, feudalism, starvation, exploitation, poverty, illiteracy, corruption in any form.”
Amid cacophony of 5/11 election campaign, a large number of young and old agreed to the view there’s need to recall for a moment how and why Pakistan was achieved and who struggled for freedom from an imperialist power, and how much agonising were the bloody scenes of loot, arson and killing of innocent Muslim men, women and children; even olds were not spared by fanatics. The number of persons who sacrificed their lives for the sake of a new homeland was up to two millions. A welfare state was in the mind of the founder of Pakistan as he professed in his addresses and speeches at public meetings. The dream has not yet been translated, and masses exploited by self-seeking politicians long for an economic revolution which, they hope, will emancipate them from the old vicious and wicked system of feudalism and capitalism. The common people are asking each other if there is any possibility of a change in the socio-economic system of a country facing a number of problems, including poverty and corruption. They assert most of elections in the past have been a cosmetic exercise which produced tailored assemblies and mandates without any long-term sound plan which could bear fruit for the future. “Nobody knows what will happen to us now,” says the common man after the general election result.
“Sasti daal, roti and chawal (cheap pulse, bread and rice)” have always been one of the common man’s demands over the years. But he had to suffer whenever he voiced protest on the street, and self-seeking politicians betrayed him after coming into power. The tragedy to poor and hungry masses is that many a time their homeland’s wheat was sold to foreigners at a lower rate and later bought back at a higher price. Which prime minister did it? Who will imagine the agony of a daily wage-earner in an environment of unchecked exploitation of consumers by hoarders, smugglers and black-marketers? And in such a circumstance, who will not want a change of system? Many social and economy-related matters need honest and meaningful probing with a Pakistan-specific intention to restructure the whole system to deliver justice to the sufferer.
Isn’t it a fact that the status quo forces and their abettors have always blatantly violated and abused the sanctity of the ballot box? City elders assert cut-n-sew arrangements are made to tailor the so-called elected assemblies, and the poor are neglected. That eventually leads to general disillusionment and loss of faith in the system which, the sufferers say, still prevails and blocks a fruitful change. “But, now, revolutionary change in socio-economic system has become an urgent requirement to avert disaster”, argue the educated unemployed youths.

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