I have been struggling for a while now to find something positive, if not uplifting about Pakistan, but despite my consistent efforts, I have been largely unsuccessful in my quest. I called friends, journalists, government officials and private citizens across Pakistan but all of them shared horror stories about life in Pakistan. So, what is going to happen to a country where almost no one seems to be happy, let alone satisfied?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer.
It is indeed frightening to imagine a country where people are trying to migrate out at every cost. By the way, during my conversations, two things stood out for me. One, everyone urged me to never come back to Pakistan and second, they all wanted to know if I can help them come to the United States. Even more disturbing is the fact that these people are willing to do anything in the United States or anywhere else, literally anything to escape the inflation, terrorism, and nepotism among other awful things in Pakistan.
Isn’t it really heartbreaking?
But, when I tried to find answers as to why Pakistan became this desperate, unfortunately, I was unable to get a real answer from anyone. People, especially in Pakistan tend to believe in bizarre theories when it comes to Pakistan’s current chaos and mess, but majority of Pakistanis refuse to accept responsibility for their role in bringing Pakistan to the brink of total annihilation. True, there is the element of Pakistan getting caught in the fight between two powers, but that blunder alone is not enough to destroy everything and there is a long list of missteps by Pakistan’s successive governments that are responsible for Pakistan’s current mess. And believe me, it is a mess in Pakistan.
However, I do believe that with good management, the country can still come out strong, but obviously, it is not going to be easy. Hard choices, and by hard I really mean unpleasant choices have to be made in order to make Pakistan a healthy country, but once again, it is not as easy as it sounds. And to accomplish this goal, everyone in the country will have to sacrifice beyond their wildest imagination, or, risk losing everything in the end.
It is obvious that despite good intentions, the current government is not going to succeed in making progress in pretty much in any field. The overall political, social, economical, and judicial environment, backed by hysterical electronic media is against Zardari-Gillani government. So, who will bring the change that the country needs?
No one seems to know the answer.