Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Democracy is the greatest revenge

Public flogging in Zia's era
It was one of the greatest moments of Pakistani politics; a young woman entered one of the strongest and powerful houses of public representatives in the country with the biggest democracy. The house was full of members, all them stood up in praise and appreciation for the efforts she did for the revival of democracy in Pakistan. It was her first offfical visit of USA in 1989, She started her address amid continuous clapping and closed her speech on these words

“We set as our focus reconciliation not retribution some claimed to fear revenge, revenge against the murderers and the torturers revenge against those who subverted constitution but ladies and gentlemen there was no revenge for them and the dictators across the world "the democracy is the greatest revenge".

These were the words of one of the most influential women of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto; those who know her can never deny her contribution towards the restoration of democracy and civil rights in country after a long and terrible period of dictatorship.. She fought a long battle after her father's hanging by fascist elements of our society, lost her brother, faced bitter imprisonment during dictatorship, was forced to leave the country but all these could not stop her from fulfilling her promise to the people of Pakistan. She became the first ever women prime minister of Pakistan at an age of 35, she faced opposition from all corner of our country. Our military did not like to salute her as she was a woman, our politicians hatched shameful conspiracies against her, she was mistreated by bureaucracy but she denied bowing against the evil forces.

I loved her, liked her for not being the prime minister but for her courage and the struggle she did for the betterment of Pakistani society. But she failed miserably, so strong women, a graduate of Harvard, who single handedly defeated the strongest dictator of Pakistan, could not defy the forces of evil? What a shame for democracy and what a joy for the dictators across the world? Her failure became the failure of democracy in our country. Today her husband once a cinema owner addressed the third annual session of national assembly; TV channels are analyzing his failures, failures and failures. He looks miserable as a party leader, as a president, as a husband of the most influential woman of our country but is he so bad? He would be as, he is alleged to be the main reason behind the failure of Benazir Bhutto.


Aerial view of destroyed Jamia Hafsa
But what lays ahead is worse than this, another coup, again promises for rebuilding, a long and unending military dictatorship and the end result more misery and failure. The democracy has become the greatest revenge for the poor people of Pakistan but it is time to think about what has the long military rule given to our beloved country? Killing of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Bengal, The breakup of East Pakistan, killing of thousands of soldiers at the hands of Indian forces, brutal and inhumane rule in the name of Islam, division of Pakistan on ethnic basis, Bomb blasts, Talbanization, Target killing, suicide attacks. If I kept adding the list would get longer and longer, what not have the military rules bestowed on us?

Can anyone tell if the democratic forces have ever done with our country what the military rulers did? God forbid they are again getting ready for another coup to serve our homeland, let us say no to them and strengthen the hands of democratic forces as I personally believe in the idea that “worst democracy is better than best dictatorship”.

Ab mere dosray bazoo pe wo shamsheer hai jo
Is se pehle bhi mera nisf badan kaat chuki
Usi bandook ki goli hai meri samt ke jo
Is se pehle bhi meri shahrag ka lahu chaat chuki
Phir wohi aag dhar aye hai meri galyuun mein
Phir mere shehr mein barood ki boo pheli hai
Phir se tu kaun hai mein kaun hoon aapas mein sawal
Phir wo takraar mayan e man o tu pheli hai
Is se pehle bhi to aisi hee garhi aye thee
Subh e wehshat ki tarah shaam e gharibaa’n ki tarah
Is se pehle bhi to paimaan e wafa tootay thay
Sheesha dil ki tarah aina e jaa’n ki tarah
Ab magar aisa nahee aisa nahee honay dena
Aye mere sokhta jaano mere dard ke maray logo
Kisi zaalim, kisi jaabir kisi hakim ke liye
Khud ko taqseem na karna mere saray logo


Ahmed Faraz

4 comments:

Akhtar Wasim Dar said...

Peerless this is a powerful prose by you which ends with one of the most memorable poems of Faraz on dictatorship.

Thinking said...

hmmm....a very good post...

Irony is that...when our Democracy get spoiled and then struck down by our own people....

What you say...?

Our present President was a fruit of democracy too....but are we happy about our decision now?

Actually...we don't have so many choices...thats the major problem...even now...who you think can serve Pakistan better...? Who is out there who have the crystal clear views about Pakistan and who have a definite infrastructure in mind to carry out while in command...

No one...as always...we have no choice but to choose the same politicians (if we considered) to be a democratic country...

hmmm....first of all...we have to cultivate democratic population which can and want to see only the deserved democratic leader...

Good Luck to Pakistan....May Allah help Pakistan...Ameen.

Shahid Majeed said...

Thinking

This is the irony that we do not have enough choices, but who is to blame for this? Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Chaudhry brothers all of them are a product of military establishment. They do not represent democracy; Benazir Bhutto was the only leader who was a pure political worker and leader. Even her father military rule product. If democracy can deliver in all Europe and west then why can't it in Pakistan? Actually Pakistan has never tasted the true democracy therefore we can not blame it for our failures. Or we have never given enough time to civilians to get leaders out of them. Our military takes the country for granted, they do not tolerate the civilians they treat them as second class citizens.
Give the politicians 10, 15 years the democracy would itself overhaul its shortcomings and we will Insha Allah get better leaders.

Noor-ul-Ain Hanif said...

Well democracy and dictatorship has given us something. They had done some good works too but We need leaders not rulers!