Remember the Queen who asked…..

When Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) was leading Bani Israel, towards Canaan, Remises 2 started to chase them with his mighty army. Moses (peace be upon him) reached river Nile with his followers, at that moment of despair God commanded Him to strike his stick at the water, He did and the river split into two. Moses and His followers crossed the Nile, Remises 2 watching this followed Bani Israel into Nile along with his army. At that moment the river was joined together by God’s will. Remises realizing that the end is near acknowledged the miracle of God and accepted God as the Almighty asking for forgiveness, God did not accept his plea, and he drowned with his army.

Remises 2 is not around to witness the twenty first century, otherwise he too would have been shocked at the brutalities that besiege our planet today. Amongst the other countries of this planet is a nation of 170 million people, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Gone are those days when Pakistanis were a nation of humble, polite, hospitable, god fearing people. Rather we as a nation have become more barbaric and stone hearted. So cold blooded has the nation become, that value of a human live is meaningless.

Be it the massacre of May 12th, where scores of political activist and common folk were killed within few hours, and their corpses rotting on the streets of Karachi. Or the natural calamities that fall upon us as if the nature is taking revenge for not valuing its gift to us. Lets flash back to the earthquake of October 2005, yes people I am talking about the same earthquake, where our own people looted the supply trucks that were on their way to affected areas to distribute medicine, food, and water. It was not some alien race, which paid money to truck drivers to drop food and medicine at their shops rather than at relief camps, so that it shall be sold later for inflated prices. This was indeed, the same calamity, where we saw widows, young girls, being abducted by vultures who deal in human sex slavery, and prostitution. There were no Jews, American-CIA, agents, who were doing this. We, proud Pakistanis were eating the flesh of our own brothers and sisters.

Gluttony and capitalistic greed has cemented itself under our skins in a manner unknown to other nations. It is not adequate enough that in sixty glorious years of our existence we are unable to provide for ourselves, basic health, safety, clean water, disaster management, and relief operation systems, the government had to show its real skin, that they are not much troubled by the havoc rain and flooding has caused. For Shaukat Aziz, our beloved prime minister (on leave from Citibank corp. to develop Pakistan) it was suffice that he travels around in a helicopter witnessing the carnage from a bird eye view, when that very helicopter could have saved lives of some people who were inhaling their last few polluted breaths in this motherland. Well you can’t really blame him or any other government official can you? For we only have to look into a mirror to see what we have become. When 120 million citizens of this country are living their lives on less that $1 a day, we the sane, enlightened citizens of this republic, have to spend as much as we can to celebrate basant, rather Jashn-e-Baharan, and that too at the cost of lives that are lost in celebrating it. Right now in some part of this country people who are affected by this natural disaster are looking up at heavens asking for some help. In another world within our country there is a place called Lahore. In Lahore lies a red carpet, waiting to welcome the elitist elite of Pakistan to the country’s first fashion week. After all this country is now enlightened and moderate too, so it doesn’t matter that some poorest of the poor are dying everyday in some remote corner of this country. The real thing for Pakistanis is to be proud of holding the first ever fashion week in this country. Fashion week, where the dresses being cat-walked can be only afforded by 0.1% of our elite. While there maybe no water for the dying needy, we can be rest assured that there will be plenty of water and other throat soothing drinks (CAUTION: drinks that leave you tipsy are available in our Islamic republic too!) at royal palm country and golf club.

If Quaid-e-Azam could see what we the people of Pakistan have become, more importantly the mess that we have made out of his country, I can not imagine what his reaction would be. Perhaps there would be none, for he too would be totally shocked at the depths of immorality, corruption, and skulduggery that we have reached. Blood is thicker than water, you can clean it but the stains never go away. Blood of innocent people of Pakistan is being lost everyday, in this country. There is no free lunch in this world you have to pay for what you consumed. And if that consumption is fed by destroying the lives of the powerless, deprived citizens than nature has a brutal way of taking revenge on those who sucked blood out of those innocent souls. French revolution is something that uneducated or even the literary minds of this country are much unfamiliar with. I hope that we don’t come to the point where we would have to relive the part of history when the French deprived souls took too the streets, and killed anyone who was simply rich and could afford exotic perfumes, or designer dresses. When the Queen of France heard about the unavailability of bread in the nation, inquired surprisingly, why don’t the people eat cake? Fortunately we don’t have a Queen or a King, but our government does have one of the largest cabinet of members in the world. They too can someday be asked about the availability of bread or perhaps water. I hope their answer is not the same as the Queen’s.

Talha Mujaddidi