INJURY-RIDDLED PAKISTANIS

In the fifty two years the taxes and soaring prices have so much wounded Pakistani nation that the body of the whole nation is full of injuries. The body is full of blue spots and blooding is oozing out of them. The whole nation is crying from the agony of pain and perhaps now they do not have the enough strength to raise hue and cry. In this condition there is neither any doctor nor any indigenous medicine practitioner who could heal them. They have been so gagged and beaten that they are left with no strength to cry or protest. They can not even raise their voice.( I, myself, and millions of Pakistanis have left their country because of these reasons and are working in foreign lands). The accountability process has started and this process will continue but the who will heal the injuries to the minds and hearts of Pakistanis and the pain ravaging their chests. The structure of whole body is about to disintegrate.

It is my endeavour that in the light of Japanese technology and a little bit of Japanese engineering I should guide the people in power to rectify the faults in the Pakistani system. This would help in setting right the Pakistani system and bring it back to the healthy condition. Let us begin by talking about providing the ointment and bandages to the pains and injuries. Instead of sprinkling salt on the wounds if the number of people who put balm on the wounds is increased then gradually the injuries can heal up. Because of the different policies of the successive governments which the people of Pakistan think are wrong the whole nation has been perpetually suffering. Now the people are hoping that the army administration will proceed very carefully. The protest is due to the fact that people have no more strength to experience pain. Moreover there is no utility of causing more pain to the people. Therefore they should not bring more harm to the people by increasing their tax burden or escalating the prices. More than eight hundred thousand educated Pakistani youth are wandering jobless. Give them employment. Apparently it seems to be a very difficult task but it is not that difficult either. More than eight thousand factories and manufacturing units are lying closed in Pakistan. Proper measures should be adopted to run them again. Surely it will help in reducing the enormous unemployment. An ordinary and simple Pakistani is pulling on with great difficulty. The government should help him and if they can not help him then it should not further depress him by increasing the taxes and prices.

The Almighty God has bestowed this world with enormous quantities of every thing. Pakistan is not deprived of these God- gifted resources. The God has not levied any tax on his resources but we have taxed God?s resources including water and the earth?s produce except the air. Now the people have fear that if IMF and World bank would propose to levy tax on fresh air then our bureaucracy would not delay in enforcing it. We started talking about the ointments and bandages and healing the pains. When the proper treatment is not given there is danger of the wounds becoming septic instead of healing and if the condition worsens then the affected parts are amputated. It will be better if we could heal these wounds with the help of ointments and bandages. I had written elsewhere that my grand father was a hakim (indigenous doctor) and as the grand son of a hakim I want to present Japanese ointment to my Pakistani brothers which is so powerful and effective that it will heal all sorts of wounds and emancipate the people from all pains and miseries. Then we shall be able to bring prosperity to Pakistan and make it economically strong. We are talking about medicines and treatment because we want to do self treatment. These Pakistanis are all like the members of a family. Let us first work together for reforming it and treating its ills. Those weaknesses that we have individually and personally should be removed first. We should consider ourselves as a single nation and a single family Then there will be no problem left for solution. When we shall consider each other as a brother, sister, daughter or mother then how shall we deceive ourselves. Who will adulterate spices with pulverised bricks? Who will mix stale and dirty bread and sawdust in the wheat flour? Who will adulterate butter oil and mix water and powder in the milk? Yes there should be law for the same. It is the responsibility of the administration but these administrators are also our brothers. When all of us would work hand in glove and we, Pakistanis, will live like brothers then the dishonest and corrupt will not come from outside. The country is like a shady tree. The nationhood and patriotic feeling are the trunk of the tree and the provinces and the families are the roots. Let us strengthen its roots together. We should fortify its trunk. If we shall do so then this tree will flourish and its shade will also increase and expand. If the country has strong roots then no storm or cyclone will succeed in dislodging it. In order to enjoy life together and to strengthen the relation of mutual friendship we should organise many festivals. Marriage is one such festival in which friends and foes all get together. The cruel people have not stopped the two hundred million annual expenditure of prime minister house and other institutions but have spoiled this pretext of social gathering. The government should have helped the lower income groups on such occasions and had told them to invite all friends and relatives on the marriage of their daughter and sit and dine together. This increases the mutual love. If I had the power I would organise all festivals of joy and happiness on state expenses in all the four provinces so that the brotherhood and fraternity would strengthen and become deeper.

Now there is the problem of taxes. In Japan whosoever works pays tax to the government. There are hundreds of thousands of aliens here including those who are illegally living here. Wherever they work the tax is automatically deducted from their salaries. Similarly in Pakistan the poor segment of society pays the taxes and almost everything is taxed directly or indirectly. In Pakistan whosoever eats bread gives tax. One who smokes also pays tax. Count any commodity in the market which is not taxed. Fruit, vegetables. eatables, cloth, shoes, everything is taxed. Whenever people buy these things they pay tax. However the rich people do not pay any taxes. Whatever tax is paid by industrialists and wealthy people, their water and electricity bills or petrol expenses are all paid by the common man. They receive all their expenses from their companies.. I have met many people in Islamabad whose income is in millions of rupees and have dozens of air conditioners in their houses which are running day and night. When I asked them about the bills they said that the company paid them. The income tax is also paid by the Company. These people only enjoy.

The number of feudals is though diminishing in Pakistan but their number is still not very little. They suck the blood of the poor. Even today in Pakistan the agriculture is being controlled by landlords. I keep visiting countries like Sweden, Denmark etc. They have co-operative societies of the farmers there. They sit together and assess that for the people of the country how much wheat, rice, pulses, and oilseeds are required. How much cotton or sugar cane or vegetables should be grown? They tell the government in advance as to how much these commodities will be produced during the year. The result is that neither there is a price hike nor the government has to import these commodities in emergency.. In Europe and America agriculture is not the matter of a bullock and a plough. It is being run on most modern scientific and technical lines. In every country superior research institutions are engaged in research work. After thorough study of food materials and agricultural products they find out ways to improve these materials and make them more useful for human beings. On the other hand these research institutions develop such seeds which are free from diseases and produce more crops. Even in India they are taking care that industrial development and population explosion does not affect their agriculture. In order to increase the agricultural production high quality fertilisers and pesticides are supplied on low prices. The government takes care that the adulterators of these materials are given exemplary punishments. But in our country the farmers are denied all these facilities. With expensive fertilisers, expensive seeds, expensive electricity and highly expensive water who would sow the crop and who would take its care. Every farmer or landlord is trying to sell his land and build colonies or high-rising plazas .

In Japan, Europe and Scandinavian countries and even in our neighbouring country India the sale of agricultural land for non-agricultural purpose is a crime. The agricultural land can only be purchased by agriculturist for agricultural purpose. Why Pakistan is exempt from this restriction? While constructing motorway the rulers of Pakistan committed this cruelty that hundreds of thousands of agricultural land was converted into a road and now there is the programme of constructing bungalows, colonies, and factories on thousands of acres of agricultural land on both sides of this motor way. In the rest of the world the roads and factories are built on such land which is not being used for agricultural purposes. I wish our rulers had acted with sanity. They could widen the Grand Trunk Road from Karachi to Peshawar and could have doubled the railway track between these two cities. Thus Pakistan would not come under debt burden of billions of rupees and thousands of acre of agricultural land would have continued producing the essential commodities. This would have also resulted in an increase in the revenue of the government. But a single man ,in order to fulfil his dream and to receive kick backs of billions of rupees, has hit hard at the Pakistani agriculture. How can we complain to him? He will himself be accountable for this.

Looking at Pakistan as a tree it appears to be a tree of autumn season. But we the expatriate Pakistanis are not disappointed from the blessing of God. Pakistan came into being as a result of a good seed and it was earlier nurtured by good-intentioned people. But we made mistakes in nurturing it at a later stage and now we have to rectify those mistakes. Let us pray that let the present period be the last period of difficulties of Pakistani people.