Articles of the year 2021

We are indeed a heartless people. Prone to discarding those who merit heroic acclaim. At the same time pimps and hustlers turn the hallowed halls of our Presidential lodgings into a den of thieves. The reputed leading political families the Sharifs and Zardaris are facing charges of robbing the wealth of the nation that they were in charge of. Both the leaders went from humble beginnings to amongst the richest in the world while those who had fought for this country and sacrificed huge lands and estates remained
unrewarded and struggling to survive.

One such person who was our first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan acted as the able lieutenant to Jinnah, and many instances could not have been achieved without the able assistance of Liaquat to the charismatic Jinnah. It was Liaquat that kept the Muslim League functioning and shielded the abrasive Jinnah from the mundane day to day functioning of a political party much like the raucous scenes witnessed in the National Assembly of today.

Liaquat was the foil that screened Jinnah from the crude reality of native politics. Sadly, Liaquat was assassinated before he could instill higher values into the newer generation. Gurmani who one of the chief accused in the assassination plot was at the graveside of Liaquat when the final rites were administered. Liaquat’s widow was left with two sons.
She was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands so that she could educate her sons. In this position she though limited by her meagre salary as ambassador, was welcomed into the European royalty of the day.
This friendship lasted for ages and shows how her social status was recognised by Europeans. Liaquat had surrendered his landholdings in India without lodging any claim. His house in the heart of Delhi, which is now the Embassy of Pakistan, is still the most singularly spectacular residence in Delhi.

Liaquat has surrendered everything for his beloved Pakistan. The two sons struggled to enter the business world, but to succeed in business is not easy. Politics was the private reserve of the civil military hegemony with no room for orphans.
So Liaquat’s heirs are now relegated to living in property belonging to their wives, which can be a fragile existence and depends on the largesse of their wives.
The heirs were kept away from politics as they could have brought honesty and decency into the land and may have prevented the rape of this beautiful country.
We have been deprived of the leadership that we deserved.
When the last fifty years are examined it is time that the faults of history should be corrected and decency be injected into the mainstream. The consequences for an unprincipled leadership can only destroy the country as witnessed.

It is time the progeny of Liaquat was brought into the areas of influence where they could be a telling difference with morals and manners developed after years of education and upbringing. Sadly, Zardari and Sharif were bereft of both.