Hafeez Khan<\/p>\n
We benefited from the economic dole-outs but paid the price of letting the elephant into the room<\/p>\n
\u201cYakay Wali,\u201d starring the top heroine of her times, Musarrat Nazir was a blockbuster of its times. Released in 1957, it broke all records of popularity, running for 50 weeks in one cinema. Producer Bari Malik raked in tonnes of money, enabling him to buy a film studio named Bari Studios. These memories came back while listening to old Pakistani songs with friends. \u201cResham da lacha lak way,\u201d is an all-time favourite that I continue to enjoy six decades later.
\nWhat triggered this article was another melodious song \u201cKalee sawaray bei, Bhatti Lahori bei.\u201d \u201cTongas\u201d also known as \u201cyakas,\u201d horse-drawn carriages were an integral part of our lives while growing up. It was a bold film embodying a female driver, \u201ckochawan\u201d in Urdu. It was when few women stepped outside without being clad in a \u201cburqa,\u201d a full-body cover. It brought back memories of when tongas were permitted on Mall Road, Lahore. Walking with friends late at night on this historical road, the clip-clop sound of a running horse was fascinating.
\nThere were a lot of good things in Pakistan in that period. The population was far less; bureaucrats were not kleptocrats, and water actually flowed through the river Ravi. The roads were manually cleaned, and garbage was actually removed by \u201ckuray wali gudd,\u201d a buffalo-driven cart. The quality of education in Government Schools was excellent. Pakistan Model School in Lahore graduates went on to become judges, bureaucrats and generals. In Abbottabad, while we wore trousers and blazer uniforms, the public school students smartly turned out in \u201cMalaysia\u201d shalwar kameez, much to our envy. Their dedicated teachers were widely-respected.
\nBribe-takers were social outcasts. The social fabric and value system were held in high esteem. I grew up in the sixties. As a youngster, I participated in protests against President Ayub Khan\u2019s alleged dictatorship. Now as a student of economics, I believe it was the golden period of Pakistan\u2019s development. Despite its shortcomings and warts, Pakistan was viewed as an emerging Asian Tiger. I cannot forget the words of Chairman Daewoo Corporation, who I met courtesy of late Jamil Nishtar, in mid-eighties. Sitting in the ADBP boardroom, he remarked that he was visiting Pakistan after 20 years. He came here in the early sixties as a bureaucrat seeking guidance on our five-year development plans to be adopted in South Korea.
\nHow did we become unhinged? Z A Bhutto was the first damaging blow. He broke the social fibre through his socialist rhetoric; creating a divide amongst various classes. After being part of the coterie that engineered the breakup of Pakistan, he assumed power and nose-dived the economy with his destructive nationalization policies. The growth tempo was broken. Banks, industry and many sectors were poised for a take-off. We were ahead in our GDP growth in the region, including India. The effects of these unfortunate events still haunt our economy.
\nThe next bludgeoning blow was rendered by General Zia. He snatched power without any constituency to prolong his rule. He hid behind religion. He used it for everything negative. He brutalised the society, introduced the gun culture, nurtured the most corrupt clan of Sharifs and uploaded them onto the political scene. We continue to suffer at their hands till today. During the next three decades, our downward trajectory continued, accelerated by Nawaz Sharif and BB\u2019s will-holder Zardari.
\nWe picked sides in the fifties to be a frontline state against communism and joined SEATO. We benefited from the economic dole-outs but paid the price of letting the elephant into the room. Ayub Khan, with his good looks, was a darling of the West. The moment he chose an independent path, enunciated in his book \u201cFriends not Masters,\u201d he became a pariah. We have our fair share of Mir Jaffars amongst us. He was brought down by his own prot\u00e9g\u00e9-ZAB. When ZAB became too big for his boots, he was overthrown by his own \u201cbenign\u201d Chief and subsequently executed.
\nNext was their ardent supporter, General Zia. After participating in the disintegration of the USSR, he grew wings of independence. He was removed through a fiery ending. The nineties laid the premise for the most corrupt duo, PML(N) and PPP. Their spell was broken by Musharraf. It is interesting that whenever the West enters a military conflict in this arena; a military dictator is installed in Pakistan. Politicians are too messy, indecisive and greedy. Musharraf\u2019s shelf-life expired but not before he presided over the tragedy of BB\u2019s death.
\nThe next ten years witnessed the worst loot sale in Pakistan. It ended when PM IK broke through the two-party chokehold. IK disrupted the plans of the corrupt within and their masters abroad. Thus, he was ousted through their joint efforts. With an exploding population of 220 million likely to double in twenty years, dwindling resources, uneducated youth, and extreme debt, IK\u2019s course correction was not acceptable.
\nThe present regime is clearly moving forward with the agenda for an economic meltdown. This will pave the way for de-nuclearization; a long-sought goal of the West. Where is the Establishment who has sworn to defend Pakistan? Their neutrality is like a lifeguard at a swimming pool refusing to save a drowning kid because he had been rude. In matters of life and death, neutrality is not an option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hafeez Khan We benefited from the economic dole-outs but paid the price of letting the elephant into the room \u201cYakay Wali,\u201d starring the top heroine of her times, Musarrat Nazir was a blockbuster of its times. Released in 1957, it broke all records of popularity, running for 50 weeks in one cinema. Producer Bari Malik […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1195,9054,9053],"class_list":{"0":"post-268365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-hafeez-khan","8":"tag-memories","9":"tag-real-pakistan"},"yoast_head":"\n