Respect Time...and time will respect you!

People who don’t care about time, time do not care about them. Sadly, it is going to be two years, since Chaudary Ifthikar was criminally removed from his administrative center. Surprisingly, he fought against the odds with the help of Chaudary Aitzaz Ahsan and got re-instated. But, another illegal move from the oppressor of people's determination detached him from the helm of affairs.

Fast-forward from November 2 2007, the incumbent leaders of today won the elections by chanting the slogan – "Chaudary Ifthikar is our chief justice!" - Today they have forgotten their pledge and brought ignominy to the dead soul of the Late Benazir Bhutto who also supported him. Interestingly, his foes, friends before, have raison d'être for not reinstating him. Some say, he is too biased to be a judge while some have gone so low integrity-wise that they pronounce – "We cannot remove Dogar because he is also a Chief Justice now". The point is that if the actions of November 2 were illegitimate than any selection according to it is also illegitimate. This can be identified by a child in a crèche then why cannot our leaders comprehend this?

According to my knowledge about the Pakistani headship, I can easily say that our political forces exchange blows for those causes in which they have personal gains and vice versa. From Zardari to Nawaz Sharif or Qazi Hussain Ahmad to Imran Khan, all are skirmishing for their personal/political gains. But in our system which is so shady and deceitful, it's better to support those who favor the desires of a larger community, even if they are doing it for their own promotion.

Leaders in office who think Chaudary Ifthikar is a political figure need to get their heads examined because, fortunately for him, he has not passed a political testimonial and has remained tight lipped about the political affairs. If a political party/parties support him that does not entail that he has become a political figure. As a matter of fact, political parties get their support from the masses and they are the best representation of the general public. So, if a segment of people does support him, then what’s wrong in it?

Importantly, it should be remembered that Chaudary Ifthikar is not as white as milk or an angel, many or most of the populace know about it. He rose to command during Musharraf's regime, took oath on PCO and did not address against him for a stretched era. Was it the Steel Mill's case or an individual squabble, I don’t know. But, most of the people support him because he has been the first government official who did not bow his head according to the wishes of a martial despot. It was because of the lawyer's movement that Musharraf had to completely resign and Zardari should be extremely thankful for it. Moreover, no one deserves to be kicked out of work like this, be it Chaudary Ifthikar or a clerk. In fact, after his re-instating, expectations of the general public would be high from him i.e. if he supports the unruly then surely you will see another movement, and this time against him. But today, his supporters are still singing the mantra to get him reinstated though at the moment it's falling on deaf ears.

It is going to be two years soon, and nothing fruitful has shaped up till now. Forlornly, Musharraf is enjoying a content lifestyle, giving lectures at Stanford, where instead he should have been in jail at this instant with the present president. This is the quirk of fate of Pakistan – "Chor gaye aur luteray agaye!" – Thieves are gone and dacoits have come to loot 'n' rule.

I deduce and desire that Zardari completes his term or stays a little longer because the public of this country will only then find out how to vote when they are pushed to the edge of the knoll. Respect time and time will respect you; take judgments prompt, because justice delayed is justice denied, otherwise all and sundry might go down the hill, and it will surely hurt if it doesn’t slay.

Leadership in Crisis

There are fissures in the foundations of Pakistan which is due to the severe scarcity of superior leaders in our political and nonspecific arena. Since the departure of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaqut Ali Khan, the situation has gone haywire in our realm. From Ayub to Zardari, the status quo of this dearth is escalating extraordinarily. This deficiency has raised the level of fretfulness in the general public to unknown heights which is so severe for the social order that from a tea stall to gelato affair or from a ghetto to a bastion, there is just one question on everyone's mind i.e." when will good leaders arrive?"

Such a situation is so wrong because nations that wait for heroes to save them are the unluckiest – only struggle creates heroes not luck because luck is always with those who don’t include it in their plans, read history if you don’t believe it. Once on this topic, one wise man shared his wisdom on this dilemma with me once. He explained that lack of education is the raison d'être behind the lack of leadership. Therefore, he had a simple modus operandi for its solution i.e. to provide quality education to children, especially to females, so that when these little girls turn into mothers, they give birth to revolutionaries. For a moment, I wanted to jump on the couch to celebrate the elucidation he provided. But then, I came back to veracity and thought that this will take decades.

It disturbed me for a little while. However, the astute chap saw the depressed look on my face and suggested "Brother, carry on your struggle for it because that’s the only thing you have control over and leave the results to The One who controls the cosmos". STOP. These words should be enough for anyone to realize that nothing is impossible if one struggles for it with honesty, integrity and commitment. For instance, look at Iqbal and Jinnah. Interestingly and gladly, his formula to success and peace is simple and achievable; one just has to believe in it.

All we have to do is to do our bit to make the society a better place to live in and through this by default we will achieve the beloved domino effect. Sadly, I see most of the populace waste their times in activities which are unproductive with zero output, in fact, it sucks up the resources. Hence, this is the time to act and start the restoration phase and let's stamp out the word "inefficient" before the word "leadership" because crisis creates motivation and we have a bag full of crises at the moment.