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Pakistan Needs a Hyde Park in
Every City
There is a solution to growing suicide
bombings in Pakistan. Solution is
building a Hyde Park in every Pakistani city.
Pakistanis are full of anger over the way
things are going in their country for
the last 60 years. Pakistan Army has denied them participation
in political process. They cannot elect their rulers. Men
in khaki impose one person on the top and he calls all the
shots. Now a day, general Musharraf is doing this job.
Apparently, there is a parliament, a large gang of ministers, an
imported tip-top prime minister, but the whole system circles
around general Musharraf, the GHQ man. If he is there, he is
there because he happened to be commander in chief of the armed
forces of Pakistan otherwise he has no other qualification for
the job.
It is not that the people of Pakistan have
been denied their political rights for the last 60 years; they
have been denied very basic human rights throughout the history
of Pakistan. There are no equal level playing fields for them.
Those who come from ruling elite, they can have anything they
want. Of course, there is a hierarchy in ruling elite too. Being
the sole harbinger of power, the men in khaki and their siblings
are on the top. They have all the educational, economic and
leadership opportunities. Then come the people from the other
strata of life that are connected with men in khaki. They enjoy
privileges like their collaborators in khaki as long as they
stay on leash. If at some point in time they cross a man in
khaki’s road, no matter they are resident of Punjab Chief
Minister house, they are dealt with iron hands.
The people of Pakistan are living on the
crumbs left over after the plundering and looting of these
privileged classes. These crumbs are not enough to provide them
clean water, two times daily bread, affordable housing,
uninterrupted electric supply, inexpensive medical facilities,
and respectable means of transportation, equal educational and
economic opportunities and accessible justice. On the top, they
have listen to garbage burped out at them by commander in chief
of the armed forces of Pakistan, his hand picked prime minister
and his minions, gang of rascal politicians serving the needs of
that commander in chief that refuses to retire. Amidst all this
are growing dangers around Pakistan’s Eastern and Western
borders which are not the making of people of Pakistan.
These pressures are turning the people of
Pakistan into living volcanoes. They are angry because they
never felt as helpless as they are feeling under current illegal
administration imposed on them. Consequently, they are resorting
to violent means to vent out their anger and express their
helplessness.
Is there something that can be done to
provide some outlet to these millions of people living in a mad
house called Pakistan?
If nothing else, at least, a Hyde Park in
every Pakistani city will do the job. Allow people to go to
those Hyde Parks and let them vent out their anger. Allow them
to say anything they want to say without social, cultural,
political or legal repercussions.
This may be a step towards healing a sick
nation.
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