Pakistan; Withering of an Evergreen Tree

Identity. It’s quite ironic how an eight-lettered word sums up your entire life. If you’re from Pakistan? Eid Mubarak. India? Happy Holi. America? Merry Christmas. What does this tell you? Your identity is derived from where you belong. Your homeland. And when you belong to a place, your cultural background (traditions, rituals, and festivals such as Eid, Holi, and Christmas) comes in context as well.

Now, what do you do with the place you call ‘home’? You make sure it’s clean, all things are in their place, and a sense of harmony is created and maintained. The question that now rises is, what have you done with YOUR home? What have you done with Pakistan? What once was the land of purity has now, been maligned with impure acts of treachery, fraud, embezzlement, and greed to the point where citizens have begun abandoning everything they once lived for, only to live a healthy lifestyle, if not luxurious. Leaving your homeland and being a foreigner. Sounds fun? It’s not. You leave behind your loved ones, and most importantly the feeling of ‘home’. The feeling of knowing that there’s a place which will always embrace you with its nostalgic fragrance. But, what about the ones who can’t leave?

Just in case you’ve forgotten, this is the exact same home you fought wars for, migrated for, and died for which is now being tossed around like a football between two teams of power-hungry plutocrats. As the audience helplessly watches and waits for what’s next, the compromised referee makes sure he allies to those that will benefit him, sooner or later. Stuck between a do-or-die situation, this is perhaps every Pakistani’s worst nightmare come true.

Pakistan has the following issues, of which nothing on a serious level is being done, because our leaders like to play Chor-Police, a game quite famous in the subcontinent. However, the difference here is everyone’s a Chor, and there’s no Police, or in simpler words, accountability.

Why Pakistan needs Environmental Laws Urgently

Some of the challenges Pakistan is currently facing are:

Domestic, sexual, and psychological abuse
Terrorism
Environmental problems
Political Instability
Civil-Military Relations
Lack of law implementation
Poverty and lack of employment
Increasing crime rates

We hear about rape cases almost every day, witness a new facade on the political drama, see people losing their lives due to robberies. If we pause, and think about it, ONLY if the law is implemented efficiently, we’ll automatically get other challenges out of the way. But who cares?

Our country remains a prey to the predatory acts of tycoons in the disguise of our leaders. Our evergreen tree has been infested with insects, making sure they chew away until the tree falls. And the gardener? He’s unable to save the tree from the insects as well as thorns, that he hinself had a role in growing.

But do remember, time is slipping away from between our hands like sand, and the day we lose our tree’s shadow is the day we will once again, be slaves to the greater authority. After all, how long can we stand firm on a thin thread? We either pave our way to success, or fall into the depths of despair, waiting to be saved, once again.