We are still almost four weeks away when on 14th August, we would, God willing, celebrate our 78th Independence Day. Yet, my mind is beset with anxiety filled thoughts of what have we done with our hard fought gains of Independence. What were the promises then?

What were the expectations? Have those been delivered upon? The achievements of 1947; have those been converted into valuable elements of strengthening of the nation or have those been squandered?

Every citizen of this country must resort to some introspection, regardless of their profession or social status, to evaluate, if as “individual entities” we have delivered our part of the contribution to fortify our independent status. With certitude, each of us has failed — many to a very low level of negligence and some significantly because of position held and authority wield.

In July 1948 or thereabouts, our Quaid, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, gave an interview to the then highly prestigious magazine, “LIFE” of the USA. I have a copy of that issue and often I go back to reading and re-reading the views expressed by him — the challenges that he mentions faces the nascent and newly independent Pakistan are worth focusing on — we have with or without, either by intention or otherwise, knowledge or ignorance carried forward those challenges, from one year to the next. The challenges not only remain but have acquired a Himalayan status. Why?

Pakistan was extremely unfortunate to have lost its founding fathers in less than seven years from Independence — starting with Jinnah, who succumbed to Tuberculosis (an ailment, that was a best kept secret); followed by Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, who was sent upstairs with bullet holes in his physical self, pumped into him by an assassin, who worked for whom is a mystery unsolved. God alone knows — he was eliminated on the spot.

Other........

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