Perhaps some stunning opening lines will usher in the significance of the caption. What is Pakistan’s dilemma? Leadership! Nay, nay. The issue is that we have almost 250 million ‘leaders’ and no ‘followers’. Each constituent considers itself to be a leader, not of themselves, but of all others.

Leadership is all about being a leader to oneself. This is critical for anyone who wishes to lead others. We forsake the need to first develop ourselves but are ever ready to reform others. But this aspect of leadership is another subject—to be taken up in future pieces.

Khawaja Asif accuses India of proxy war as National Assembly condemns Islamabad Mosque attack

Followership is essential to leadership. If you think you are the Pied Piper leading an army of rats, and when you turn to find none following your melodious music, you realise that, firstly, you are not a leader; and secondly, leaders are made by followers.

So, how important is followership? To have followers is a primary requirement for leadership and not a secondary one. So, who creates followers? Of course, the leader. And who creates leaders? Of course, the followers.

It follows, hence, that every ‘leader’ at some point in time would necessarily have been a follower. In the rare situation where there is the presence of a leader who never was a ‘follower’, such organisations, entities, or even governments would suffer the peril of a lack of understanding of the needs and expectations of followers. Those who profess to stand for the oppressed and have never faced oppression would be unwise if they were to lecture about the sufferings of oppression. Any man who has not experienced the pangs of hunger will be ill-advised to talk to the hungry about food or meal deprivation—a hungry man is an angry man. All leaders must recognise........

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