Except to the brief interregnum of some years of having to live abroad due to economic engagement and studies, I have grown up in this blessed land.
The country that I was and I am proud of still because there is no place like home.
The faults are aplenty. The silver linings on the dark grey clouds are far more promising than the darkness of the clouds of despair covering our everyday lives.
I grew up during the ‘Decade of Development’ and have lived through the ‘decades of destruction’. At an extremely tender age of flirting with the first of the teen years, I saw on Pakistan television, the instrument of surrender being signed at the Dhaka Racecourse Ground.
The deep stabbing pain experienced then hasn’t faded away, if anything, with each misery that happens now in similarity to those conditions, the pain grows many folds. We haven’t learnt from history. We have collectively condemned ourselves to repeat it with no regrets, no remorse.
We use the word progress with its simplistic of meanings; it is a straightforward description of advancement from one stage to another. The movement can be both ways, northwards (Positive) and southwards (Negative). Haven’t we danced gleefully towards south?
An AI overview of progress states, “While progress aims for a better future state or increased efficiency, it can challenge or be guided by personal and social values. Balancing them requires ensuring that progress is directed by values ….” Stephen Prinker, a Harvard University professor, in his response to what progress is, has answered the following: “what is progress? You might think that the question is so subjective and culturally relative as to be forever unanswerable in fact it is one of the easiest questions to answer.
Most people agree that life is better than death. Health is better than sickness. Sustenance is better than hunger. Wealth is better than poverty. Peace is better than war. Safety is better than danger.
Freedom is better than tyranny. Equal rights are better than bigotry and discrimination. Literacy is better than illiteracy. Knowledge is better than ignorance. Intelligence is better than dull wittedness. Happiness is better than misery. Opportunities are better than drudgery and monotony.
All these things can be measured. If they have increased overtime, that is progress.”
Progress by meaning and implication could represent movement towards good or bad - a status quo of conditions renders progress to be neutral. We have navigated the nation from good progress to bad and from bad to good, repeatedly. The neutrality is only in the context of having a mindset that is seriously afflicted with the disease and malaise of ‘status quo’.
The mind of the nation is frozen. There is no improvement (§) in the manner of our thinking processes. Our mind conjures only a violent and militant solution to every single problem; whether it is shortage of water or non-availability of water tankers; the drowning of men, women, and children in open gutters to the trampling of young and old under the tyres of trailers and dumpers, etc.
Our reactions are revolutionary and our actions are in the domain of extreme ‘sticky inertia’. Our words are always louder than action. This phenomenon began in the 50s and continues unabatedly. Our decline is best explained by the following quote: “every step of progress the world (read Pakistan) has made has been from scaffold to scaffold and from stake to stake” (speech by Philippe Wenden).
Our progress in different areas of activities, involving science, technology or the economy is more a matter of fluctuation than stability for growth and development. Progress, of almost everything, is measurable especially that which falls within the domain of tangibility.
The world has not been able to develop tools or metrics to measure progress or decline in the arena of the intangibles.
The progress and capabilities can be viewed with some measurable tools. The literacy rate has climbed to 62 percent, and in direct proportion the decline is visible in the behavioural standards of society. We have better facilities today than say the decades of 50s and 60s. Is that progress?
More vehicles on the road with increase in traffic violations; more doctors per 1,000 people, which couples with higher incidences of medical negligence and irresponsibility — this list can go on endlessly.
The nation has proudly lived though from slogans of ‘great people to fly with’ to ‘accusations about technical competencies of the cockpit crew’. From the rising star of South Asia to being the ‘panhandler’ of the region, we have all witnessed this progress of decline.
We freely trade in the exchange of accusations of corruption - which is today an all-inclusive concept, covering financial, moral and intellectual corruption. The decline in the standards of morality is a visible eyesore in society.
The bad and the not so good characteristics have been crowned with widespread acceptability.
The bad is good. We are almost there when good will become bad. Through this columns I shall endeavour to take you into the living room of a typical family, who are watching multiple dramas on the TV screen that sits prominently with a 60-inch domineering presence — thanks to progress! The scene(s) a son, who is shown misbehaving with the father, using words of disrespect, pointing fingers with eyes bulging out of the natural sockets, and leading to the drop scene of holding the father by his collar — fast forward, another drama, women conniving on how to upstage in-laws; attempt to murder is shown with no remorse; the daughter-in-law seen dispensing expired medicines to the father in law with hope for …? This on the screens of our homes, only a few years back was inconceivable. Who is watching? The answer is: the family, the helpers; the literate and the illiterates and the pious and the not so pious. Isn’t this a witness to even more gruesome surrender than one that was done in Dhaka? The decline. The future belongs to Gen Z they all say, but is this a precursor to what their society will be like?
If there has been a serious decline in the respect shown towards parents, the avalanche of disrespect hurled at ‘teachers’ is more defining in nature too. This attitude towards parents/teachers is the major cause of the general waywardness of the youth of this country.
We can continue to exhibit a false sense of pride that we have a population of almost 65 percent below the age of 35 — but what does it really mean to the country? Nothing. They are all wanting to leave — just a matter of opportunity.
The moral regression has been subtle but with violent rapidity. ‘Values’ that were a source of enrichment to the character of the nation (people) are now viewed as restrictive and constrictive.
Behavioural scientists opine that ‘values’ are not static and hence continue to be evolving with the dynamics of market changes but are assured due to better economic conditions or better social standards. I disagree.
Most values are static in nature — honesty, integrity and truthfulness have to remain non-negotiable towards the demands of the changing attitudes. No progress can be allowed to overshadow the need for truth and honesty in a society.
If any society is made devoid of its ‘values’, it ceases to be classified as society because the word ‘society’ represents a large group of people who live together with common norms, values and beliefs.
The togetherness that is established through common rules, institutions and relationships has over a period of time been shredded beyond recognition. On a nationwide basis the togetherness was put to the guillotine along with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The polarisation that began in President Zia’s years has not only outlived him but has gained much more currency.
The divide is almost unbridgeable. The charitable acts of ‘charter of this and charter of that’ are but crumbs thrown at the masses for them to keep nibbling upon with no sight of relief to their everyday issues. The American dictum that says “in politics a man must learn to rise above principles” should not be the guide for us.
Being new to the methods of how bureaucracies work, there is great learning that nothing shall be done today, what can be done tomorrow or not be done at all, being the best option that is exercised with impunity and arrogance. Most like myself are learning on how not to be efficient.
The name of our beloved country carries a proclamation of being ‘Republic’ and being ‘Islamic’ — are we anywhere near it? Have we progressed on that scale of measurement? Edward Everett Hale, an American author and historian, famous for his book ‘The Man Without a Country’ wrote: “Do you pray for all the Senators, Dr. Hale?” “No, I look at the Senators and I pray for the country”.
We need a complete resurrection of ‘values’ into our system and daily lives. ‘Values’ are critical in shaping the future of this nation. Those countries who paid no attention to the disappearance of values from their daily life have been consigned to the dustbin of human errors, follies and failings.
Just as the decline has been subtle but stark, so also will be the process of restoration, slow and gradual, but for certain.
The progressive cultivation of positive thoughts, of noble actions and of intent of goodwill towards all will permit the necessary insurrection of the self ‘towards its pristine origins’.
Is there hope? Yes, plenty of it. The stir to move out of inertia of thought and action is all that is required. Only enlightened leadership can spur hope into action and deep into reality. The reigniting and rekindling of purpose and objective of the creation of Pakistan as enshrined by Muhammad Ali Jinnah is on the waiting table… the wait must end.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is Senior Banker & Freelance Contributor