Leaders leave footprints not false images

Every journey in life consists of footprints which are mostly erased over time while some are etched in history. Leaders invariably leave a legacy which is revered in time. In Urdu it is termed “Chuki Naqsh Au Pa Ki (Glow of the footprints)”. People are remembered for what they do and give not what they say and take. In secret Swiss bank accounts billions of dollars remain unclaimed of names erased from history.

Legacy is earned never usurped through false propaganda and advertisements. Leadership calls for credibility and sacrifice. When Jinnah spoke, people listened even when the language was foreign. On inquiry, the crowd believed in what he said as his honesty and integrity were above board. His workers followed his footprints. Unfortunately, the colonial establishment that we inherited was not comfortable with his roadmap of austerity and service to the people. To the bureaucrats, he said: “Never forget that you are public servants.”

Nations that follow the false imprints of zeros while ignoring their heroes never prosper. My late father Nazir Ahmed Malik, the staunch soldier of Jinnah, never saw eye to eye with the politics of nationalist leaders like Ghaffar Khan and his son Wali Khan but always spoke high about their integrity and steadfastness to their political ideology. In the words of Wali Khan, “We neither run nor sell.” Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) went gracefully to the gallows. He did not file a mercy petition with the usurper. “Who is Zia-ul-Haq? History will always remember Zulfikar, the son of Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto,” he had said.” Till today his party continues to cash in on his legacy while the usurper’s name is nowhere to be found.

ZAB willed to be buried in Lahore which he had termed as the Leningrad of Asia (Now St. Petersburg). He launched his Pakistan Peoples Party in Lahore. A ZAB mausoleum in Lahore could have been a nucleus for democracy and rule of law. A footprint for activists to follow and resist state hegemony.

Lahore is the city of Allama Iqbal where he lays buried on one side of the staircase of the historic Badshahi Mosque while Sir Sikander Hayat, the last prime minister of united Punjab, rests on the other side. While the people of Pakistan are forced to follow the footprints of Sir Sikander, our brothers in Iran decided to follow Dr Iqbal Lahori as he is called there and win real freedom while we continue to languish in colonial molds.

For nations to unify and advance footprints must be carefully selected and followed as deliberate confusion and propaganda prevails all around. We live in an information as well as disinformation age. False images are created using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The power of analysis is almost gone. Socrates must be turning in his grave. To dig the truth has never been that problematic as it is today. To be on the right side of history carries serious consequences as even the records have been manipulated. Tainted leadership is a trap that nations must learn to recognize and eliminate. There is a famous Persian saying: “Always follow the righteous path even if it is long”. There are no shortcuts to glory. Nations must dig in and follow the footprints of their leaders and heroes while avoiding the zeros who are responsible for their decline. In the words of Allama: “The fountains of Himalaya started to boil” but on the other side. The Chinese revolution took place two years after our freedom in August 1947. In our case, the search for footprints has been unending (Dunya Hai Teri Muntazir Ay Roz-e-Maqafat).