By Syed Haider Raza Mehdi
The Nation has spoken! In someplaces resoundingly in favor of change and Imran. In others with qualified support. In some, ousting the old guard. Some barely scraping through!
The sentiment is clear. PTI from 70 lac votes in 2013 to 167 lacs in 2018, shows the massive shift in preferences. This despite the 10 years of PMLN in power in Punjab and PPP in Sind.
Karachi, the most urban of our population centers, politically very astute, also voted for massive change, dumping its traditional support for MQM or its morphed entities like the PSP.
The GDA inroads against the PPP in interior Sind, despite its performance less than expectations, is still an eye opener for things to come.
The winds of change are clear. They are sweeping across the country.
It’s now a time for reconciliation, not for recriminations!
Reconciliation doesn’t mean forgiving criminals who have looted and plundered our national wealth! The law should, must and will be applied, across the board. But no political witch hunting as Imran promised!
Its time for looking forward and not backwards.
It’s time to take a leaf from Imran’s speech to forgive the anger, the bile, the poison, the hatred of the past.
Its a time to reconcile and come together.
And above all, despite our political differences, our likes and dislikes, its now time to think about our future, about Pakistan’s future, about a future for our children.
Its about a future of a better, brighter, prosperous, corruption free, merit driven Pakistan!
Imran, whether you supported him or didn’t, has laid out a clear agenda which every Pakistani cannot but support.
Who in Pakistan does not support an agenda of economic stability and development?
Of strong independant institutions which will eliminate corruption and hold all and sundry accountable, including those in his own party!
Of a massive effort to lift people out of poverty and remove the terrible chasm berween the haves and the have nots.
As he says it’s impossible for a nation to survive where a small corrupt rich island of the elite rule over an ocean of the poor, the helpless and the exploited!
Of equal opportunities for quality health care!
Of equal opportunities for quality education!
Of jobs for our youth, trained and skilled!
Of law and order and safety of life, hearth and home!
Of speedy and cheap justice!
Of a Pakistan, where irrespective of your faith, you are free and equal citizens of this soon to be great nation!
Of a Pakistan living in peace with it’s neighbours!
Who can fault this?
It’s time to reconcile and work together to help implement this agenda, for this is not about PTI or Imran, its about Pakistan!
You voted. It doesn’t matter who you voted for. That is now done.
Be a honeybee not a fly! Now let’s join to build a great Nation!
*Salaams and Prayers.*
*Haider Mehdi*
P.S. to explain the Honeybee and the Fly
*The Honeybee or the Fly?*
By Haider Mehdi
Imam Ali ibn e Abi Talib Karam Allah Wajaho, said “…..anybody looking for an evil (evil example) is like a fly that leaves all the beautiful things around it and sits on the wound…..”
The people of Pakistan voted with their minds and their feet. Especially of KP who again gave a resounding mandate to PTI, as did large segments in Punjab and Karachi.
As the great Imam said. We all have choices of what we want to see.
We can be like the filth fly which only sees and zeroes in on the one place in the garden that is soiled with dirt and filth, or like a honey bee, see the beautiful garden full of flowers and suck the nectar.
I guess KP people and those who who voted for Imran and change saw the garden.
Yet we still see others, like the Fly which can see only filth, zeroing in on the filth, despite the beautiful day that seems to be dawning in Pakistan.
I’m accused of being biased in Imran’s favor!
And I thank God that I am biased. Thank God that I’m not in that schizophrenic screwed up mindset where people don’t know who and what they stand for!
One’s political biases are understandable. But for those who are educated and aware, and unable to see the good or at least the potential good in Imran’s success is a very serious miserable mental and emotional condition bordering on intellectual dementia.
Talat Hussain in his interview to BBC perfectly symbolised this sick perverted mindset. Najam Sethi in his latest article. Cyril Almeida. And of course the less said the better of the likes of Husain Haqqani, Ahmed Rashid etc.
Crap flies who can only see filth around them!
Salaams and Prayers
Haider Mehdi