By: Sadaf Zamir
The writer is a member of editorial team and an opinion leader for pakistanfirst.com
Year 2010 has started bringing revived strengths, new hopes and new resolutions. With Quaid’s birthday just been celebrated, let us establish some unwavering resolutions keeping in view Jinnah’s clarity of mind, untiring efforts, commitment and determination.
 
2010 is not just a start of a new year but a new decade. If we analyze the past decade that started with the new millennium we will observe many ups and downs in Pakistan. One democratic government was thrown away and dictatorship was established. The sovereignty of Pakistan was compromised in the name of enhanced military & economic aid to give birth to drone attacks, increased foreign interference and exploitation. How can we minimize the effects of these multipliers in the new decade?
Keeping Junnah’s golden words ahead of us, we must first instill the strength of Faith and subsequently re-establish Unity across all ethnic and provincial boundaries with stronger ties propagating to all Muslim countries. Jinnah was always a great supporter of provincial autonomy while strengthening the federation. All it takes is a sincere effort by the Federal Government in the right direction to review past mistakes and reinforce autonomy. We would all love to wear Sindhi topi, take Balochi rumal, Pakhtoon Chaddar/Pagar and Punjabi turban as well as Sherwani instead of just highlighting one particular object for use as a political card. Let us discard all the slogans that may give rise to any kind of dividing factor on the national scene.
From now on we will make ourselves visible and get heard by the parliament, government officials and the responsible industrialists for all the pressing issues requiring immediate attention.
At the national front, let us first take action to resolve power crisis by contemplating both short term and long term plans, put them into action and start getting tangible results straight away. Our extraction of crude oil and gas has massive room for further efficiency. Our power plants and dams can increase productivity and minimize wastage in terms of cost, labor, storage, supply and utilization. Pakistan has explored other power sources but not been able to take the initiatives further as yet. This is the right time.
All our major industries including textiles, food, agriculture and construction raw material requires renovation in terms of initiatives, planning, supply chain, execution and delivery. There is a dire need for effective and enhanced storage, warehousing and logistics facilities for our agricultural and other industrial products for increased productivity. Some good initiatives have already been launched which need to be implemented properly while subsequent steps need to be pursued. The nation looks forward to getting visibility into the new plans and initiatives, by mainly focusing on our own resources and not importing finished goods. However, import of technology and knowledge transfer is welcome in all sectors.
Our education system and institutions have been deeply impacted in the past couple of years. The institutions have been deliberately destroyed by our enemies in the name of terrorism. We have to re-establish those institutions and strengthen the system. In 1835, Lord Macaulay proposed for conquering Indian Subcontinent ‘….. I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture,for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.’ (Recently Posted on Critic Blog)Sounds familiar ….do we need to learn from history? According to UNICEF statistics report 2000-2007, Pakistan took great strides in improving literacy rate (at 55%) and improvement was significantly better than most neighboring countries even for the females (rise to 51% Primary and 34% Secondary school enrollments). Let us now take a step forward and build two schools if one gets destroyed.
Let us also focus on positive synergies and avoidance of negativism. Let us understand our mistakes, our historical lessons, our past mismanagements and learn from them. Let us resolve that we will focus on problems and their resolutions instead of criticizing people. Let us commit to always focus on positive aspects, propagate positive thoughts and review negative criticism thoroughly before taking any action or sending it forth.
Let us establish the determined resolution of delivering sincere and untiring efforts for growth and prosperity of the nation ‘Kaam Kaam aur bas kaam’, as our beloved Jinnah has told us. Not just untiring effort, but working smartly to contribute towards real advancement of nation by increasing efficiency and productivity and minimizing wastage in everything we do, and hope for the best by leaving the results on God. This will definitely increase national productivity in due course. We can each make a significant difference.
Iqbal rightly put it ‘Har Fard hai millat ke muqadar ka sitara’.
May God grant us the faith and determination to carry out these resolutions with a sincere heart to the utmost capability and give us the high moral values to acknowledge and learn from our mistakes where we go wrong (amin).