Crescent International
August 14 marks Pakistan Independence Day.
Huge celebrations are traditionally held on this day in Pakistan and abroad where significant numbers of Pakistanis reside.
The question that must be asked on this Independence Day is: what is there to celebrate this August 14?
At an even more fundamental level, can Pakistan be called independent when it is being crushed under a mountain of debt owed to the World Bank, IMF, the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China, to name a few?
Its rulers are running around the world begging for handouts to keep afloat.
The masses have been hit with massive price increases of basic foods, fuel and other essential commodities.
Poverty levels have risen alarmingly.
Before Imran Khan’s ouster as prime minister on April 9, there were 60 million people living below the poverty line.
Today, this number has risen to 90 million, more than 40 percent of Pakistan’s total population.
Famine stalks the land. Suicides have increased among the desperately poor and hungry masses.
There have been reports of fathers killing their daughters before committing suicide because they were unable to provide food for them.
Suicide is haram (forbidden) in Islam but when people reach such levels of desperation, they are left with little choice.
On the external front, Pakistan is not permitted by its foreign masters to formulate an independent foreign policy.
This can hardly be cause for celebration.
Recently, a low-grade US State Department official, one Donald Lu (pronounced loo, as in toilet) demanded that the elected prime minister, Imran Khan be ousted from power.
This demand was promptly complied with through America’s agents and Pakistan’s internal bosses.
So, where is the independence that is being celebrated across Pakistan?
It would be far better for Pakistani decision-makers to not waste the country’s precious resources on such useless activities as holding parades or producing new national songs to deflect people’s anger away from the glaring failures.
They should instead concentrate on solving the real problems facing people: mass hunger, deprivation and disease.
Under such circumstances, it is a grave sin to be holding celebrations for independence when the country is not independent and has never been since its so-called independence from the British raj.
The British merely handed over power to their agents trained as ‘brown sahibs’ to continue the mission of the raj!
It is also a sin against Islam to call it The Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
There is no Islam in Pakistan.
In a country where the elite indulge in theft on a grand scale, inequality is widespread and corruption including moral depredation, is rampant, dragging the name of Islam into it is a cruel joke.
Those who participate in the so-called Independence Day celebrations are either ignorant fools or are deliberately misleading the people.
Neither is acceptable!
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