“With High Hope for the Future, No Prediction is Ventured”

It's 2011, every media vehicle and our 'intellectuals' are propagating their own predictions on the future of Pakistan. Few are highlighting the precarious situation we may encounter and others are stressing the importance of education, health, democracy, and blah blah... Is anything new, perhaps nothing.

I don't know why we're not getting tired of portraying our own country as 'Gabbar' of the world; this country has given us a lot and still ready to shower its never-ending blessings without asking for anything in return but integrity with our own selves. It is good to give some limelight to the issues which we confront in our routine life but not to the extent that the misery becomes our breakfast and wretchedness our bedtime story. If we want to know the importance of our motherland, observe the people who are deprived of this blessing. In abroad, a mother fleeting her last days at old age home or a boy enjoying (read as mourning) Eid thousands mile away from his family can tell us the importance of the motherland, Pakistan. Even the Scandinavian lifestyle or million dollar lottery cannot substitute the values in-built in our system.

In January, few predictions on Pakistan which I have experienced at firsthand were that the our democracy would remain as vulnerable as an infant to pneumonia, GDP growth will hardly cross the figure of 3, law and order will remain disturbed in Afghanistan so the Pakistan, cricket world cup will be beyond wildest dream, menace of mullahs will keep showbiz guys under their roofs, extremists from both right and left wings will advocate and even impose their agenda on the masses, raising tensions on both eastern and western borders, and a lot more such breathtaking (in literal sense) prophecies.

Is it all what our country can offer to us? Do we have any chance to survive? My answer would be YES with big 'Y'. Whatever people say, they can't discard the truth and this is;

• Whenever we lose hope, an Ali Moen Nawazish or Ibrahim Shahid comes and gives us courage that this country is full of talent (both have set a world record by securing 23 As in Cambridge exams).
  
• We don't have any scarcity of role models whether it's politics (Jinnah), research (Abd-us-Salam), literature (Manto), entrepreneurship (Mansha), art (Gulgee), or music (Nusrat F. Khan). So we couldn't be excused for any such reason that we can't grow.
  
• Experts raise their fingers on Pakistan's sports infrastructure but no one can stop champions to born. This land gave birth to Imran Khan, Aisam-ul-Haq, Jahangir Khan, Shabana Akhter and Sami Ullah, the legends in their own fields.
  
• No gas even to fuel the car but we have Thar Coalfield - fourth largest coal reserves in the world , spread over more than 9, 000 sq. km comprise around 175 billion tones sufficient to meet country's fuel requirements for centuries (thanks to Wikipedia).
  
• We are ready to compromise our sovereignty for $7.5 billion but we have Reko Diq minefields in Baluchistan estimated reserves of 2 billion tons of copper and 20 million ounces of gold. According to the current market price, the value of the deposits has been estimated at about $65 billion.
  
• A decade before no one could have predicted that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries can supersede G8 so can't anyone predict the Pakistan's future.
  
• Even though we don't have wheat or rice to ensure two times meal for everyone but we are ranked among top-10 producers in crops like Cotton (4^th), Sugarcane (4^th), Milk (5^th), Rice (8^th) and Wheat (9^th).
  

I can't understand why Pakistan's future is so bleak in predictions; we could have a brighter future and Insha'Allah we would have. What we need is a 'Leader' and they wouldn't wait for any red carpet reception, they just arrive and change the things overnight. Now it depends on our luck and more on our deeds that we will be fortunate enough to enjoy such blessing in 2011 or 3011.

P.S. Thanks to Abraham Lincoln for giving title to this post.