The silent majority is by definition silent, and therefore generally unable to exercise rights as bestowed to them by the constitution. Well, being a Pakistani, I dont even know what the hell our constitution says …yes, had to memorize the consititution(s!) in Pak studies but the majority Pakistanis still do not know what it stands for.

Ask an average Pakistani what he wants in Pakistan and likely response will be “roti, makaan, maybe cheap fuel, law and order etc etc”. But since we all give a different answer, there is no coherent message we send to our ruling class. What does it mean to have roti and makaan, does it mean that the bimbo politician from my district hands over government jobs to the unemployed goofs of the district? Does it mean the govt subsidize fuel at the expense of fiscal fiasco?

So the question I have is why cant we agree on a constitution that describes the fundamentals of our goals. And even for fear of being castigated as an ‘american agent’, I propose that instead of forcing down pakistan study properganda down the throats of children, we have them read the US constitution, the Swiss constitution etc etc until they understand what it means to be a citizen of a country and what rights humans have in other nations.

Let me close by narrating my experience in a DHA park recently. I was asked by a guard there not to use a baby pram on the jogging track, which was shock for me. I had been doing so for a good number of months, and now I am being told I belong to the “shuddar caste”, i should try to push the pram in the uneven grass avoiding the other kids playing ball there? I called up DHA and gave a certain Mr X a piece of my mind. He tried to explain that “citizens like me complained that baby prams are dangerous on the jogging track and damage it to”. I responded that its convenient for him to throw such statements as they are arbitrary and mean nothing. Why did he listen to the “other citizens”. What about people like me. Who has given DHA the authority to make arbitrary rules, was there a public hearing of them before inking them ? Should old men be banned too since they’re too slow and are a hazard for joggers? How about throwing out pregnant woman since obviously they’ll be heavy and might damage the running track with that weight. Where does the craziness start and where does it end.

Since I got a little too worked up, Mr X said he was on his way. Little did I know a certain Colonel was in the Park, who happened to be a senior official in DHA and had been in touch with Mr X too on why prams were on the track. Within 10 minutes, there were over 10-15 armed guards (these were the tall mean looking ones) in the park. Lucky for me, I did not see them before bumping into the Colonel himself while trying to locate Mr X in the park. There we discussed the issue in which I agreed that banning cycles on the jogging track makes sense, but why I draw the line on baby prams. The Colonel agreed and directed the large contingent of guards to allow baby prams on the jogging track ….For me it was a matter of my civil rights, but after thinking through things over night, I fear that a Pakistani citizen has no rights and hence for me to expect and demand them may be illegal.

Moral of the story: The constitution safeguards the interests of its citizens. When the constitution is treated like a tissue paper such that its blown into, torn apart or simply discarded, the citizens can expect little better. So we need to first agree on what the constitution is and then protect it with all our might, and our lives if we have to!

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Tags: Constitution, DHA, rights, Ruling class