What does Pakistan mean?

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركات

An old man was asked on a TV program, what does Pakistan mean to you? He replied telling a true story. He said “When I was coming to Pakistan, I saw an old man just like me, he was tired, injured and thirsty. He asked has Pakistan arrived, I said ‘Yes’. He took the soil and kissed it. He asked for water. When I brought water, I saw some crows and a dog beside him. When I came near, the old man had died.” The old man interviewed had tears in his eyes then. He said to the interviewer “The eyes who had seen such scenes know what Pakistan means”.

In 1965, a report in New York Times said “The success story of Pakistan, its growth since independence is second only to America in all of the nations in the post WWII era.” In 1965, Pakistan’s exports were more than Indonesia, Maldives, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bhutan and South Korea combined. Experts from South Korea used to come to Pakistan to witness and understand the Green Revolution in Pakistan so that they can replicate this in their region. Wow.

In 1970s, Pakistan’s share of international textile trade was 11%. Pakistan is the 5th largest producer of Milk. Pakistan is the 9th largest producer of Wheat. It has abundance of Natural Gas and Coal reserves. It has 6th largest labor force.

Dr. Abdul Salam, from a backward region came and won the Nobel Prize. Roshan Khan said once, just the night before playing World Squash Championship final, I was wandering on street because I could not afford the hotel in 1960s. He went on to win that. Jan Sher and Jahangir had record winning streak in Squash for decades. Muhammad Yousuf used to play snooker in street; he then went on to win World Snooker Championship and Asian Snooker Championship. For decades, Pakistan was the power horse in Hockey.

Pakistan won the 1st test match playing only in his 2nd. SRL, ZIM, Bangladesh took years and decades to win their first and become a recognized competitive team. Pakistan started right from the start as if it was playing Cricket since beginning of the game. Coming from nowhere, Pakistan won the 1992 and 2009 world cups. Not many would deny worldwide that these tournaments were the greatest and most enjoyable tournaments in cricket history. So, are those in 1999 and in 2007 ones in which Pakistan was finalist. Presence of Pakistan just adds that bite, the hope, the drama, the excitement, which not only Pakistanis, but the whole world loves.

Dr. Mehbub-ul-Haq invented the Human Development Index in 1981. Pakistan is the only nuclear Muslim state. The lives and struggle of Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam are being studied in foreign universities. Allama Iqbal has the honor of having every verse of his being quoted by someone! What it is like when everything you write is quoted by someone. WOW.

America also has an unemployment rate of 11% and the biggest trade deficit. We are better than most African and Latin American nations.

All of these are facts. But, we don’t take pride in it and think about things in which we are not good. We still have scholars, passion, ability, harnessing them and being dedicated to the task of achieving our lifetime goals with at least caring a bit for the country, we can achieve a better Pakistan. Everyone is responsible for himself/herself not for everyone else. The least we can do is to be better humans and citizens.

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