Floods in Pakistan: A call for a change!

Record Floods in Pakistan
I remember from my childhood, when our elders, specially my grandfather Haji A. Majeed Shaikh and my mom, used to tell us horrifying stories of floods that swept away hundreds of villages in Pakistan during the era of ex-Prime Minister, Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. I never knew the devastation, horror, terror, and deceases caused by such natural disaster. The odd memories of last disaster have not faded that the mother nature is testing the Pakistani people with its yet another horrifying calamity.

Everybody is well-known with the idea that a hard/solid stone can even be cut by the fierce force of water. The floods naturally cause the biggest disaster. Not only, they destroy the property, but they take with them all the essence of living - be it livelihood, agriculture, infrastructure, health, and above all the lives. The reconstruction of worldly things is delayed for couple of months but the resurrection of souls is not possible.

This natural calamity not only is the call for raising funds and helping those who have been displaced mainly but also is a big call for correcting our actions and bringing a educated revolution of mending our ways of development for the masses of the country. It now calls for thinking differently. Why we as a nation help our poor brotheren only when they are under the mercy of nature? Why we as a nation only come out and start raising funds to provide the people the basic necessity? Why we as a nation only think with a short-term thought and vision? Why we as a nation only leave our racism / ethinicity in the times of badly-hit times? Why we "educated class" ring the bells of the other friends for helping these calamity stricken people only when there is calamity? Why we call this is the time of the test for all of us?

I do accept that this is the time of the test for every countrymen, but I also think that mother nature wants us to think differently. When I say think differently I mainly mean two things. Why not we work continuously and consistently for building infrastructure that is not only strong but also viable for long-term like 30 to 50 years. Why not we voluntarily provide services to our country in various fields and build the strong foundation for developing. Just think of a building or a computer software, the higher you want to construct the building the stronger the base/foundation you need. Similarly, for computer software, the sophisticated software you want to develop, a comprehensive and clear architecture of software you need to design first.

We must mend our ways to build the country. A sudden help to poor because of natural shock will never build the country stronger but it will take our country back something like 10 to 20 years in development everytime a natural calamity hits us. We now know on average in every decade, we face 2 to 3 natural shocks and each shock takes us 10 years back. These habits will not change our future at all.

Let's hold our hands together and promise for untiring and endless efforts and hardwork for building our country each and everyday. Let's promise that we will not only act during the times of natural shocks but we will act more during our daily lives.

May Allah rest the bereaved families struck by the calamity. May Allah build the hearts of our people stronger to help eachother in everywalk of life. May Allah purify our hearts so that we can think of eliminating evils rather than fostering them.