Leading from the front

Parvez Jamil

Our dear leaders, trend-setters, role models and rays of hope, we the teeming millions of Pakistan, our envisioned land of purity, promise and potential, beg you to please rise over and above self, banish diehard egos, stand and sit together, sink your lethal differences and address core national issues by coexisting with conflicting views and interests amid mutual respect, tolerance and shared happiness

Leadership or statesmanship needs to rise over and above self and ego to prioritise result-oriented development plans and projects that basically enable masses to learn and live with self-confidence and self- reliance through job- and trade-related skills for decent and respectable life and livelihood. It is the public who need to be familiarised and acclimatised with the habit and spirit of self-reliance through leadership and statesmanship, and by an enlightened and responsible print and electronic media. Envisioned is an indispensable, enlightened and harmonious blend of leadership, media and public.

Leaders are loved because they are our leaders. People respect them because they are their trend-setters and cherish them because they are their role models. People relish them because they are a ray of hope where such rays are few and far between. But our dear leaders, trend-setters, role models and rays of hope, we bleed our hearts out when we see you fight so viciously, so wildly and so horribly with each other. We are so shell-shocked and so deadly stunned to see you locked in the round-the-clock shouting and abusing bouts of leg-pulling and mud-slinging at the very cost of national grace, dignity and honour!

True, we all are deeply concerned about our problems-turned-woes of inflation, unemployment, education, health, environment, public utilities, roads, traffic and transportation looming precariously large over the national horizon. Indeed incomprehensibly horrendous are our hidden and exposed teething troubles of internal and external security and international status, standing, character and repute. Indeed we have full trust and confidence in the custodians of Pakistan who always rise to our internal and external security challenges with exemplary vision and valour second to none.

Our dear leaders, trend-setters, role models and rays of hope, we the teeming millions of Pakistan, our envisioned land of purity, promise and potential, beg you to please rise over and above self, banish diehard egos, stand and sit together, sink your lethal differences and address core national issues by coexisting with conflicting views and interests amid mutual respect, tolerance and shared happiness. Let fortune smile on Pakistan when our political leaders rise over and above self and banish die-hard ego or vanity and when our economic leaders practically work on Gross National Happiness rather than merely lamenting on the falling Gross National Product. Easier said than done, but where there is a will there is a way.

Here is the dawn of unique kind of leadership! True statesmanship, though very rare, is an enlightened form of leadership, rising over and above self and pursuing public interests, especially those of the impoverished, straight from the heart by sheer self-sacrifice.

Besides being humane and a model of human touch, true statesmanship carries and delivers exemplary managerial skill and acumen for the benefit of the masses behind mandate.

Here the emphasis is on practical and beneficial provisions for public safety, security, justice, health, environment, education, training, rehabilitation, especially on public confidence-building and self-reliance so that people can stand on their own feet and pursue respectable livelihoods with grace, dignity and honour in the comity of nations.

At the international level the very essence of real statesmanship revolves around being trend-setters with exemplary skills and acumen in conflict resolution or pacific settlement of disputes through result-oriented negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration.

It is through exemplary international statesmanship that world trend-setters can lead from the front in transforming aid with strings psychology and devise feasible ways and means for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the teeming millions irrespective of caste, colour, country or continent.

What ever and where ever leadership or statesmanship is in question, it has to be borne in mind both need to have highest responsibility and priority for people and society and for their very own accountability and credibility all for which they are answerable to humanity and to their very own conscience.

Our dear leaders, trend-setters, role models and rays of hope, we the teeming millions of Pakistan, our envisioned land of purity, promise and potential, beg you to please rise over and above self, banish diehard egos, stand and sit together, sink your lethal differences and address core national issues by coexisting with conflicting views and interests amid mutual respect, tolerance and shared happiness

Leadership or statesmanship needs to rise over and above self and ego to prioritise result-oriented development plans and projects that basically enable masses to learn and live with self-confidence and self- reliance through job- and trade-related skills for decent and respectable life and livelihood. It is the public who need to be familiarised and acclimatised with the habit and spirit of self-reliance through leadership and statesmanship, and by an enlightened and responsible print and electronic media. Envisioned is an indispensable, enlightened and harmonious blend of leadership, media and public.

Leaders are loved because they are our leaders. People respect them because they are their trend-setters and cherish them because they are their role models. People relish them because they are a ray of hope where such rays are few and far between. But our dear leaders, trend-setters, role models and rays of hope, we bleed our hearts out when we see you fight so viciously, so wildly and so horribly with each other. We are so shell-shocked and so deadly stunned to see you locked in the round-the-clock shouting and abusing bouts of leg-pulling and mud-slinging at the very cost of national grace, dignity and honour!

True, we all are deeply concerned about our problems-turned-woes of inflation, unemployment, education, health, environment, public utilities, roads, traffic and transportation looming precariously large over the national horizon. Indeed incomprehensibly horrendous are our hidden and exposed teething troubles of internal and external security and international status, standing, character and repute. Indeed we have full trust and confidence in the custodians of Pakistan who always rise to our internal and external security challenges with exemplary vision and valour second to none.

Our dear leaders, trend-setters, role models and rays of hope, we the teeming millions of Pakistan, our envisioned land of purity, promise and potential, beg you to please rise over and above self, banish diehard egos, stand and sit together, sink your lethal differences and address core national issues by coexisting with conflicting views and interests amid mutual respect, tolerance and shared happiness. Let fortune smile on Pakistan when our political leaders rise over and above self and banish die-hard ego or vanity and when our economic leaders practically work on Gross National Happiness rather than merely lamenting on the falling Gross National Product. Easier said than done, but where there is a will there is a way

—The writer contributes to media on national and international affairs.