My friend Irfan is intelligent and intense. He thinks and he feels and that is precisely the reason why he wants to leave this country for good. He always remained an average student, not because he is dumb but because he couldn’t accept our stagnant system of learning and examination. He sees no future for himself here and though unlike many young people, even today he says he loves Pakistan, he is desperate to go to the US and if possible stay there. I look at him and think of millions of others who are going through the same agony of uncertainty. You stare at theft listless faces, and the harsh reality hits you hard, shakes you up and leaves you numb. What is happening to our youth, to our country? What is happening to us? Like a city ravaged by war our youth is devastated by hate and hopelessness. A blurred future fogs their minds making them want to leave this country in search of greener pastures. Most of them do not want to come back. Today if you ask a young person if he would die for his country, chances are that the answer would be a ‘No, thank you’, being unable to feel even an iota of love for his homeland. But can you blame him for feeling this way for a country which has been stifled by years of Martial Law; which is rapidly disintegrating under insincere and incom­petent politicians out to satiate their hunger for power and money; people ready to kill each other just because their ancestors were born in a different place or spoke a different language. Would anyone expect the young to die for this country especially when you don’t even know whether there will be a Pakistan after a few years or not? Would anyone then, die for an illusion? Would you? Most of the young Pakistanis do not want to live in this country yet alone die for it and that’s not just because we are poor and underdeveloped but because we have failed to kindle in their hearts that obsessive love for one’s nation, that intense sense of belonging to one’s country which gives birth to great personalities. Personalities with a fierce determination to bring a change and with a strong commit­ment to themselves and their country. We need to shake off this indifference, selfishness and apathy which has substituted love, sympathy and loyalty. It is true that today’s youth will not die for an illusion but they will certainly for a dream, for it is noble to pursue a dream and nobler still to die for it. A dream of a strong and united Pakistan, happy and full of life, hope and aspirations. Who wouldn’t die for such a beautiful dream? I wouldn’t mind for one.
 
Nabila Jafar