By Zubair Khan

Strategically, Pakistan is situated at the crossroads of the important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population exceeding 180 million people, it is the sixth most populous country in the world and has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia. Its semi-industrialized economy is the 27th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power. Since gaining independence, Pakistan’s history has been characterized by periods of military rule, political instability and conflicts with neighboring India and Afghanistan. Pakistan has the seventh largest army in the world and is a recognized nuclear weapon state, being the first and only nation to have that status in the Muslim world and the second in South Asia. According to many analysts, the country continues to face challenging problems including terrorism, poverty, exploding population, illiteracy, bad governance and corruption. However I beg to differ to these analysts and term the leadership crises, the top most challenging problem, currently being faced by Pakistan.  Rest all problems are emerging due to this terrible vacuum of real leadership in Pakistan.

As stated in books and carried many times in media, “Leadership can be defined in different aspects but it is mainly understood as a pattern of behavior or as a personal quality. As a pattern of behavior, leadership is reckoned as the influence exerted by an individual or group over a larger body to organize or direct its efforts towards the achievement of desired common goals. Whereby, leadership as a personal attribute refers to the character traits which enable the leader to exert influence over others”. But if we closely observe various aspects from which leadership originates, we can summarize them effectively by saying that “it includes: leadership as a personal gift, leadership as a sociological phenomenon, leadership as an organizational necessity and leadership as a political skill”

Now let us examine what fatalities occurred to Pakistan  due to the vacuum of real leadership. The absence of real leadership caused the most crushing, stabbing and devastating problems for Pakistan. Terrorism, poverty, exploding population, illiteracy, bad governance, corruption and all other major issues and problems of Pakistan are due to fact that country never got a real leader after the sad demise of Qaid-e-Azam. This crisis of leadership originated from nothing but lack of vision and foresight among the most influential people of the country and from the self-centered-mean-attitude of bureaucracy and power elites in our country. The terrorism, poverty, exploding population, illiteracy, bad governance and corruption, prevalent in our society are the consequences of this lack of vision and self-absorbed approach of our leaders. If such an attitude continues, God forbid, miseries, devastation and gloom will be our fate.

In Pakistan the only leader who can be attributed to be the real leader, who had power of personality and proved leadership as a personal gift is none other the father of the nation, Qua id-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He was one man who had this skill as a personal gift, and was not a politician but he converted his power of personality into a political skill and with rock solid determination and inner ability achieved what others just dreamt about. After him in the span of 65 years no other competitive names emerge to even contest as a proper leader. With this crisis of leadership, it is evident that the rest of the crises story flows as a consequence of this deficiency. The scarcity of leadership abilities drive the power elites of our country to think as business men and profit motivated individuals, who run the affairs of the country not as leader in pursuit of moving the nation and country sociologically, politically and economically forward, but they work on the principal of increasing personal benefits on the expense of social benefits and exploit country’s resources to enhance their private utility. Thus, the solution of the problem lies in the coming of some real leader.  Should we expect in near future someone emerging on the scene of Pakistan?  Sorry with the current lot in the market—- I must say — I beg to differ.