Deaf, dumb, and blind - so they will not return [to the right path]

News:

ISLAMABAD: A candid warning came from the World Bank ahead of the new election cycle in Pakistan, stating that Pakistan is in its tipping-point crisis where 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Making it clear that international lenders and development partners could only advise with international experiences of successes and some financing, but hard choices and course-correcting decisions could only be taken within the country. (Source: Dawn)

Comment:

Poverty in Pakistan is not because of the absence of capability in its people or the resources of its land but because of the consequences advised and brutally implemented by the leadership in the name of ‘course-correcting decisions’. This is borne by the people of Pakistan and proves the incapacitation and greed of its rulers and the masters they rely on. People are already experiencing daily price hikes while the Government is busy taking the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-dictated measures for receiving a previously agreed tranche of 1.1 billion from a 2019 loan. IMF, since its post-WWII inception in the name of stabilizing the global economy, remains the main cause of destabilizing it. Pakistan along with many other victim countries is rich in resources and skills, which obviously is a threat to these international hoarders.

The political polarization in Pakistan has resulted in social polarization and programs such as the IMF impact the masses since there is an increase in taxation and prices of basic commodities keep rising. Our rulers are selected, and appointed on us with the job description to first serve the Western interest, keep the people quiet, and then they are free to serve themselves as well. These ruling elites are guilty of recklessness and myopia. The elites of Pakistan mostly flourished during the British Raj through loot and plunder of public resources, and appointments in colonial administration and did not take much time to establish themselves as the sole arbiters of the distribution of national wealth The short-sightedness of our institutions is ideological as they have chosen to live in the moment and enjoy it. [صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ] “Deaf, dumb, and blind - so they will not return [to the right path]” [Al-Baqara: 18].

Shamshad Ahmed, Pakistan’s former foreign secretary and representative to the United Nations, in an interview, said “I wish the rulers knew the basics of the economy: loan is not capital, but a liability. And the loan that IMF gives to countries like ours is designed to trap us in endless debt at the behest of the U.S.,”

These rulers are not foolish, and they very well know how to protect and manage their own finances. They never put their worldly assets in danger, even knowing that all their treacherous predecessors have left everything behind.

[وَيْلٌۭ لِّكُلِّ هُمَزَةٍۢ لُّمَزَةٍ * ٱلَّذِى جَمَعَ مَالًۭا وَعَدَّدَهُۥ * يَحْسَبُ أَنَّ مَالَهُۥٓ أَخْلَدَهُۥ * كَلَّا ۖ لَيُنۢبَذَنَّ فِى ٱلْحُطَمَةِ]

“Woe to every slanderer, and defamer. who amasses wealth and considers it a provision (against mishap); He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal. Nay! He shall most certainly be hurled into the crushing disaster.” [Al-Humaza: 1-4]

The whole world is in desperate need of the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) upon the method of the Prophethood as this is the only system given by Allah (swt) that understands human needs and human shortcomings. Our current Economic System is harming us on many levels, starting from the exploitation of the provisions of Allah (swt) and messing up with future generations and our afterlives. The Muslim Ummah does not need any advice from the enemies of Allah and knows that an Interest-based economy is forbidden, and embracing it has brought us humiliation and insults in this world while we have compromised our next life too. Rejecting Riba on an individual scale, which most of Muslims do, cannot resolve this communal disease. It needs the establishment of the Khilafah State that will abolish riba, refuse all riba and hold the corrupt rulers accountable who have brought this misery and humiliation on the Ummah of the Holy Prophet (saw).

[يَمْحَقُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ وَيُرْبِى ٱلصَّدَقَـٰتِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ أَثِيمٍ]

“Allah has made interest fruitless and charity fruitful. And Allah does not like any ungrateful evildoer.” [Al-Baqara: 276]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Ikhlaq Jehan