Note: The following debate was conducted in a competition in Tarbela Dam (Pakistan), where it was honoured the 1st

prize.

A debate on: WHERE DO WE STAND AS A NATION???

Head of another bomber found; Military operation imminent; Lawyers vow to continue protest, hunger strike; Journalists protest continues; College teachers rally for incentives; Growth of illegal institutes on rise; US unwilling to sign Free Trade Agreement with Pakistan; Trade leaders call for political stability; Ship-breaking industry on verge of collapse; Army act amended, civilians can be courtmartialled; Week-long closure incurs Rs 120bn lossheads like this we see in newspapers everyday. The only question that irritates the mind of even a least compatriot after reading these lines is: Where do we stand as a nation??? Then his contemplation ultimately ends in a chaosthe question remains unanswered. The problems seem over-flown and wrap around the minds to the same confusion Respectable Mr. President, reverent faculty members and dear audience! We have to ask ourselves; we have to blow our minds; we have to think, Where do we stand as a nation? We have to get rid of this confused start; the chaotic end. We have to be revealed to ourselves; we have to recognize ourselves. As Iqbal says, You are the mystery of the creation, be revealed to yourselfThey call themselves Indians, Asians, Afghans and Turkswhy become so dependent on shores, take a big leap to become boundless!...Transcend the spell of time and become eternal. Be steel in the struggle of life and be silk and velvet in the chamber of love President Sir! Nationalism is the ideology of which even Iqbal himself was not cognizant in his early philosophy, but the common individual of our nation now-a-days is so much void of the spirit that irrespective of societal status, most of us seem to play a disruptive role in all spheres of life. We have unplugged the roots of the society, the nation, the ummah and the world as a whole. Then how can we say we are a nation. No sir, we are just like a black dot in the fair name of nation.

Let me tell you, dear audience. The nation is what that has integrity, that has sovereignty, that has a common identity, that has a common origin. I am sorry to say that to consider ourselves as a nation is to live in a utopia. To say us a free nation is a fantasy. According to a philosopher Chris Clayton, A free nation must have a complete control over its own harbours to open them or close them at will, or shut out any commodity or allow it to enter in, just as it seemed best to suit the well-being of its own people, and in obedience to their wishes, and entirely free of the interference of any other nation, and in complete disregard of the wishes of any other nation. Short of that power, no nation possesses the first essentials of freedom. Unfortunately we have lost our integrity in sectarianism, ethnic grouping, and politicization of key national issues. We have sold our sovereignty in the hands of war-mongers who are misguiding us toward the path of national suicide. We know them, we know their plans; nonetheless, we are like a doll in their hands. Our common identity should be the Islamic identity, we have to be fundamentaliststhat is we have to stick to our basics, but we should not be extremists. We have to stir our souls with the spirits of dynamic acceptability of Islam regarding the economic, social and commercial progress sustaining our common origin of Islamic values and Pakistani nationalism. We should recollect the memories of genocides and riots that mingled the bloods of fathers, mothers, sons and daughters equally in deserts and planes of the subcontinent for the sole cause of independence the independence that was based on the two-nation theory. We have to herald the symptoms of a new state in the current deteriorating world in which rich and poor, rural and urban, Muslim and Non-Muslim will feel free to respire; which will reciprocate the peace message of Islamthe religion of farthest horizons. I would leave the rostrum after quoting last few words of Mr. Jinnahs speech on the first day of Pakistan; the words we should think of in all walks of life, We have no ambition. We only desire to live honorably and let others to live honorably.