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Recently, the nation celebrated Allama Iqbal’s birthday. #IqbalDay remained among the top trends on Twitter for days. He was a famous philosopher, barrister, scholar, and poet of the east. He united the whole Muslims nation of sub-continent through his poetry. He had born at a time when the Muslims were living a very gruesome life and were facing a number of hardships from English Rulers.
Iqbal led the minority of India from the front. It is an honor for Pakistan that it had a poet that is revered not only within the country, but also in other parts of the world especially in Iran, India, Turkey, and countries which got independence from USSR. Iqbal’s Poetry encompasses almost all major segments of life. Among others, the major section of society that he tried to energize was the youth. He found similarity between a youth and an eagle.
According to United Nations Population Fund, 63 percent of the whole population of Pakistan consists of youth that makes it a country filled with the youngsters and fifth ‘young country’ in the world. Pakistan is also house to a number of problems. The major of them are terrorism and poverty which are direct causes of obliteration. These issues have clutched the unemployed youth severely and making it desperate.
In the contemporary time, the youth of Pakistan is not what Iqbal envisioned it to be. He wanted to see his youth educated who could pursue a better, bright future instead of bleak, dark one that will ultimately lead it towards decline. The young generation is not far-sighted like the Shaheen but is narrow-sighted now. It is at odds religiously, ethnically, politically, and socially.
Iqbal’s Shaheen is also taking drugs – making its life complex for not only itself but also for his kith and kin and society as a whole. It is becoming futile with the passage of time. According to estimation, there are 8 million people in Pakistan who addicted to drugs, most of them are youths.
Today, the youth of Pakistan is being used for various political and religious objectives; it is time to become conscious of the sanctity of the matter. The universities have a number of students’ unions that are causing annoyance to the administration and to students themselves. Public sector universities and colleges teem with these organizations. Though the students’ unions were banned under the verdict given by Supreme Court in 1993, still they are in full-blown. They are causing colossal chaos and terror among those who are committed to their studies and really have high hopes to become Iqbal’s Shaheen.
Iqbal never wanted to see his youth wasting time and settling political scores. He wanted it to equip itself with the knowledge and find out ways to uplift the standard of living in the light of the Holy Quran. He wanted youngsters to be in people’s good books.
The association of educated youth in various disreputable activities throughout the country is raising alarm for the government and the nation. Ansar-al-Sharia utterly consisted of educated youngsters from top universities of Pakistan. The interesting thing about this organization is that some professors were also involved in promoting the outfit’s ideology and activities. Moreover, its network has existed in almost all the major cities.
Its head Doctor Abdullah Hashmi admitted that the outfit has consisted of the educated students from different universities of Pakistan like NED University of Engineering and Technology, University of Karachi, Dawood University of Engineering and Technology just to name a few.
Unfortunately, Iqbal’s bird is everything else but not a shaheen today. It is involved in every tumultuous activity. It is unable to gain glory through education, sports, and scientific innovations. I do believe that Pakistan’s youth can still become Iqbal’s Shaheen; the only thing requires is to turn out to be a responsible citizen – one who observes rules and regulations and focus on finding rays of hope. Shaheen was the ideal birth of Iqbal and he wanted every youth of Muslim nation to be the one. Today’s ebb on it is due to the droopiness it is fond of.
