When I was a child I learnt in history that Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq were the two traitors who betrayed their own people. I always thought that how could a Muslim betray his own people. But now when I am a grown up man, I see such people everywhere in our country. However, their status has now been upgraded. Earlier recognized as traitors, they are now respected as opportunists. Recently, the existence of many such Mir Jafars came to light following the November 3 debacle.

On the contrary, men of character and integrity had to sacrifice every thing for the supremacy of law and for the future of their country. As Pakistanis, it is our responsibility and our duty to stop such people from rising and gaining positions of high authority.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. The question is how do we do that? Will our great politicians, our dashing generals or foreign qualified civil servants do this for us? The answer to that unfortunately is a resounding ‘No’ because barring few, the majority of them fall in the same Mir Jafar/Sadiq category. Had they been capable, we would not have been in the state that we find ourselves in today.

The only way forward out of this morass is to ensure that our children are educated and brought up in such a manner that they do not end up becoming Mir Jafars. And in that context the best approach would be to teach them and guide them so that they can on their own identify such individuals in their midst.