64-yr-old Pakistan still not independent as 'local elite' replace British rule

Edinburgh, August 16(ANI): While Pakistan marks 64 years of independence from the British rule, the country seems to be going backwards in many areas.

The British packed their bags and left in 1947, but vestiges from the colonial era continue to linger on in Pakistan, The Scotsman reports.

There are those who would argue that "freedom" from the British never provided Pakistan with the sort of utopia the people were longing for, the report said.

"This is not that dawn for which, ravished with freedom, we had set out in sheer longing," left-wing poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz once famously wrote regarding the country's independence.

The British, as became clear with the passage of time, had been replaced by a tiny local elite who went on to put in place a poor imitation of their former rulers, the report said.

Proficiency in the English language is being used as a barrier to keep people from climbing the social ladder in the Muslim country, according to the report.

But beyond even the politics of language, two voices have hijacked the international press coverage of Pakistan: the angry mullahs and the so-called "liberals".

That the country seems to be going backwards in some areas is evident by the fact that recently, due to a deteriorating security situation, the government took steps towards restoring the Police Act of 1861 in southern Sindh province - a British colonial-era law, the report said.

The country's transport infrastructure is also in disarray, the report said, noting that Pakistan had inherited an impressive railway network from the British in 1947, but it faces decline today, with many trains being cancelled and delays due to financial worries and a lack of modernisation.

Add to that the CIA-operated US drone attacks that violate Pakistan's sovereignty on a daily basis, and cynics question whether "freedom" was just an illusion.

There are people in the region who today look at the United States as the sort of new colonial power - even if they are unwilling to say so openly. (ANI)