Life is taking different turns these days and good news is hard to find. I used to tell people to find happiness in small things in their lives but here I myself am a victim of pessimism as if waiting for a miracle to happen, but I know miracles just don’t happen.

In order to succeed you need to create a miracle in your own life.

This I believe is a vision which most of us have. We are waiting for a miracle or waiting for something or the other -- as a nation we are waiting for this country to change, we are waiting for a 360 degree turn yet no one is up for the task. Here I see a lot of pessimism in the youth, I see people criticizing their own country. As a student of brands I learnt never to criticize your own brand, as criticism from the person directly related is the worst of all de-marketing tools. it has been a social dilemma of this country that we ourselves never take charge. We are involved in petty issues.

The recent economic boom is a testament that changes can be brought about just by taking the right steps at the right time. At this point people question you, "Is Pakistan really progressing?’" The answer is yes. Pakistan has seen the worst type of bankruptcy and then raised its foreign reserves to 12 billion dollars. What do you call this? Isn’t this less than a miracle? My observation is miracles do happen, but in today’s day and age you have to start them.

As I said we are waiting for something to happen. What are we doing? Are we worthy of God’s favors? No, certainly not, as today we are one of the most corrupt nations of the world. Is this the government's fault? No, it’s our own fault, we ourselves have found an easy way out of every little situation, break a signal then bribe the traffic police. Are the traffic police the only people going to hell? The hadith about bribe clearly states that ‘one who offers bribe and one who accepts it both will burn in the fire of hell’.

Those of us who do qualify for government jobs fall victim to corruption. The judicial system is so weak that you can hardly see justice being served. Is it due to the government’s lack of control? Maybe, but who is the government? Not kinks inheriting kingdoms, not foreigners, not conquerors, they are people from amongst us, elected by us, educated with us, living with us. Power is the worst evil of all. Power can make or break a nation.

My next door neighbour is a teacher, the son of a judge married to the daughter of a supreme court judge. His house is built illegally and one of his windows opens towards my house. Now we cannot complain as we are aware that he will use his influence and get us in to trouble as he does with most of the people who stand against him. This is when one of us goes along with the system we corrupt it even further. One honest man is a thorn in the path of the whole system -- a system made by us, run by us, corrupted by us. Today we see many political movements being run by religious fanatics. Yes we are Muslim by birth and our nation is a progressive Muslim nation, but will fanaticism answer our plea? If fanaticism was the answer Afghanistan would be free. We need to improve and develop relations with nations, trade with them and build on our recent success. We need to improve our global image, promote liberalism not by putting aside religion, but by promoting Islam and its liberal image.

For that everyone in our country has to contribute, work for its success. Change will only come when we want it to come and the only one who can change the country is us.