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worshipping the decf’ptive goddess of material progress, the people are far worse off economically than ever.

What is the pith and substance of the policy of thOle who are called upon to be at the steering wheel of the ship of our state ? In other words, what is the ‘burden of their lOng? It is, we are told, to raise the standard of living of the peoeJet to secure a measure of economic growth which may bring

general prosperity within the realm, to prevent the ….

growing population of Pakistan from having to court diluter which must inevitably (10 say the prophets of the diama1 science called economics) result from the paucity of available food supplies and the wherewithal of daily life. In other words, the primary emphasis is on the economic prosreII o£ our people. No ideal, I submit, can be narrowef, and in

practice, more ‘destructive or all we MuaIima reckon as valu-

able in our cultural tradition. Economic pi’OII”eII is not the way to progress for’ he who runs after only material pi’OIperity will never be able to get near it. Chasing economic protperity is like chuing yo~ own shadow. The more you run after it, the more it eludes your grasp. It is like drinking sea-water. The more you drink, the more you are thirsty. That is why the Qpran says: “The earth belongs to the righteous.” And unless you are righteoUl, the ‘!&I1h and all that it contains will never belong to you, I’ [^0]matter what you do. Let us be clear that there are wone Varictia 01 evil than poverty. Had this. not been 10, our, Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings. of Allah be upon him) would not have declared: “Poverty is my pridt..” It is &lie” to assume that the moral law caI’l be fulfiUcd merely through environmental reform. Moral law is a tranacendent law; obedience to it brings about as a necessary result, material progress, but it is wrong to suppose that a direct J)\IftQitof

economic growth and progress would nece.arilymake maa

moral. On nf) I It is the other way round 1 All this sickly talk about raising tbe living sblndards of the people is enlisting us on the side of tflOie who. hold that