National Culture of Pakistan

Pakistan is not only a country on the globe, but it is one of the distinguished nations on the globe. Culture is believed as a composition of several elements which include knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture actually refers to what people socially learn and share as the member of society.

Pakistan society is heterogeneous society. Apart from believing in the oneness of Allah and Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H) as the last Prophet, the rays of beliefs are scattered. Some people believe that Pakistan was acquired in the name of religion so there must be Islamic culture in it. But most of the influential reject this thought. They argue that religion is a private matter between God Almighty and the person. Pakistan is a Muslim majority state, where no law is allowed to be against Islamic teachings. But what seems on paper is quite different in reality. Religion, as an important subset of culture, has been polluted in different ways. Every person has its own culture and the cultural traditions, mores, norms and values which are changing gradually with the time.

Focusing on positive aspect of Pakistani culture one should ponder on the art and literature. We have the beautiful folk stories like “Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punu, Sony Mahewal, the attracture mausoleums of Multan, the “Toppi and Ajrak” culture of Sindh and much more. In other words Pakistan is a rich culture but covertly it fails to describe the culture of Pakistan. Pakistan waters and poets were imprisoned by both democratic and military regimes. Contradiction for music also plagued Pakistani society.

Pakistani culture is composed of different cultures like Punjabi, Saraiki, Pushtoon, Sindhi, Balauchi and Kashmiri. It is entangled with extremism, corruption, lawlessness, identity crisis and lack of nationalism. The horizontally divided and vertically turned Pakistani society has failed to define the boundaries of its culture. The national language is under the threat of globalization. In 90’s people switched on to Urdu language to project their learned impression but now the language is a mixture of both Urdu and English. The family pattern of Pakistan still exists in a good condition than that in West. Yet it is in a transitional period because of economic burden.

People are moving far away from combined family system and proffering nuclear family where as West is moving back to combine family system. Another counter culture is coming on the scene and that is Taliban culture that is again threatening the culture of Pakistani people. Talibans are rejecting some of the most important norms of wider Pakistani society and are proud of it. Globalization is another active factor which is not only affecting the Pakistani culture but every culture of the world, yet having many spaces; Pakistani culture is much vulnerable to it.

All the citizens of Pakistan must recognize that in the absence of any robust culture, they will loose their national voice and image. We can only exist as others see us not as we see ourselves. Our embassies should play their active role in projecting the national culture. Media should play positive role in harmonizing the culture. A universal tolerance should be encouraged. Everyone must understand  the difference between real culture and Ideal culture.