Our latest revolutionary, another in the long list of revolutionaries that Pakistan has managed to produce in the last 6 decades, has been shouting at the top of his lungs for at least 3.5 decades now that Pakistan is replete with talent. We have all sorts of talent that is waiting to be uncovered. As I have grown up in this country and watched the esteemed nation dabble in all sorts of activities and produce diabolical results almost everywhere, so just last night I decided to take a look at Pakistan’s record in the summer Olympics in the last 75 years and some other major disciplines.

Lo and and behold, the chest thumpers and slogan shouters of the latest revolutionary who goes around making one preposterous claim after another one, Pakistan has managed to win just one individual medal in summer Olympics in its entire history as a nation. Until 2022, in the last 75 years, despite being a nation replete with talent according to the mighty Imran Khan who was educated at Oxford, Pakistan had failed to win a single — yes, a SINGLE — gold medal in any individual events. Both of the individual medals were bronze medals, one in boxing and one in wrestling. That is the sheer amount of sporting talent that Pakistan has managed to produce outside of cricket and hockey in the last 75 years. Esteemed members of the phenomenally well-educated Pakistani nation please take notice of the sensational medal record that Pakistan has managed to amass since starting to participate in the summer Olympics in the year 1948. In the 2024 edition of the summer Olympics, Pakistan finally managed to win its first individual gold medal in an almost unheard of and emphatically fringe sport, the Javelin throw.

To make matters worse for the latest revolutionary, as if they were not already bad enough, members of the venerable armed forces of any country can represent their nation in any sport of their choosing. Considering that excelling in the use of the guns is the core business of members of the elite armed forces, why have they not been able to win even a bronze medal in 15 different events that involve the use of guns? UAE has a paltry, in comparison insignificantly smal population of a mere 9.7 million people and an extremely small royal family, yet even a member of the UAE’s royal family has been able to win an olympic medal in an event involving the use of rifles. Pakistanis, especially the Pathans like Imran Khan, go around boasting about Pathan’s and Baloch people’s love affair with the guns, yet when comes to producing an individual actually capable of beating the global talent, their efforts have so far produced 0 medals: some display of talent in the use of arms.

Although I do not have much information on how different sections of the armed forces work, however, based on whatsoever I have heard so far, members of the armed forces in all of the cantonments have access to boxing gyms, and they are encouraged to take up one sport or another. If they have ready access to such facilities, then why has our elite armed forces so far failed to produce a single gold medal contender, or even a bronze medal contender, in so very many different weight divisions of the sport of boxing? Pakistan has so very many lakes and the officers of the navy tend to live their entire lives around water, so what has been stopping Pakistan’s navy from producing an even bronze medal contender in the various swimming competitions? I have spent time in two different cantonments, namely Jhelum Cantt. and Mangla Cantt., and both the cantonments had swimming pools for the officers and children of the officers of the armed forces. Why have they not been able to entice even one person to take this activity seriously enough to become a contender at the olympics level?

Although the victory in the 1992 world cup itself was a mere fluke, as Pakistan had managed to score a meager 73 runs against England in a must-win game and England were cruising at 25 for 1. Had rain not washed out the remaining day’s play, England most certainly would have gone on to win the match, and in the process, would have eliminated Pakistan from the teams in a position to qualify for the semifinal. We won the world cup in 1992 thanks entirely to rain and Inzamam’s never-again-repeated performance in the semifinal against New Zealand when Pakistan needed to score at a daunting rate of almost 8.5 per over. Inzamam was never, not once, able to replicate that sort of scoring rate in his entire remaining career.

Ignoring Pakistan’s 1992 fluke win, Pakistan has never won a single test series in Australia and has lost to Australia in Pakistan at least twice, conceding home advantage, and at least once in UAE. Since its 1992’s win, Pakistan has never been able to win a world cup again. When it comes to the performance of our recent team, the situation is so dire in terms of the bowling department that as soon as one of the two lead bowlers, namely Shaheen Shah and Naseem Shah, gets injured, the Pakistan team fails to find a single, genuine replacement for one of the two fast bowlers. The dearth of talent, which Imran Khan has kept claiming that Pakistan has in abundance, is so very pronounced in Pakistan that a nation of approximately 113 million adults is failing to produce 4 genuinely good fast bowlers. Yes, you read that right, just a scant, scant number of 4 genuinely good fast bowlers. Since these two fast bowlers' recent injuries, Pakistan has received proper thrashing at the hands of England on their home soil; they somehow managed to bleed runs at a staggering and unheard scoring rate of around 6.5 runs per over in a test match. Now against New Zealand, they once again find themselves in a position where their fast bowlers are once again failing to take wickets.

If a country that only participates in one sport at the international level with its full might cannot produce 4, a mere 4, good fast bowlers per decade, and its so-called excellent batsmen are failing to rival their opposition’s scoring rate in home grounds, then how on earth can the leader of one of its main parties go around making bold, brash, and wholly untenable claims about the abundance of talent in Pakistan. No team had conceded runs at the mind-boggling rate of around 6.5 runs per over before this match which was played in Pakistan, to make matters even worse for this so-called talented nation.

When it comes to the remaining segments of society, with the sole exception of Dr. Abdus Salam, Pakistan has failed to produce a single mathematician or scientist with a reputation comparable to that of Dr. Abdus Salam. Although UET Lahore, Punjab’s most prestigious engineering university, has been producing so-called extremely capable and highly technically literate engineering graduates for over 100 years now, however, not a single well-known American or British company in the last 20 years has had a single Pakistani-educated engineering graduate as its CEO. Contrastingly, 10 American electrical, software engineering, and pharmaceutical giants, proper behemoths, known the world over for their expertise in the electrical and software engineering world — namely Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, Novartis, Vertex, Cadence, Palo Alto Networks, Micron Technology — currently have Indian-born and educated individuals as their CEOs. Considering how much negative rhetoric this nation churns out against India, it should have been a matter of proper shame for Pakistan that not a single technical institution of global recognition has a Pakistani-born and educated individual as its CEO and a nerve-rattling soul-shaking wakeup call for its truly apathetic nation. However, we have shown zero, absolutely zero, interest in changing our tones, and we keep on shouting the same old vacuous and untenable mantra that we are a nation replete with talent. If we truly are a nation replete with talent, then why does our technical talent remain buried on the global stage? Why don’t these giants feel the need to take advantage of our talented individuals’ respective expertise?

Dysmal performances in sports, engineering, and scientific disciplines aside, our nation has so far failed miserably in literary affairs, as well. Although English has been a compulsory language in Pakistan for over 60 years, and English medium schools are favored by the parents of lower middle class to rich people, however, Pakistan has also failed to produce a single spectacular author of English literature. In comparison, India, another country where English is not the first language but is widely taught and English medium schools are favored by the parents of middle-income to upper-class families, has managed to produce 10 authors who have won the coveted Man Booker prize and 5 others who have won the prestigious Pulitzer prize. When it comes to the Urdu language, which Pakistan calls its very own, Pakistan is still trying to produce a poet or author able to replicate the true linguistic prowess of Mirza Asad Ullah Khan Ghalib. Although Allam Iqbal’s poetry captures the essence of the affairs of the Muslim ummah of his generation and still remains widely applicable, however, it badly lacks any linguistic flair.

Despite the sheer dearth, rather non-existence, of names in any field, whether it be sports, science, mathematics, or literature, Imran Khan goes around claiming that Pakistan is replete with all sorts of talented people. If they truly exist, then where are their contributions in their respective fields? Why are they failing so miserably to earn a good name for themselves if they genuinely are talented people, as Imran Khan would like this nation and the rest of the world to believe about his nation?

With the mighty Khan’s incessant ramblings about profusion of talent in Pakistan never coming to a halt, I would like to ask the simple question that which esoteric methods would I have to use to find them as they have so far failed to appear or register their names in any of the leading publications? If they have managed to acheive such successes, then why are people reluctant to introduce them to the rest of the world? Where are our world beaters and what have been their achievements so far? If we really are as spectacularly talented as the mighty Imran Khan would like us and the rest of the world to believe, then where are the medals, accolades, plaudits, and the names of our champions?