FOR every job, medical fitness — both physical and mental — is a pre-requisite and for higher and sensitive jobs fitness assumes a much higher significance. For politicians, mental health fitness has higher importance because upon their deeds, utterances and actions depends the nation’s fate and future. In history, there are instances when mentally unfit leaders have led nations and even humanity at large to disasters.

In the present national political scenario there is strong evidence that some of our leaders are behaving maniacally. Such behaviour can be due to genetic causes or acquired by misusing/abusing drugs. There is a dire need to have a legislation making it obligatory for the politicians to undergo medical examinations, particularly mental examination to be medically fit for political activities and jobs.

A medical board should be constituted consisting of foreign mental experts, as our leaders would blame the local experts of partiality. For physical fitness, local experts would be all right.

Media executives should also get their journalists examined. Utterances and writings of some of the journalists appear very suspicious and they are doing a lot of harm to the nation by their vicious and poisonous speech, both oral and written. Random blood tests for drugs should also be carried out for politicians and journalists. This should be the first electoral reform to be done by parliament. The fate and future of the nation lies in the qualities called mental fitness of national leaders.

Mahmud Ahmad Akhtar
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014