A ray of hope.... in Pakistan

It has been six decades since Pakistan came into being during which period it has been governed by military dictators for most part with occasional brief periods of democracy. But during this period, one thing seems to have remained consistent—the public and government willingness to blame all problems on foreign interference from afar- the US and near- India. India too went through this phase of blaming CIA for all its own problems but thankfully, except for the lunatic left, the polity has matured to take responsibility for its own sins. That has not been the case for Pakistan. This was further driven home in the recent Pakistani reactions to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai when the Pakistani government and even the media- with a rare exception or two—convinced themselves that the terrorists did not come from Pakistan and they bore no responsibility for these acts despite major envidence to the contrary. It took them over two months to finally accept responsibility.

Thus is it was with great surprise to see recent editorials and columnists in the Pakistani media finally coming to terms with the truth and being brutally honest in their assessment of what Pakistan needs to do.

Kamran Shafi, a Pakistani columnist recently wrote “ We Pakistanis must stop living in denial forthwith if this country is to survive. We must take head-on the terrorist/extremist/Al Qaeda menace if we are to leave our succeeding generations a country half worth living in. We must stand up collectively as the great nation we are and say to those that engineer situations to suit their own institutional needs and wants that enough is enough!” He goes on to say that “ We seem to have learnt no lessons at all from history. We were in denial about East Pakistan and see what happened there. We foolishly became the front-line state for America’s war against the Soviet Union and see what a mess we made of Afghanistan, and of our own country as a spin-off. We went along with the ‘bleeding of India’ nonsense in Kashmir and see where that particular exercise landed us. In 1991, when we began to ‘bleed’ India, our foreign exchange reserves were $300m and India’s were $5.8bn. In February 2008, India’s reserves were $292bn and ours in November 2008, nine months later, were $6.5bn. So who bled who?”

Some of his anguish was even reflected in an editorial in Dawn, the respected Pakistani newspaper, which said “It should be clear by now that we are at war with ourselves as the enemy within grows more audacious by the day. Yet there are educated people in this country who continue to blame American foreign policy and the ever-potent ‘foreign hand’ for the wave of terrorism sweeping the country. This argument is deeply flawed on several counts. For one thing, the Pakistani state threw its weight behind America’s Afghan policy in the late ’70s and after 9/11, and as such we are equally responsible for the fallout. It is also common knowledge that Pakistani intelligence agencies once provided logistical support to militant organizations that could further our ‘strategic depth’ interests in Kashmir and across the Durand Line. It is argued that those behind the storming of the police training centre in Lahore on Monday, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier this month, were so sophisticated in their methods that they must necessarily have had the backing of a foreign power. Such reasoning overlooks the fact that those who were freedom fighters a few years ago and are now labeled as terrorists were trained by the best in the business…..What we have now are Pakistanis killing Pakistanis, Muslims killing Muslims. And while we are at it, let us discard once and for all the absurd notion that the people who carry out such dastardly acts cannot possibly be Muslims. They are Muslims. In fact, these terrorists and militants consider themselves to be far truer Muslims than those who oppose them. The militants involved in Monday’s siege may have been overcome but it is time to hammer out a political and social consensus on this issue. It is time to show the kind of fervor the obscurantist’s demonstrate in abundance but the well-meaning couch in carefully chosen words. This is a fight and it cannot be won without throwing punches. The country’s mainstream political parties need to draw a line in the sand and show the people, with no room for ambiguity, where they stand in this battle for the soul of Pakistan. ….. If we can’t do the job ourselves, others might do it for us. And that way lies disaster. “

Before a battle can be won, it is essential to accept reality. Perhaps a few sparrows may not a summer make, but they do provide hope that Pakistanis will finally take their destiny in their own hands.