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Pakistan’s fictional reality
I have been called a ISI agent, army poster boy, agent of SPD, pall bearer of liberalism and a 'Musad' agent.
The writer was a Ford Scholar at the Programme in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security at UIUC (1997) and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Studies Programme
For long, certain sections in the left-lib crowd thought I was an ISI agent; others felt I was the army’s poster boy. Still others thought, given my deterrence-optimism, that I was working for the Strategic Plans Division (SPD). On the other side of the divide, the Aabpara boys’ cyber trolls and ghost-warriors have the Star of David put on my forehead, having picked up the very picture that appears on this page with my article.
All of this is old hat, though. But recently, I have been accused of being a ‘MUSAD’ agent, which is a new development. I have no idea what MUSAD is, but friend Feisal Naqvi quipped that it is a lesser-known Israeli agency assigned to fight terrorist cows. Another friend joked that if I am a MUSAD agent, MUSAD should commit susad! Kim Philby must be feeling like a high school boy given my presumed curriculum vitae!
It’s terribly simple actually. When I write on military matters, I am put up to it by the army/ISI; when I write on nuclear issues, the line comes from the SPD. But then I complicate things by telling the SPD that developing a short-range battlefield missile is stupid for reasons X,Y and Z. At that point, the SPD gets upset.
Then I decide to tell the army that it is doing A,B,C, which it should not. I also feel it important to tell the ISI why it is reviled. I am immediately embraced by the left-libs, some of them writing comments about the refreshing change from my pro-army views. At that point, for the other side, I become a Zionist, a CIA agent, a mouthpiece of my American masters, an R&AW agent. But then I muddy the ‘clear’ waters again by telling the state of Pakistan why it should take the issue of the violation of its sovereignty to the United Nations; or, worse, why we should not go into North Waziristan on the US timetable. The libs leave comments saying “Ah! So he has now been briefed by the army/ISI”. Some sympathise with me by saying I needed to play safe because no one wants to get killed etcetera.
If this were a fictional country and this was happening on the screen, I would have quite enjoyed this mad party. But it is not. Pakistan is a real state and it is passing through very dangerous times. Nor have I written the paragraphs above out of egotism. Instead, the problem goes far beyond my picayune existence to the terrible fault lines in this state. And, as I have noted elsewhere and often, these fault lines are the biggest threat to this country.
We are all entrenched in our perceptions and biases. We choose data according to the ideological grooves in which we are stuck. There is nary a thought that people can be more complex than the black-and-white worlds we have created for ourselves and from which positions we extrapolate and tar others. Take the army. It thinks, for the most part, that all libs are unpatriotic. The libs in turn think that everything that goes wrong in this country, including why it has rained or not rained, is owed to the army’s perfidy. Both sides are equally and terribly wrong.
There is another way of looking at things, of analysing issues on the basis of what is happening, not on the basis of ideological biases. It is a path I have sought to adopt, my twin concerns being my integrity and this country’s interest; nothing else matters. But that itself seems unacceptable to both the glory-boys of the ISI and the liberal hordes. Both can put their ideological views in their pipes and smoke them, thank you.
Jorge Luis Borges wrote a short story captioned “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”. It is an agonisingly difficult read, typically Borgesian. The narrator chances upon Uqbar through an encyclopaedia entry. Further inquiries take him to the idea of Tlön, a fictional world created within Uqbar, a world where the leader of a heretical sect declares that “mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of men”.
The attempt to reconstruct the imaginary Tlön throws up a Daedalian maze. It is a world without nouns comprising “impersonal verbs qualified by monosyllabic suffixes or prefixes which have the force of adverbs”. There is no history and there can be no logic, whether inductive or deductive because the non-existence of nouns means no one can state any proposition. The Tlönic world is therefore without the advantage of any common sense reality.
Tlön was fictional; Pakistan is real and yet ridiculously fictional. Welcome to our fictional reality.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2011.
Reader Comments (50)
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Sir how is MUSAD related MOOSAD?
Also darth vader is aligned with TTP and LEJ. LET was supposed to work but RAW is thereRecommend
Your problem is that you care entirely way too much about cyber trolls from all sides. Make good points, which you do, that’s it.Recommend
Mr Ejaz, not everything in life is grey. Hitlers Germany or Khmer Rouge are not grey but matters of black and white. When it comes to conduct of the establishment in last 60 years and what it has done to Pakistan, its a metter of black and white and not grey.Recommend
From Ayub to Yahya,
from Zia to Musharraf to Kayani
what they have done to Pakistan
is a very painful kahani.Recommend
let me judge…
Not for ISI, not for RAW, CIA & MOSAD…althoiugh he denied but, in fact, wrote for his own egotism!
Come on write on something that a common Joe can relate to and that could help lessen his plight, not the same strategic-level, complacent articles. Mr. Holier-than-thouRecommend
Another brilliant piece Sir Ji. What we lack is the idea of “co existence” and “mutual respect.” Despite our ideological difference, we all have to work together.
As much as we may disagree with one another, pull each other’s leg for fun. At the end of the day, our goal should be “mutual respect.” You cannot “eliminate” the difference. You cannot rewire the ideological wiring. You can only debate the issues, based on available facts and present your position.
In my neck of the woods, I’ve noticed, we passionately disagree with one another on issues. Yet at the day, when election results emerge, we congratulate the opponents and accept, whoever gets to make it to the top.
Regretfully, the stark difference between my adopted and country of birth is due to, “lack of political maturity.”
We behave like disgruntled teenagers even after 63 years in my country of birth. Democracy has to be adopted in earnest, from the heart and soul. Its the most liberating force within your head.Recommend
Sir, as a follower of your articles, my humble advise is avoid the comment section.Its populated by Indian trolls indulging there schadenfreude,pseudointellectuls and plain ol crazy people.Only If people weren’t complaining should you be worried…..Recommend
Through vicious propaganda, the army had maintained an image of high class institution who is the defender of ideological and physical boundaries. Through private media, internet and other independent means of information, this myth has been busted very comprehensively. Now everyone knows that we lost all the wars we ever fought. Out of shame, the army now doesn’t celebrate defense day. People blame it for ethnic nationalist movements that have erupted inside the country. It has failed to control terrorism, and semi-criminal clerics hold more power than Corps commanders. The ideologically motivated strategic assets are now attacking the defenders of the ideology. The enterprise built on outright lies was bound to collapse. I cant change my perception after what has been revealed about the army in past few years.Recommend
you sound like PML-N agent..:PRecommend
So which side you really are on? Come on, give up the secret and let us all relax in peace.Recommend
Doesn’t it sound exactly like current state of Pakisan ,Writer is also confused like his readers and country.
Stuck at cross road ,don’t know where to go?
Yes Pakistan is not Fictional,But doesn’t sound like REAL TOO.Recommend
When Socrates challenged people in the small group and made them analyze everything. He was found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and not believing in the gods of the state. Ejaz Haider is a scholar whose writing makes think. He covers a wide variety of conventional and unconventional topics and deploys and fires overt as well as covert word missiles in this strategic news media. Its refreshing to read and wish we keep reading him many many years to come.Recommend
Wow is it just me or did the last two paragraphs were at another level altogether?Recommend
“We are all entrenched in our perceptions and biases. We choose data according to the ideological grooves in which we are stuck. There is nary a thought that people can be more complex than the black-and-white worlds we have created for ourselves and from which positions we extrapolate and tar others.”
Yes, yes yes. I Love you! For the first time an educated/intellectual Pakistani writer has laid his finger on what is the real problem with Pakistan and amongst Pakistanis. We only see the black and white, and everybody backs their side of the story/ideology with one sided facts/data at times spewing complete hogwash.
I feel this way especially about the “left-lib” which continues to fail to understand how the world actually works, how states actually work and need to work and how we don’t unfortunately live in a lala land. And don’t even get me started on the conspiracy theorist loonies, although I feel that they are a lesser threat in the ultimate war of ideas because in intellectual settings they will never be taken seriously (Now that’s a Mussad conspiracy). Although even that side of the extreme that divides this nation has a role to play in the making of this shoddy state.
Thank you once again Mr. Haider – I wish the opinion section had more writers like you!Recommend
“There is another way of looking at things, of analysing issues on the basis of what is happening, not on the basis of ideological biases”
Mr. Haider,
If you ponder on your own words honestly, you will realize that until the past year or so, you were indeed guilty of selectively picking facts “on the basis of ideological biases” on many issues, especially those concerning India. I can still remember your twisted conspiracy view on the Mumbai 26/11 attack.
If not and ISI agent, you certainly used to sound like Ahmed Quraishi’s twin brother until a year or so ago.
Just read your own columns from, say, five years ago to see how you used to selectively nitpick facts to suit your views heavily biased toward the Pakistani establishment propaganda.Recommend
No side, like all Pakistani’s on the side of what is convienent at the timeRecommend
Ejaz:
You are a wizard…not of oz;)Recommend
And whats the point of this article?Recommend
@ali wazir,its not indians who labelled him isi agent,musad(if writer is refering to MOSSAD sarcastically)or any other agent.people like Ejaz haider should understand that everyone has a view point of their own.some are right,some are wrong.so better you should not bother about that.do what you do the best.keep writing insightful article.thank you.Recommend
Ejaz, for you to have written the piece (Open Letler to Gen Pasha) which seemed to have ruffled a lot of feathers, and then immediately after comes a column about “why we should not go into North Waziristan” was in my opinion much more than a co-incidence !
North Waziristan is where 90% of suicide attacks are being planned within Pakistan. North Waziristan is where Haqqani is based and sends hundreds of his fighters into neigbouring Afghanistan to kill innocent civilians and Nato forces. If there was an epicentre of current global terrorism that would undoubtedly be North Waziristan. The convergence of opinion on North Waziristan being tackled immediately is unanimous and comes from every quarter… yet we are tip toeing around the issue “ONLY” to protect our “strategic interests”.
I think you should review Najam Sethi’s comments that he made on your article last week. NW is not being touched because we still dream about being king maker in future Afghanistan, which is the key objective of ISI.
For you to reason so strongly that ISI needs to be restrained one week and the very next for you to write about something that goes against common sense and supports ISI’s dubious principle of non interference in NW definitely came across as though you were “briefed/ counselled/ requested/ advised/” or told to toe the line from powers-to-be !! and you paid heed to that request !
Haris ChaudhryRecommend
A wonderful piece! Few days back I visited this website Defence.Pk — which is a so-called intellectual forum where one can discuss issues related to Pakistan. Found a horde of trolls abusing you there, and commenting on the same picture of yours that you have stated above. I felt for those poor souls.Recommend
I’ve been sooo ignorant. Never knew Ijaz Haider is such an important person in Pakistan.Recommend
Ejaz this egotistical soul searching is unbecoming. Let me start by saying that I do not
believe that you are an ISI agent, much less someone belonging to “MUSAD”. But that
does not close the space for legitimate criticism of your writing. In debunking your
critics you have used the same method you vilify: oversimplification. You have set up
your reality as black and white as well, where your critics are only ideologically driven
while you maintain your analytical integrity by somehow transcending ideology. The
problem is that those who claim not to have an ideology are those co-opted by dominant
ideology – and we know what that is in Pakistan. It is ironic that you decry the unspecified ideological biases of others while openly adhering to political realism as your own ideological anchor.
Further,you claim only to be concerned with Pakistan’s “interests”. I believe you. But how do we define these interests? For some, including the “left-lib” crowd (whose oversimplified
meaning is as clear as MUSAD’s), this means giving priority to socio-economic
issues and imagining security in diplomatic, non-military terms as well. For others it means a
state-centric approach that defines Pakistan’s strength and sovereignty in militaristic, and sometimes even ultra-nationalistic terms, with a dash of critical thinking. Your writing falls within this
latter category, which also includes a number of doves within Pakistan’s military
establishment who are even now debating the other side of Pakistani strategic
policy. This does not mean that you lack integrity or are in conscious service of the powers that be. But neither does it mean that there are not alternate ways of looking at Pakistan’s interests.
Even through the paradigm of security studies, there are critical approaches that privilege human security over abstract concepts of the state and sovreignty. Mutually Assured Destruction may theoretically protect the fiction of the state but whose security are we actually talking about? Surely not the tens of millions that would be killed in a nuclear
exchange. Should these lives be gambled with in the interests of a smouldering
cinder on a map? Strategic Depth might secure the Pakistani state’s rear. But
how has it secured the tens of thousands that have been killed in Pakistan’s
violent ‘Talibanization’? I whole heartedly condemn your character assasination.
The manufacture of consent by intellectuals in the service of power is not always a conscious exercise. So please lets pretend that your views themself represent a Platonic truth
beyond reproach.Recommend
Ejaz Haider parses arguments and fidgets with facts. All along he is is impressing himself – not us, with books, self congratulations and sophistry.
He is one those intellectuals who likes to make the simple complicated. He meanders and is easily sidetracked from his central premise. Here he is with Jose Luis Borghese! That proves it – he could not be ISI, MUSAD, RAW or CIA. Those guys are inherently much more interesting.Recommend
@Ali Wazir
So are you an Indian troll or pseudointellectual or plain ol crazy person? LOL. What a self defeating comment you have made.Recommend
What exactly author wants to tell us?Recommend
@billo
Absolutely spot on, sir. The best in critiquing that I have seen in a long time on these pages.Recommend
Brilliant piece. We need to debate ideas. Not people!Recommend
yayy!! I finally found something that makes sense in his articles…..Recommend
@ Author
Sir, simple and plain question to you ?
If your house is on fire and an outsider saying, ‘please put off it’, and you are refusing him by saying ‘you are an outsider and you cannot dictate us what to do, we will act according to our timetable’,
-Won’t the fire engulf other houses near by ?
-Is that mountainous ego which prevents the sane thinking ?
-You could have placed the title something like, ‘Analysing North Waziristan Operation’, why the title ‘No to North Waziristan’, could you not drop a hint about it for the people to speculate ?Recommend
The comments are more readable than the articleRecommend
@ ashok
The ‘fire’ was started by the neighbour in the first place; and now instead of helping the owner to control the fire, the neighbour wants the owner to put kerosene on it, and threaten the owner that if you wont put kerosene on it, we will stop your water, food and not even let you get out of the house … and that if any fire reaches the neighbour’s wall, he will have the ‘cold start doctrine’ to give further fuel the fire…
While at the same time, the neighbour is supplying incendiary material to dissidents in the house and engaging them to put some explosives in the fire to demolish the house altogether….
Now your analogy is right!!Recommend
Extremely well written aticle, I understand that by making yourself a subject you have actually highlighted the key problem that everyone else is facing as well. Whenever some one talks about “reviewing” the policy of war on terror … he is immidiately labelled as “taliban apologist” by the libs … and vice versa whenever someone points finger at the army and its erroneous policies, he is viewed as anti state by the other faction. On the other hand if someone tries to justify the current war on terror policy (drones and operations in NW etc) he is labbeled as “CIA/RAW/MOSSAD Agent” by the rightists.
For God’s sake when will we all come out of the paranoia of labbeling others as agents !! As long as we keep doing that we will never come to a consensus to resolve key strategic issues of utmost national importance.Recommend
Seems like Mr Haider walking on a tight rope hoping to balance relationship. Good luck.Recommend
@Bhola
Excellent analogyRecommend
@Bhola: Listen bholanath its pakistan’s problem let them handle in their own way. What we need to do is keep bucket of water ready incase our house catches the fire. The issue is between Afghanistan and pakistan but we should be alert if fire spreads.Recommend
Same here Ejaz, people told me that I am reckless, though not eligible for being called an agent.Recommend
@D. Asghar: Hmmmm…..So, would it be ok if people in AJK refuse to accept the recently concluded elections in AJK as not representative of the people’s will?Recommend
Another fictional reality of pakistan:
booming economy and shooting GDP…..Recommend
“It is a path I have sought to adopt, my twin concerns being my integrity and this country’s interest; nothing else matters.”
Country’s Interests:
I admire Mr. Haider’s fleet footedness. For many years, Mr. Haider has parsed his words carefully – all the while ignoring what the “good strategic” assets were doing to their own countrymen. He just could not find the courage to say clearly what needed to be said like many brave Pakistanis did in the ‘country’s interests’.
Integrity:
But Saleem Shehzad – a courageous journalist was killed. He showed integrity. He was a member of the profession who died allegedly at the hands of people that Mr. Haider got to quote and sit around with.
So as not to be seen in this camp or that, he seeks to protect his integrity by seeking refuge behind the proverbial ‘country’s interests’. Good try but …..Recommend
“From Ayub to Yahya,
from Zia to Musharraf to Kayani
what they have done to Pakistan
is a ‘darday-dil’ , ‘anshu-bhari’, Pakistan ki kahani”.Recommend
Conservatives, liberals and in our case establishment these are realities, it is the writers personal choice to express their opinion therefore to expect there will be no reaction is being naive. What forced Ejaz to write this piece is puzzling, he is not the sort to be ruffled then why pen such an explanation?Recommend
The readers will be grateful if the writer can explain his stand, in plain English if he can, on what role Army should play on issues of security and foreign policy, and whether the “Strategic Depth” strategy should still be pursued,Recommend
This region has produced nothing for the past 3500 years. Its been in a continuous cycle of invasion from the north. Superstition and conspiracy theories are ingrained in the people. This place will not produce anything for the next 3500 years.Recommend
Excellent piece, very well written. Very briefy,are there true liberals in Pakistan? There are plenty of pretenders though!Recommend
@R: Interesting, I would kinda tend to follow that view except that it should be put to the ‘honourable’ gentleman and a response sought. So, Ejaz..please elaborate on Pakistan’s establishment? Also, do tell me if you originate from ‘Forward Kahuta’?Recommend
@Explorer: Yes, important questions….please elaborate in your next article Ejaz if you can.Recommend
@Im Hussain: Damn…let’s hope not.Recommend
Sir!! Keep on writing, our country needs people like you.Recommend
bravo!
this country is a mess from head to toe.
nicely said.Recommend