Could there be peace in a country that protects the likes of the Red Mosque terrorists and other sectarian extremists?
KARACHI: Now that the Quetta explosion has happened, we will upgrade and adopt ‘combing’ as the new strategy. The earlier strategy, whatever it was, was no good. We shall continue with ‘combing’ until another Quetta happens. We shall then upgrade to the next level, which is ‘brushing’. We shall then continue with ‘brushing’ until the next disaster. The policy of ‘wait for a disaster and upgrade’ seems to work so well. Coupled with a dose of ‘taking notice’, ‘ordering inquiry’, ‘condemning culprits’, ‘solidarity with the families’ and ‘compensation amounts’, it makes for a perfect sleeping pill.
The civil society, though very concerned, appears just as vague. “Each one of us must speak out; we need to break the inertia; we must force a change in government policy and we are running out of time” are some of the most recurring comments on social media. Such anger, self-condemnation and self-pity could only add to our depression, frustration and loss of self-esteem.
What may be needed is not short-term anger but a long-term and consistent push for reforms. After all, it would be irrational to expect peace in a country where 20 million weapons float freely in towns and cities. It would be equally illogical to expect peace to return in a country that does not have a basic emergency incident reporting and response system. Could there be peace in a country that protects the likes of the Red Mosque terrorists and other sectarian extremists? Citizens coming together and forcing the government to incorporate these and yet other reforms may be a better option to shed our learned helplessness.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2016.
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