Another July 5 came and went; it’s now been 35 years since a dark night took over Pakistan.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: Another July 5 came and went; it’s now been 35 years since a dark night took over Pakistan. Since then, the country has been trying to shed off the legacy of an army dictator, Ziaul Haq but has miserably failed. His 11-year-long autocratic and ruthless rule left deep rooted scars in the nation’ subconscious. It was he who made religious and sectarian genies come out of the bottle and now, no one knows how to put them back in. He divided the nation along religious and sectarian lines, which was nothing but a gimmick to prolong his stay in power. In these 35 years, the Pakistani nation slipped backwards as far as human rights, women rights and religious tolerance are concerned. Despite the best efforts of a shrinking minority to turn the tide, a liberal, enlightened and tolerant Pakistan of the pre-Zia period seems to have permanently died.
General Zia’s legacy can be seen in the ongoing bloodshed and turmoil in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir. He helped establish a number of madrassas with financial help from the West and these have become incubators of militancy and intolerance. The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, numerous jihadist groups and sectarian outfits, narrow-minded political parties and so on are all are living bequests of General Zia.
Not only this, the country also has drug trafficking and with it an ever-increasing number of addicts. We now have jihadis who feel it is their obligation to destroy Sufi shires and kill anyone accused of blasphemy (without first ascertaining what the facts of the case may be).
General Zia’s rule changed Pakistan into a country full of hysterical people ready to kill, bomb, maim in the name of religion. People ask if the turmoil in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region will ever subside and the answer to that is quite simple: it will be possible only if we are able to undo all the changes that General Zia brought to Pakistan.
Until that time, the dark night of July 5, 1977 will continue.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2012.
