The writer, and many others who follow this line of thinking, wants us to take over the American war and engage in it.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, US: This is with reference to Kamran Shafi’s article of June 14 titled “Time to think fast, and act”. It accurately reflects the thinking that underlies the historic behaviour of the rulers of the “Takht-e-Lahore”, for whom everything beyond the Indus River is simply foreign territory inhabited by less civilised people, who have to be controlled by guns, missiles and rockets only.
Everyone on the western side of Indus is considered a foe. This is not all that different from the attitude that West Pakistan maintained towards the people who inhabited East Pakistan; they were also deemed less civilised and were to be ruled for their own benefit. Any aspirations that these people have are immaterial because they were simply not loyal to Pakistan.
The writer, and many others who follow this line of thinking, wants us to take over the American war and engage in it, loyally and faithfully. That it will bring ruin to us because of the conflict that will ensue and will simply not come to an end for generations, seems not to be their concern. One wonders about the writer’s lack of knowledge of the history of these parts for the past thousand years or so. Let me try to remind him of the situation that had prevailed on this border for nearly 100 years before Pakistan was created. It took Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s wisdom to bring the war in these areas to an end without firing a single shot and without having any significant armed presence in these areas. It remained peaceful till the Communists invaded and tried to colonise Afghanistan.
Maybe, we can all learn from history.
Shahid Jamil
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2013.
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