Ms Memon has quite marvellously touched upon the curse of nationalism.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Marvi Memon’s article of December 7 titled “Celebrating Sindh day”. I thought it was excellent. Being a Pathan from a remote area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, I can fully understand that provincialism leads only to destruction. We need not talk of Sindhi culture alone, we should bring together all provincial cultures and celebrate these on the same day with our commitment to the nation as a whole. Ms Memon, who is a learned lady, has quite marvellously touched upon the curse of nationalism.
At the same time, while celebrating our culture and traditions, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is a general lack of direction and commitment among many of us and that a country founded by a constitutionalist like Mohammad Ali Jinnah finds itself languishing under a quasi-democratic dispensation. Our politicians have not exactly lived up to the Quaid-i-Azam’s ideals; indeed when they have been in power they have often trampled on democratic norms and weakened democratic institutions, in the process paving the way for military generals to take over power. But there is nothing to suggest that military rulers have done any better either. As history shows, periods of chaos have followed military rule, because the generals left behind them systems that did not have the people’s consent.
It was perhaps inevitable that the population at large would turn to extremism as some kind of refuge. To that end, the very basis of internal stability in Pakistan rests in the ability of the state to move people away from extremism and provide them with the basic structures that will support development and progress. Perhaps it is not in the interests of the military and feudal elements who control the strings of power in Pakistan to see people start thinking for a national cause. Thus the real threat to Pakistan’s internal stability emanates from the ruling elite itself, consisting of the military and the feudal elements that want to perpetuate their rule, using any means possible.
M Zafar Khan Safdar
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2010.
