I condole deaths of Pakistanis who recently lost their lives resulting from a misguided statecraft spell of 35 years
TORONTO: Now is the time for serious accountability of those who peddled the ‘strategic depth’ concept. Their shortsightedness has resulted in open-ended killing sprees of Pakistanis. The most disgusting aspect is the spin being given to the recent unfortunate terror attack in Karachi. The rhetoric that this was an act by ‘anti-Pakistan’ external forces who are out to sabotage the proposed Chinese economic assistance plans is despicable. Which assistance plans were in motion when thousands of Hazaras were slaughtered? Alas, even after all these years, we have not been able to come out of the spell of denial.
It is time to admit that militancy as a tool of foreign policy is backfiring badly and it will keep hurting us until a sincere realisation is developed that our society has been radicalised from within. Have a look at our Urdu newspapers, which are still concerned with calling certain deceased people ‘shaheed’ and others ‘jaan bahaq’, to understand the extent to which sectarianism has seeped in our blood. Step out and ask someone standing in front of a seminary to get an idea about how deep-rooted sectarian hatred is and how it is suffocating our conscience. The problem with militancy is the lack of remorse on the part of perpetrators, their handlers and sympathisers. They consider it a service to their faith. This is not how a state can function. The overdose of religiosity needs to be diluted from society; no human civilisation could work out of such dark clouds of zeal.
Unfortunately, these topics cannot be discussed nor debated in our society. I condole the deaths of the Pakistanis who recently lost their lives resulting from a misguided statecraft spell of 35 years. Yeh gham hai humain virsay main mila/ Iss gham ko naya kiya likhna?
Bahadar Ali Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 17th, 2015.
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