Cowering in the face of extremism

The few who do not support murder garbed in reasons religious, do their best under threatening circumstances.

Outside, not too far away, things are happening. South Sudan is finding its feet and Tunisia has opted for a change — for better or worse has yet to be seen. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic trundles on its set downward path. Its meltdown on all fronts — economic and mindset-wise — is troubling the thinking world. Placed as this country is geographically, and with its nuclear toys for the boys, the recent happenings are frightening not only for the now national silent minority, but for the external masters, mentors and ‘friends’ who have, in their own national interests, poured in monetary and other aid.

One high-profile murder begotten by bigotry and intolerance set off a spark and the religious right is on the march in Lahore and Karachi and elsewhere, supported by the formerly heroic members of the legal fraternity. In these democratic days, rallies have been held in support of murder and the moderates of the political and other classes have been cowed into silence and submission — fear has struck. The few, the fearless few who do not support murder garbed in reasons religious, do their best under threatening circumstances.

Whilst the nation has responded in opposite directions to a single murder, there have been few chirps about the multiple murders which take place in the more remote and wild and wooly areas of the republic, where its citizens are blown up with impunity in the face of a helpless government frightened out of its wits (that is presuming it had any). On January 12, 20 citizens including 12 police officers were killed in a suicide bombing targeting a police station in Bannu. This news was brought to us somewhere in the mid-headlines of the media — not important, not high-profile.

On January 14, a woman was blown up in a rocket attack merely because she was a cop, and five members of her family died with her at her house in Hangu. Apparently, no one was bothered other than those left to mourn. Again, mid-level news, unspectacular. And on January 17, reportedly 18 died, with a lesser number injured, when a minibus was blown up en route from Hangu to Peshawar. Practically un-newsworthy, the nation now being so inured to such incidents that target and do away with the poorer and less privileged citizens of this proud country.

Meanwhile, a few cases of blasphemy have been registered here and there, the revenge-minded or grabby citizenry having been buoyed by the mass ministerial surrender and the triumph of religiosity in its worst form. The joys and benefits of Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code are becoming universally known and utilised thanks to the cooperation and participation of this pliant and somewhat despicable government.

Well, indeed we are now in the days when the gulf is massive between what this country was meant to be — as enunciated by its maker — and what it has become. The true Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the man and his words, have almost become irrelevant, even alien, to the average Pakistani to whom he is now just a face on our currency notes, or in tatty photographs or paintings hanging in public offices, or peering over the shoulders of all the deplorable leaders this country has borne over its morally declining years. He is a thin, old man wearing a funny cap, he is the Quaid-i-Azam, and it is sure that there are many who do not even know his name. As for the resonance of his meaningful words — they have slid down the slippery, mucky national drain, to be meaninglessly totted out on special occasions or to be twisted and misused. Time gallops backwards by centuries, not forwards by days, deterioration is defined as progress, anarchy and chaos is ours.

Our leadership is not only worthless, it is dangerous — it has collectively succumbed to the bully-boys, to bigotry.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2011.