As a conference in London tries to chart Pakistan’s peaceful future
RAWALPINDI: On October 14, 2017, a conference titled Pakistan: The Way Forward was held under the banner of South Asians Against Terrorism and Human Rights (SAATH) organisation, in London. It tried to chart Pakistan’s peaceful future. Its core message was that ‘dissent is patriotic’. The conference gave a clarion call to evolve ‘a new national narrative that is based on the consent of its people rather than on religious hatred, the concept of security state and militancy’. So far so good. But the new narrative requires concerted action by political parties. At the moment this is not only moot but conspicuously absent.
The conference reminded us that ‘Pakistan ranks 150 out of 188 countries in the UN Human Development Index’ and ‘143 out of 144 in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap report’. The political parties need to explain why they could not provide basic needs to the people — no universal healthcare, education or shelter. Why they earn impunity for their financial misdeeds? Pakistan’s democracy is not real democracy. It is a veil that drapes over totalitarian ideologies. If anything, the purpose of this new national narrative should be to rethink democracy. But this need not be necessary if we start reconstruction brick by brick. The idea seems farfetched but it is, without doubt, possible. One should always be optimistic. Let SAATH pave the way for collective rebuilding in order to move forward.
A J Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2019.
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