A case of showcase sovereignty!

As much as I appreciate the nation’s enthusiasm at the very idea of a confrontation with the US, I really see no case for the advertised sovereignty. Following the November 26 incident which claimed the lives of Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan boycotted the Bonn conference as its ‘sovereignty’ was violated and it had to react. Wikipedia defines sovereignty as, “the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory”. Now, it may all be a matter of perception, but name a province in Pakistan where this ‘joke’ of a government can attribute the word ‘sovereign’ to itself; terrorism in the name of religion, crime in the name of poverty, mafias in the name of rights and corruption in the name of the state’s infancy. What sovereignty are we talking about?

The fact is, as things stand right now, we have no sovereignty. The Bonn conference boycotted, the Shamsi airbase will probably be vacated and Nato supplies remain suspended to date — all in the name of ‘defiance’.. What does it actually take for a nation and its representatives to wake-up to the idea of sovereignty or national pride; the death of over two dozen soldiers or the thousands who have already died as a result of America’s war on terror, a decade of deceit by our governments who publicly disapproved and condemnded drone attacks while agreeing to them in private or two-timing the nation and the intelligence? For God’s sake Mr president and prime minister!

We are a nation still plunged in the worst scenarios of secularism and sectarianism. We are an Islamic Republic that has no clue of Islam. It is the 21^st century and we still practice evils like karo kari and legitimise them. We have jagirdars and landlords who chain hundreds as bonded labour. We rape our own, loot ATMs and banks, charge double in holy months and we exploit every single weakness in others to make ourselves stronger. For every single failure, nationally and internationally, we cling on to conspiracy theories to salvage self-respect. As things stand, we do not have control over our own lives, let alone the nation and its boundaries; so where’s the question of sovereignty or national pride?

Now, however, far-fetched, unrealistic and rather dramatic my solutions may sound, I do believe they will restore the pride and feeling that we had in, for say, 1961. To me, the solution lies in change that must occur within the 180 million who make up the nation. By God’s grace and by God’s grace only, it will happen when we cast votes based on political agendas and not on ethnic grounds.

When this happens, the US will not dare to send a drone this way because as soon as it violates Pakistan’s airspace (after necessary protocol), it will be shot down! We will have a foreign policy not determined by scenarios and dictated by the US, but by choices based on people’s sentiments. This will be the day when there will be governance of the people, by the people, for the people. Then, when one fine day, a random incident occurs on our borders, perhaps we can claim that our sovereignty has been violated, our trust harmed, our dignity challenged and our pride shaken.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2011.