Seriously schizophrenic

This is a seriously schizophrenic nation. At the bottom of the mixed up heap we have the religioso militants of the northern parts who continue on their deadly way, killing at will in Wana, Parachinar and Adamkhel, blowing themselves up and as many fellow citizens as they can muster.

Not too far away from those killing fields are the flood inundated areas of the province with a new name (K-P in full does not sit easily on the tongue or in the mind) where millions of citizens are in dire misery and where other citizens who form what has come to be known as ‘civil society’ are striving valiantly to lessen misery and bring comfort and provisions to those rendered homeless and hungry. Those who kill and maim, and those who bring succour are living under the same flag, professing the same religion in their different ways — putting their shoulders to the wheel or killing with impunity.

Moving sideways into the rough and ready province of Balochistan, killings continue unabated by citizens of this country who feel they no longer wish to remain citizens of a country under governments which have conducted their own killing sprees. And which have not the slightest interest — other than empty promises — of even attempting to better the lot of a minority of the population who exist in a barren land milked only for the wealth that lies under its soil. The lower areas of that province bordering upon the richest and largest province have been inundated by the floods, it is said, to save parts of its other neighbouring province so that land owned by feudals may be spared.

Descending into the province of the five rivers which have now come into their own and wreaked havoc upon the poor and deprived, displacing and destroying, we find a town called Sialkot, famed for certain personalities who have sprung from its soil and for its particular manufacturing skills. It has now garnered worldwide fame for violence exhibited by its citizens. The beating to death of two youths, whether model or reprehensible citizens matters not, in front of a sizeable mob which contained a goodly number of policemen, was an act of brutality not entirely foreign to the country.  Karachi and other cities have of late, in the absence of any law and order, witnessed the public murders of suspected robbers. In Sialkot, the city’s citizens gathered to watch a double killing much as the crowds gather in our cities to enjoy the slaughter of animals. Whilst they were doing so, not so distant were doctors and other caring citizens gathered to save lives and bring relief to the flood affected.

An appeal came as an SMS from a group of concerned citizens. It read: “To all media channels. In the name of humanity and civilised values we request the media channels to stop playing the blurred death clip of the two brothers being lynched by a mob. It is sickening to watch and is dangerously desensitising. People watch it with focused impunity. No media house would like their near and dear ones in a tragic situation to be thus shown to millions of viewers. We need to be ethical and not hypocritically righteous.”

South to Karachi, where land and other mafias, associated with the varied political parties (mostly coalition) day after sickening day gun down rivals, on occasions bringing to a standstill economic activity already on the rocks.

In remote Islamabad, those un-exotic creatures known as politicians, manicured and pedicured, sit in their gilded plush drawing rooms ‘meeting’ whilst their constituents wade neck-deep through the ravaging waters of nature’s (as opposed to democracy’s) revenge.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2010.