The suicidal ethnic divide

It's fairly obvious that everyone on “playing field” has forgotten that Pakistan is supposed to be a democracy.

The vitriolic outpouring of what can best be termed “suicidal ethnic division”, which has erupted in the wake of blatantly rigged elections, does not bode well for the future of Pakistan. Ethnic divides have always existed but the current blame game could, at any moment, blow the existing semblance of national unity absolutely sky-high.

Historic as the elections were, in more ways than one, the exceptional voter turnout — predominantly consisting of the younger generation and women, a high percentage of whom were blinded by cricket and charisma — vowed, on the one hand, to follow their leader, Imran Khan, to the ends of the earth. However, on the other hand, they consider his victory in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to be ridiculous in the extreme, unless they are residents of the province. Everyone must not only begin somewhere but must, before they can be considered fit and able to move up the political ladder of success, prove that they can handle the job that they have been chosen to undertake by the voters. And, as the “Captain” claims Pashtun ethnicity, where better a place for him to prove his highly questionable mettle than this?

PTI opponents, however, are sneeringly condemning ethnic Pashtuns for exercising their right to freedom of choice to the point where anger, long simmering at the “step-motherly” treatment meted out to them by successive central governments, is threatening to boil over. It is being stoked largely by supposedly educated people who should know better, via social media websites. Those spouting anti-Pashtun rhetoric appear to have forgotten that K-P has and is suffering far more from terrorism than any other place in the country at present and that people can only take so much before retaliating at “visible” — versus “invisible” — enemies.

The same applies to those getting a massive high from denigrating anyone who happens to be of Punjabi origin who, through no fault of his or her own, happens to belong to the most populous province in the country and is most certainly not renowned for his or her patience.

Then, of course, there is the fraught situation in Karachi which, weighed on the scales of past experience, is liable to result in bloodshed unless a measure of sense — an elusive ingredient in this ethnically diverse megacity — is injected and injected fast.

As PTI supporters kick Pashtuns, Punjabis, Balochis, members of the MQM and anyone else they fancy — although PPP supporters are being left alone to lick their wounds — and Punjabis ridicule Pashtuns, etc., it is fairly obvious that everyone on the “playing field” has forgotten, vote rigging aside, that Pakistan is supposed to be a democracy. It is supposed to be a democracy in which the majority vote, which is unlikely to be decidedly different in the absence of rigging, carries the day.

The harsh fact is that the majority has chosen to vote for what is considered by others to be a corrupt party as it is their democratic right. Spewing venom directly at other ethnicities is no way to bring about any kind of tolerable change. It will, instead, only act to further divide an already divided nation and, quite possibly, hasten the break-up of a country that is already struggling to survive.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2013.