Militancy and the state

The ongoing debate about dialogue with the terrorists has thrown our state’s predicament into sharp relief. Having lost over one half of its land mass to anarchy, our state is swiftly, even if gradually, losing hearts and minds in the other. It is plain that as a people we have less faith in the state than in the terrorists. Why else would representatives of leading political parties and even some reputed journalists choose to come on air to speak in favour of a unanimous ceasefire that would only embolden the terrorists? That, too, in the immediate aftermath of the death of a two-star general at the hands of these self-professed enemies of the state.

What kind of a people would stand with such vandals against their own state, you may ask. To get an answer you may have to ask another question: What kind of a state supports, even nurtures, such vandals and unleashes them against its own people in the first place? It is common knowledge that the very non-state actors that we today call our worst enemies were once considered our state’s strategic assets.



And the answer lies in our state’s low self-esteem. If truth be told our state has such a low view of itself that it fears extinction in the absence of a religious identity. That it is a reality, which can withstand all existential pressures without any ideological crutches, is evidently lost on the powers that be. This inferiority complex of the state is so stifling that it has transformed our society into a joke. And it has its roots in our very DNA.

At the time of the creation of this nation, religious rhetoric was employed to rationalise its birth. But that is not a unique thing. From the United States to the state of Israel, nations created out of nothing often do that. But then they move on and work on creating an enabling environment of democracy and by doing so, render the rhetoric irrelevant. Unfortunately, this was not the case with us as we were left fixated. The newly-born state ideology took its toll even before the birth of the nation when it stung its founder who had to disassociate himself from his only child for marrying a non-Muslim. And the founder and his sister were systematically rejected by the newly formed state, obviously for their secular value system. Since then, the disease that was born as a result of our original sin has continued to mutate unabated.

At the time of its inception, Pakistan had substantial representation of religious minorities. Since then, every year, it shrinks to new lows. And yet, the Frankenstein of religious intolerance and bigotry keeps inventing new minorities from within our folds.

Just undertake a small experiment to comprehend the true damage done by the fanatics in the last decade alone. You have heard that over 40,000 lives were claimed by terrorist acts in the past 12 years. Just take a deep breath and try counting from one to 40,000. In the unlikely event that you have the patience to finish this experiment at one go, please note down the time it took you to complete the task. Now imagine how much energy, love, time and resource must have gone into nurturing each life lost to the terrorists. That is the true extent of the loss.

On the gender equality count, too, this malaise has done terrible things to us. We once were a patriarchal society, now we are a misogynistic one. The Taliban and their fanatic cohorts have taught us to loath women and to deprive them of all their rights. If you think that you are safe in your ivory tower from this infestation, just give it a few more years and you will be disabused of the notion. If you have a female child in your family please look into her eyes and ask yourself if she really deserves such a fate.

Some day our state will have to acknowledge that it is time to do away with the rotten DNA and it will give in to gene therapy. Let’s hope it is not too late by then.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2013.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.