Pakistan strikes back!

Thousands of Pakistanis voted with their feet, showed up at Gaddafi Stadium, expressed confidence in security measures

We celebrated their arrival at Gaddafi Stadium as if 11 men had just returned from the moon. Perhaps Neil Armstrong was given less protocol, and certainly less security, when he returned from the moon. But when a patient is recovering from trauma that has paralysed his entire body, every small move has to be celebrated — whether it’s lifting a single finger or blinking an eye to confirm that he can indeed hear his family. As thousands of Pakistanis sang the national anthem in unison at Gaddafi Stadium — while 180 million people quietly prayed that nothing goes wrong — the first glimmers of light at the end of Pakistan’s dark tunnel teased our spirits. Is Pakistan turning a corner? Are Pakistan’s worst days behind us?

It’s easy to lose perspective in Pakistan. Six months ago, gunmen walked into a school in Peshawar and massacred children as if they were slaughtering animals in a slaughter house. We underestimate the gravity of the momentum religious extremists had on their side, coming on the heels of the audacious attack on the Karachi airport. They had a nation of 180 million placed on a ventilator. The militant momentum — or blowback as security experts like to call it — could have swept away a confused society, like a speeding car on a highway running over a deer whose eyes are paralysed by the headlights of the car. But almost out of nowhere, something snapped and Pakistan pulled a rabbit out of its hat. The nation of the living dead showed it wasn’t ready to go yet.

Thousands of Pakistanis voted with their feet and showed up at Gaddafi Stadium. They expressed their confidence in Pakistan’s security arrangements at Gaddafi. They were a religious extremist’s worst nightmare; children, women and men forming a sea of green, singing and dancing to the national anthem in unison. It was the moment when a patient begins to come back from a coma. That moment when lifeless eyes suddenly show the first signs of life. Signs of hope. Signs of a fighting chance. Signs of coming back — from the dead. 

Jibran Nasir’s children

My friends and I were given a label, even before we were born. We were Zia’s children. We were the generation that experienced the largest gap between the principles and practice of our religion. Today, after years of false starts, the country finally stands united in its war against religious extremists. And while we’re making significant progress in our fight, we cannot win by fighting just the symptoms of this disease i.e., the extremists. We must fight the disease itself: extremism. We cannot fight cancer armed with a Panadol. While bullets can kill extremists, only a counter-narrative can kill extremism. This counter-narrative cannot come from liberals or leftists. It cannot come from the state — remember ‘enlightened moderation’, which was neither enlightened nor moderate. The counter-narrative will come from ordinary Muslims like me and you. Muslims who choose to take back their religion from men who hijack religions, before they hijack planes.

This is why hosting international cricket was such a high stakes gamble by Pakistan. It was a moment pregnant with opportunity for militants to embarrass Pakistan around the world. And it appears that there was at least one suicide bomber who tried to do exactly that. This was more than a game of cricket; it was a game of nerves between the Pakistani state and the extremists. And the first people to call the extremists’ bluff were the spectators at the opening ceremony of the series.

Pakistan still has a remarkably long way to go. However, just because we have a long way to go doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop to savour this moment. The Pakistani state and the Pakistani people stared down extremists throughout this series. But when you’ve been stuck inside a dark room for a long time, your eyes react instinctively against the first glimmers of light in the room. Your hands shield your eyes lest they get used to the brightness. Similarly, it’s difficult to sift through the noise of the hysterical 24/7 breaking-news cycle in the Pakistani media today. But the signals buried under the noise are telling us something: Pakistan, the long-time coma patient, is beginning to blink on his own again. In our own clumsy, two steps forward, one step backward way, Pakistan is striking back! Let the world hear us roar once again!

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th,  2015.

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