Adil Najam
These are distressing times. But this is not a time to be depressed.
This is a time, as Owais reminds us in his last post, to reaffirm our hopes for the future. True defeat would be to give up on those hopes. I have put up the splash image (on the front page) that I have to reassert and to remind ourselves that ultimately Pakistan will be what we make of it. Emergency or no emergency, no one can snatch our Pakistaniat from us. Not until we ourselves surrender it!
Back in May, at a moment of similar desperation, I had written a post where I had sought “solace in the one place where I always find it. In poetry. Especially in Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry.” The video clip I had used there is worth repeating here.
I had written then - and it seems even more pertinent today to repeat it:
Here is Faiz - in his own words, in his own voice. The second half has the same poem masterfully sung by Nayarra Noor. Enjoy this rare find of kalam i Faiz, ba zaban i Faiz. But more than that, think about what he is saying and how it relates to what is happening today.
What I had to say (including about US role) I said at length in an NPR Radio show today (or here). But what Faiz has to say is far more profound.
The words of Faiz certainly cut deeper than anything I can say. They are an invitation to action. But they are also an invitation to thought. An invitation to responsibility. An invitation to continuing the struggle no matter what. An invitation to keep moving onwards despite the odds. An invitation to celebrate the spirit of defiance of those who will not give up.
I had ended that post by reaffirming ATP’s committment “to celebrating all the diverse trials and tribulations of being Pakistan … the mundane as well as the profound; the sad as well as the gleeful; the immediate as well as the long-term.” It is time, today, to repeat that commitment.
This is our commitment to Pakistaniat. We love Pakistan not because everything is right in it. But despite that which is clearly not right. And with a commitment to make right that which has gone astray. Ameen.
Today, I was witness to the worst of the State brutality. With every passing day, it is getting clearer what the present regime is about – naked tyranny. It is not that I have not seen any State repression before. I was there in the High Court on 17th of March when the building was surrounded by the Police, and the lawyers were disallowed from leaving the premises of the Court. We were practically detained in the High Court. At that day, the news was about the Police firing tear gas shells from the outside and entering few feet from the gate into the High Court premises. Everywhere people were talking about how the Police had violated the sanctity of the Courts. The popular reaction was understandable – the event was unprecedented. But, if I compare what happened today with what I saw eight months back, I can say without a moment’s pause that 17th March was nothing compared to what took place today on 5th of November.
Please, read the full account at: http://reddiarypk.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/today-a t-the-lahore-high-court/
Spread the word!
interesting EDITORIAL from INDIANEXPRESS
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/236310.html
Bilal, excellent questions.
To Adil Najam, who I heard on NPR.
Sure, the US should support democracy in Pakistan (which means denounce Musharraf’s current moves). Will Pakistan support the US desire to capture Osama and rid the society of radical-minded Islamists? I suspect you cannot promise the latter. So why should the US promise the first?
Deewana,
What a picture, it does say a thousand words.
Go Musharraf Go.
Feimanallah
Wasim
Adil Bhai,
Thanks for reminding us all of our greatest asset - HOPE.
Pakistan will rise from this episode INSHALLAH with grace and dignity, it will be tough and it will require sacrifices but a stand has to be made for principles and that time has come for Pakistan. See my call to the nation in this regard at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Feimanallah Pakistan
Wasim
I have received a lot of drafts of petitions and signed statements etc…..and I am trying to make sense of where does the Pakistani nation stand on the current crisis. And frankly - I can’t make head or tail of it. Maybe my own knowledge is limited so I am hoping some friends here can help me understand:
1. Do we want the emergency rule to go away, or Musharraf to step down from his military post?
2. Do we want Musharraf to leave his uniform, or altogether disappear from the scene?
3. Who or what are we proposing as alternatives? Politicians who spent time in self-imposed exiles or those who are sitting in the parliament now (and have been there for the past 10-15 years now)?
4. How do we make sure that the different branches of the government operate without (a) stepping over each others’ toes while maintaining checks and balances, and (b) without indulging in activism for the sake of it? What does the nation think of Musharraf’s indictment against the judiciary and the media?
5. How does the nation want to deal with the threat of extremism and terrorism? Do we even see it as a grave threat - or just another fact of life you just learn to live with?
Kiyya khial hai, does this depict Musharaf’s situation well?
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/site_imagery/f rontpicture_fullsize.jpg
from Gaurdian
Rafay Kashmiri says:
November 6th, 2007 7:14 am
Please do not monopolise Pakistaniat to Faiz,
millions of Pakistanis do not agree with Faiz,
so we will not come out like old age Majnou
with iron chains around the ankles, we should
come out like muslims in Pakistan must do,i.e.
courage, tenacity, arguments, and no theatre
Pakistaniat Zindabad, Dehriate Murdabad
[sarcasm]So Rafay, what do you suggest the millions on non-Muslim Pakistanis do then? Or have you already condemned to death with your parting slogan of dehriate murdabad? Heck, might as well right… I mean we’ve already made them swear to our religious views on the passport form haven’t we?[/sarcasm]
I wonder when we’ll condemn religious bigotry with the same fervour that we reserve for leaders who we hailed yesterday and hate today. It’s a pity that Pakistanis seek acceptance and self-validation from every entity on earth, yet we are so rooted in our ethnocentrism that we can’t see beyond the mold we were cast from.
Found this on nytimes website….
Dear Editor,
I went to school in New York City. I spent almost 5 years in US and luckily experienced first hand the last US presidential elections. How I was impressed by the American democratic process. I felt that democracy is envied by the Americans. It is so important for them. And then the same Americans support dictators like Musharraf. He said in his speech that democracy is not for us? Democracy is a self refining process that grows and becomes strong with time. But regretfully it is not allowed to live and breathe in Pakistan. It is killed by dictators. You should know that supporting a dictator will simply not exterminate the Taliban or Al- Qaeda. It is for sure that it will give further vent to extremism and non-tolerance.What has hapened in the last 8 years? Has it subsided? It has grown and is growing further and has now clearly spread from the tribal areas to settled areas of the frontier province. I hope that the US policy makers understand this.
— Mir Zafar Mohiuddin, Islamabad