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.
It would only work if Asfhaq Kiani realizes that and asks Musharraf to leave. But then we might be in for another Marshal Law, another “seven point agenda”, another “Meray Aziz Ham Watanou” and what not.
In response to Ahsan’s following comment:
>A Pakistani soldier is a very well disciplined soldier. He will not >hesitate to shoot his own father if his commander asks him to do.
No he won’t, and in his place would you? What’s more, his commanding officers might not want to issue such orders. Read up on the brigade commanders and other officers who resigned rather than issue orders to open fire on the citizens of Lahore in 1977.
The only peaceful way for this country to be rid of the parasite of Musharraf is for the army to realize that at this time he has become an unacceptably large liability for them.
Abid sahab:
I think the fight needs to be fought at all the fronts. It has always been like that in history. Some will write poetry, some will come out on the streets, some will spread the message by word of mouth and so on and so forth.
Defenders of the status quo argue that since we can
Well I think the judiciary is composed of humans. Also courts had been hearing such cases of “immense importance” for far too long. A judge’s daughter couldn’t wait for ever, could she? Its a strange logic so I won’t divulge any further on that. I think you just want to prove that the court was playing politics, and finding arguments to prove that. No pun intended and no offence!