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 is no time for poetry.
It is time for action and sacrifice.
Aqil Sajjad has framed the issue very well.
We need to decide which side we are on.
Are we with the Constitution (and the Flag)
or we are in the same “petition maintainablity” discussion?
Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah showed us the light against a
Dictator who won temporarily(her symbol was the candle wick
lamp called Laltain).
As young students, distributing these Lailtains we would get our noses bloodied by the force of the Dictator.
It is very clear in the Guardian as stated by Ch. Shujaat that Martial Law was the only way.(“Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said a friendly supreme court judge leaked the information to the government last Wednesday.
“He said the verdict may be unanimous, so we had no choice,” said Mr Hussain. “The debate was whether to impose emergency before or after [the court ruling].”)
If an Army man violates his oath then he should be punished.
Do we have the guts to stand up and hold our Flag high and punish the Army man who desecrated it?
So it is time to sacrifice and stand up and read the Constitution———-not Poetry!
To all Pakistanis,
Are you sincere with Democracy ??
Pakistani nation, journalists, Politicians, lawyers,
intellectuals, media, has witnessed with a criminal
silence, the kidnapping and forced exile of an elected
PM with satisfaction arranging the side taking policy
in favour of dictators candidates, without even 5 grms
of shame in their physique.
What is the defference between you all on one side, and
Ayub, Yehya, Bhutto, Zia, Musharraf and all other
dictators the likes of Pinochet in attendance.???
and
of course, when your Dr. Shahid Masood of Geo confirms
that the west’s influence is very important in Pakistan’s
Politics, are you still living in colonialism ???
Long while ago I was at a literary gathering with a few big names participating in it. In the earlier part a young man in an almost rundown appearance came and quickly read a brief poem and left without waiting for the appluase. People were just speechless by the depth of his lines. Even though I don’t remember the last two lines or gentleman’s name, the part I remember is enough to portray the current story being repeated yet again. The lines are worth understanding and may even be taken as subtitles of a great shot of army boots you have up top occasionally.
Ghar kia hay, bazaar mein jaisay, sarak pari baisudh
Jiss purr chaltay paa
reuters is saying the police is being given cash bonuses for arresting lawyers and that there are no courts to which the arrested can go to to seek their release. what are we coming to?
i just watched a so called POITICAL COMMENTATOR refer to the LAL MASJID TERRORISTS AS “MASOOM BACHAY” who were slaughtered by this GOV’T, iam sorry that statement alone made by this individual sitting next to a MEDICAL DOCTOR who has no JOURNALISTIC BACK GROUND tells me that the reality in PAKISTAN is so skewed, that there is no hope, the fact that MUSH Imposed emergency no matter how bad of a decision does not deny the fact that i with my own very eyes saw every PRIVATE CHANNEL refer to the SWAT/WAZIRISTAN THUGS in very ambigious TERMS, & i also noted that the SUPREME COURT & THE MEDIA were very SYMPATHETIC to their cause which only means one thing & that is that no one else besides the MAJORITY is welcomed in PAKISTAN & every body knows what iam talking about, I GIVE UP!!