Adil Najam
This was another bad week for Pakistanis. Our closest international ally continued bombing our territory. The self-style custodians of our morality kept up the indiscriminate killing of our citizen. One of our most popular television show anchors incited murder in the name of religion through television.
Once again, this was a week when Pakistanis died. Pakistanis cried.
The political machinations in the country continue to be a distraction that is keeping many, too many, glued to the soap opera quality twists and turns in the story of Pakistan’s tortured democratic experiment. But the real story in the country remains what it has for the last two years: a divided society which is at war. Niether the self-styled custodians of our internal identity nor our self-styled freinds abroad seem to be helping. Indeed, they keep making things worse for Pakistanis everywhere.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Whether it is pre-US-election posturing or a deeper shift in US policy, it is clear that the American forces have increased their military incursions into Pakistani territory. Beyond the fact that this is clearly a violation of the sovereign territory of a country they claim to be their ‘closest all,’ one cannot even imagine what the strategic logic of these incursions could possibly be since each incursion only strengthens the hand of the extremist elements that are supposedly after, angers Pakistani public opinion, and pushes the Pakistan goevrnment into a tighter corner. There is no real evidence that they have hit any important militant target but innocent Pakistanis, including children, women and even Pakistani soldiers have certainly been killed; 15 killed this Wednesday; 12 more on Friday.
Meanwhile. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Meanwhile, the merchants of murder and mayhem thrive even more in this condition and continue their war against Pakistan. Indeed, they seem now to be targetting the places of worship themselves. Only today an alleged suicide bomber was caught in Islamabad. On Thursday, 25 died in a grenade attack at a mosque in the Banai area of Dir during taraweeh prayers. Last Saturday, even as Asif Ali Zardari was being elected President, 31 people were killed and another 81 others injured as a suicide bomber blew himself and his vehicle up at the Zangali police post at Kohat Road, Peshawar.
Meanwhile. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
And those who one might have wanted to bring calm and lessons of peace, are themselves engrossed in preaching hate, and in this case murder, to mass audiences. On September 7, Aamir Liaquat Hussain – GEO TV’s popular religious talk-show anchor, former MQM Minister, a holder of multiple fake degrees, and religious instigator extraordinaire – in his GEO TV Show Alim Online presided over a long discussion instigating that those holding Ahmadiyya beliefs were ‘wajib ul qatl’ (i.e., liable to death). The next day, Dr. Abdul Mannan Siddiqi – a 46 year-old Ahmadi in Mirpurkhas and a US-trained cardiologist who had retruned to work in his community – was murdered in broad daylight while working at his local hospital. The next day, Seth Muhammad Yousuf of Nawabshah was also murdered brutally. Whether there is a direct link between the two or not, the preaching of hatred and the practice of hatred both thrive in our land of the pure.
Meanwhile. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
One sits here, shaken by sadness at this waste of human life, and wonders: at how many hands and for how many reasons should Pakistanis die? How long must Pakistan cry?
As @MQ says below, what are we going to do if/when Americans stop their attacks on the TTP and other militants inside Pakistan?
But I am still trying understand as to why, right around/after the real change in guard in Pakistan–the presidential elections–there are so many blatant and frequent attacks? Is it to destablize the new democratic setup? Does it have anything to do with Kayani’s famous visit to the US aircraft carrier within last few weeks?
Also, perhaps the biggest failure of Pakistani leadership–most blame goes to Musharraf for this–is to ‘sell’ the war against terrorism to Pakistanis as Pakistan’s own war. We now have a situation where a significant part of Pakistani society thinks that Pakistan is fighting America’s war (which is not true: These Jihadis are zeolous who were groomed to wage wars and nothing else in life).
Another major failure of Pakistani leadership is not to explain to the nation the economic-dependence upon the West. Some serious discussion at least in the blogspace is needed which explains the cost to Pakistani economy should sanctions be imposed on Pakistan.
PS. The ‘Jahil Online’ should be banned. I am also going to write to Geo after this. This is no true undiluted freedom of speech in the best of democracies, let alone room for the Jahil Online in a sectarian dynamite of Pakistani society.
I believe MQM is the only political party that has publicly condemned the killings and Geo’s hate-speech. It has also removed “Dr” Amir Liaqat from MQM membership.
ARY channel reported on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrmJx4uIa4
An audio report by BBC Urdu service, along with an interview of a Geo official can be heard at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdVTOt4exDM
Adil, I am glad you put up this post.
First of all, this charlatan — this fraud — who claims to be an Alim, should be in jail. Not on a popular TV show. If nothing else, his show can possibly be banned in the US, Canada, and UK, because there are strict laws in these countries against hate-speech. All these angry commenters should direct their anger at the right places. Perhaps, ATP can provide the addresses of one or two organizations in the US to whom people may complain. Writing to The News and Geo is also a good idea but they would act only if their pockets are hit.
Ironically, this
I am not sure if it is fair to lump the terrorist mullah and the US together. The Americans waited patiently for seven years while the Pakistani military and the government prevaricated, dither and dawdled from taking any concrete and concerted action from saving Pakistanis from terrorism and stopping the Talibanisation of an agency after an Tribal agency and tehsil after a tehsil in settled areas. The government was happy to let the militants have a free hand to invade a neighbouring sovereign country and inflict death and damage there.
At best the Pakistani military made cyclical half-hearted attempts to stem the influence of terrorists through armed actions, only to quickly reverse their gains by entering into half-baked agreements-cum-ceasefires to give Islamic militants chance to recover and re-arm. The cat and mouse game had been closely watched by the US and the world generally with a hope that one day these hatcheries and hideouts of terrorists will be eliminated. However, it was not to be so. I am no international law expert but I will not term the US ground infiltrations against terrorist as