Adil Najam
Mohammed Hanif, the brilliant author of the engrossing book “The Case of Exploding Mangoes†(I have been planning to write about it ever since I first read it many months ago; and I will) – known to many for his stint at Herald before he joined BBC’s Urdu Service – has just written a most cogent and readable op-ed in The Times of India which is wroth reading; whether you agree with it or not. It is a good argument as well as a good read. And I say that even thought there are more than one points here that I might quibble with. But before we quibble, lets give Mohammed Hanif the floor – and a full and proper hearing. Here is the op-ed he wrote in The Times of India, in full:
Ten Myths About Pakistan
Living in Pakistan and reading about it in the Indian press can sometimes be quite a disorienting experience: one wonders what place on earth they’re talking about? I wouldn’t be surprised if an Indian reader going through Pakistani papers has asked the same question in recent days. Here are some common assumptions about Pakistan and its citizens that I have come across in the Indian media.
1. Pakistan controls the jihadis: Or Pakistan’s government controls the jihadis. Or Pakistan Army controls the jihadis. Or ISI controls the jihadis. Or some rogue elements from the ISI control the Jihadis. Nobody knows the whole truth but increasingly it’s the tail that wags the dog. We must remember that the ISI-Jihadi alliance was a marriage of convenience, which has broken down irrevocably. Pakistan army has lost more soldiers at the hands of these jihadis than it ever did fighting India.
2. Musharraf was in control, Zardari is not: Let’s not forget that General Musharraf seized power after he was fired from his job as the army chief by an elected prime minister. Musharraf first appeased jihadis, then bombed them, and then appeased them again. The country he left behind has become a very dangerous place, above all for its own citizens. There is a latent hankering in sections of the Indian middle class for a strongman. Give Manmohan Singh a military uniform, put all the armed forces under his direct command, make his word the law of the land, and he too will go around thumping his chest saying that it’s his destiny to save India from Indians. Zardari will never have the kind of control that Musharraf had. But Pakistanis do not want another Musharraf.
3. Pakistan, which Pakistan? For a small country, Pakistan is very diverse, not only ethnically but politically as well. General Musharraf’s government bombed Pashtuns in the north for being Islamists and close to the Taliban and at the same time it bombed Balochs in the South for NOT being Islamists and for subscribing to some kind of retro-socialist, anti Taliban ethos. You have probably heard the joke about other countries having armies but Pakistan’s army having a country. Nobody in Pakistan finds it funny.
4. Pakistan and its loose nukes: Pakistan’s nuclear programme is under a sophisticated command and control system, no more under threat than India or Israel’s nuclear assets are threatened by Hindu or Jewish extremists. For a long time Pakistan’s security establishment’s other strategic asset was jihadi organisations, which in the last couple of years have become its biggest liability.
5. Pakistan is a failed state: If it is, then Pakistanis have not noticed. Or they have lived in it for such a long time that they have become used to its dysfunctional aspects. Trains are late but they turn up, there are more VJs, DJs, theatre festivals, melas, and fashion models than a failed state can accommodate. To borrow a phrase from President Zardari, there are lots of non-state actors like Abdul Sattar Edhi who provide emergency health services, orphanages and shelters for sick animals.
6. It is a deeply religious country: Every half-decent election in this country has proved otherwise. Religious parties have never won more than a fraction of popular vote. Last year Pakistan witnessed the largest civil rights movements in the history of this region. It was spontaneous, secular and entirely peaceful. But since people weren’t raising anti-India or anti-America slogans, nobody outside Pakistan took much notice.
7. All Pakistanis hate India: Three out of four provinces in Pakistan – Sindh, Baluchistan, NWFP – have never had any popular anti-India sentiment ever. Punjabis who did impose India as enemy-in-chief on Pakistan are now more interested in selling potatoes to India than destroying it. There is a new breed of al-Qaida inspired jihadis who hate a woman walking on the streets of Karachi as much as they hate a woman driving a car on the streets of Delhi. In fact there is not much that they do not hate: they hate America, Denmark, China CDs, barbers, DVDs , television, even football. Imran Khan recently said that these jihadis will never attack a cricket match but nobody takes him seriously.
8. Training camps: There are militant sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan but definitely not in Muzaffarabad or Muridke, two favourite targets for Indian journalists, probably because those are the cities they have ever been allowed to visit. After all how much training do you need if you are going to shoot at random civilians or blow yourself up in a crowded bazaar? So if anyone thinks a few missiles targeted at Muzaffarabad will teach anyone a lesson, they should switch off their TV and try to locate it on the map.
9. RAW would never do what ISI does: Both the agencies have had a brilliant record of creating mayhem in the neighbouring countries. Both have a dismal record when it comes to protecting their own people. There is a simple reason that ISI is a bigger, more notorious brand name: It was CIA’s franchise during the jihad against the Soviets. And now it’s busy doing jihad against those very jihadis.
10. Pakistan is poor, India is rich: Pakistanis visiting India till the mid-eighties came back very smug. They told us about India’s slums, and that there was nothing to buy except handicrafts and saris. Then Pakistanis could say with justifiable pride that nobody slept hungry in their country. But now, not only do people sleep hungry in both the countries, they also commit suicide because they see nothing but a lifetime of hunger ahead. A debt-ridden farmer contemplating suicide in Maharashtra and a mother who abandons her children in Karachi because she can’t feed them: this is what we have achieved in our mutual desire to teach each other a lesson.
So, quibble if you will. But do tell us what you think about the argument that Hanif is making.
Great article and very good comments. We all need to do some soul searching and Hanif and ATP helps us do so.
While I agree with most of what Mr. Hanif has to say, P Gill and Gorki raise some important points.
There are two things that we need to worry about as Pakistanis.
The first and most important one is that we need to face up to our problems. They are serious enough to potentially tear our nation apart. Forget about what the Americans say or do, or what the Indians say or do. Think about the direction that our nation is going in. Is that what we really want for ourselves? Owning up to our problems is the first step towards resolving them. That is why I am amused when anyone says that all we do is talk about problems, never solutions. The reason why we talk about the problem is because we can never agree upon what the problem really is. Look at the comments posted by Pakistanis in this thread. Some of them range from denial (e.g. the extremists only want to make us moderate muslims more muslim) to insanity (e.g. Hanif is an Indian agent).
The second problem is that of how others perceive us as a nation. This is a “brand” problem. It needs to be worried about because in this day and age Pakistan does not exist in isolation from other nations. We are dependent on other nations for trade, tourism, security, energy, food, etc. Yet the more isolated we become, the more severe the first problem will become.
Unfortunately it seems to me that we are focused on the second problem (as this entire thread, including the original article by Mr. Hanif illustrates), but not enough on the first problem. Our nation is being hijacked by a bunch of thugs who believe or claim that they are acting in the name of Islam, when in reality (at least in my opinion) their actions go against everything that Islam teaches. This is a problem that we allowed to be created, and we allowed to get out of hand. Before we decide how we tackle it, we need to accept that.
As I continue to read all the posts, I personally feel very encouraged since it confirms my belief that most South Asians are decent people barring a few exceptions and want to live and let live. Recently I read an article by Kuldip Nayar in Indian Tribune. He among others has been holding candle light vigils in the border every Aug 14-15 along with like minded Indians and hoped people from accross the border would join too.
May be some of us should meet once in a while to discuss peace and progress. Imagine if India and Pakistan were to send out a joint space mission. (The technology is avaiable on both sides, except we are building missles for sabre rattling). This would capture the imagination of our next generations to work towards a positive goal (A Nehru-Jinnah space station, Maybe?).
Let me know if any one wants to meet once in a while for tea and samosas in Northern California. write to rsbrar@hotmail.com
Don’t worry Indrajit, no half-serious Pakistani ever takes the chest-beating of the brasstacks. A. Qureshis and Aamir Alis seriously ;-)
And, frankly, we also do not take all the Arjuns on Indian TV very seriously either!
I am a Pakistani from Lahore.. from Mr Hanif’s generation.
1. Pakistan controls the jihadis:
there most certainly is the distinction: alqaeda, bad taliban and good taliban. the taliban leadership virtually rules half of quetta. there are no-go areas where they live. none of this would be possible without the ISI and approval all the way from GHQ Rawalpindi. of course, the monster that has grown too big for the ISI – bad taliban, and the blowback – alqaeda, are killing our soldiers… as is our low morale and mistaken policy of appeasement. also, on top of the army’s incompetence and mere propaganda of professionalism, the pak army was never trained for any thing other than facing another conventional army, namely, india’s.
2. Musharraf was in control, Zardari is not:
now doesn’t this just contradict the claim in no.1 above!!
3. Pakistan, which Pakistan?
mr hanif, of course, conveniently forgets to mention that the baloch are by far more anti-pakistan than they are anti-taliban or anti-capitalism. burning the pak flag in baloch towns. they don’t bother with taliban.. or waving the hammer and sickle (that was the 70’s).
the fact that the pak army has a country, alone should be enough to alarm indians and the rest of the world at least as much (if not more) as it alarms or annoys pakistanis.
4. Pakistan and its loose nukes:
excuse me? A Q Khan? out of control. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood? out of his mind AND out of control. Jewish extremists? the only israeli who let the nuclear cat out of the bag was a leftist liberal who spent most of his life behind bars and now lives under virtual house arrest.
contradiction: how can our nukes be safe when we have a liability as big as the jihadists (who have killed SSG commandos in tarbela, ISI bus within a km of GHQ and chaklala, the army’s surgeon gen not far away etc., not to mention Wah Ordnance Factory). If our jihadi, strategic assets can become liabilities like that, why not our nuclear, strategic assets?
5. Pakistan is a failed state:
what is the definition of a failed state? pakistan became a failed state on 16 december 1971. the new state that was rather unceremoniously born that day, is fast heading in the same direction. vj’s, dj’s theatre festivals – if they could be called that, and whatever they represent in terms of a ‘successful’ state.. each and every one of them attracting bomb attacks in ‘peaceful’ lahore! when you cannot even have a cd shop in quetta (in ‘anti-taliban, retro-socialist balochistan’), peshawar or swat, d.i.khan and more than half the country. hundreds of girls’ schools are no more. many boys schools too. polio is resurgent. what, again, is the definition of a failed state?
6. It is a deeply religious country:
the thing about the so-called lawyers’ movement is very true. pakistan can be proud of such a popular and selfless movement for nothing more or less than supremacy and rule of law. people like khosa and kaira who used and then bamboozled the movement – shame on you!
the islamists who hold a gun to the nation’s head do not bother with participating in elections. if they did, there would be no problem! our problems are not and never have been a result of mullahs participating in the democratic process, but them negating and bypassing it and using violence and terror instead. acid and stone throwing lynch mobs and vigilantes. i’ve already mentioned about schools, cd shops and so-called theatre etc.
can a public figure in pakistan say that while he/she respects every religion he himself does not believe in any? or can a declared qadiani hold public office? mani shankar ayer, having held several cabinet portfolios, was proud to say that he loved india where he could be an atheist and his mother a devout hindu and nobody bothered either of them! while india has a looong way to go, we’re not facing in the right direction!
yes, we’re no saudi arabia. but we’re not all that different either. How many of us obediently bowed to the Khadim al Harmain al Sharifain (i.e. the Saudi King) having Nawaz Sharif kidnapped from Islamabad airport in Sep 2007!
7. All Pakistanis hate India:
really? just see the reaction to mumbai 26/11 on not just ptv but all the private channels.. with the exception of probably 2 anchors out of 3 dozen or so, and less than 10 ‘analysts’ out of a 100 or more on tv alone! sadly, the myopic jingoism within Indian media has been no better, if not worse.
so what were the lashkaris from nwfp doing in kashmir in 1948? although the general comment about bach khan’s (the pashtun gandhi) nwfp, sindh and balochistan is true. and encouraging. punjab’s problem stems from the fact that the army that needs india to be hated is punjabi.
8. Training camps:
there might not be any physical training taking place in muridke, but ideological training certainly does. As far funding, that takes place all over pakistan: chanda boxes on every counter and qurbani ki khaalein banners hanging from every lamp post! as for muzafarabad, either mr hanif has never been to azad kashmir.. or he went there with an ISPR escort!
9. RAW would never do what ISI does:
hence, the reason for the world to fear the ISI and for pakistanis to fear it even more than they need to fear RAW! ISI mindlessly created the menace of afghanistan (forgetting that America can walk away from the country, but we shall forever have it as our neighbour), taliban.. let alone their constant sabotaging of democracy in pakistan… not to speak of the damage done to secularism and secularists in pakistan by the ISI blindly following and serving the dictators rather than giving a damn about its duty to law, constitution and country (same is true of the army, of course). an institution that considers itself to be above law is infintiely more dangerous than one (like RAW) that takes its orders from the civilian govt (even if it is not too discriminating about whether the orders are lawful or not).
10. Pakistan is poor, India is rich:
true, for now. and the image of the situation in 1980’s is true too. but the indian economy is ready to take off, indeed, take-off has commenced. pakistan, on the other hand, is busy driving its economy in to the ground. revisit this comparison in 5 to 10 years time.