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.
Waqas,
BTW, the video you have posted is false. It shows a couple of students being lynched and of policemen shockingly standing by when it happened. But the students were not Muslim students. These were students in Chennai’s Ambedkar law college and the lynching was the result of student politics, combined with long-standing caste rivalries between Dalits and Thevars (also a so-called ‘backward’ caste) in some districts of Tamil Nadu.
No Muslim student was involved in the incident, but some malicious folks have used the video of this incident to try and incite hatred between Muslims and Hindus by falsely suggesting that these were Muslim students.
See this story about the actual incident
http://www.thehindu.com/holnus/000200811140316.htm
Pakistan’s troubles are huge. Is the military turning the corner? Lets hope it is. The people’s heartwarming response to the 2005 earthquake, the brave and uniquely noble movement for supremacy of law and the constitution throughout 2007, and the 18 Feb vote… are all signs of life and vitality in Pakistani society. Hope that we can fight our huge problems: a legacy of military dictatorship and interference in general and Zia ul Haq in particular.
But Indians gloating over Pakistan and being too complacent over their own 2 steps forward and 1 step back in both democracy and secularism should very well wishers of India. Politicians taking the easy way out of one-up-manship in sounding tough on Pakistan, turning India in to a security rather than a welfare state. Read RSS leader’s interview quoted below by Aqil Mushtaque. Politics playing with the fire of communalism. Gujrat, Babri Masjid, the fate of Christians in Orissa and elsewhere, and Kashmir. The Sachal Commission and Pandian Commission (and its blocking by BJP to investigate Chhattissinghpura massacre). I can be almost assured of seeing some documentary type ‘news report’on some aspect of hindu worship, even the narrator streeped in religion, any time I switch over to Star News. I don’t think I saw as much religion, let alone Hinduism, in 20 years of watching DurDarshan growing up in Sialkot, Pakistan.
My first reation after reading the post was that this seems like a PR stunt to help improve the image of Pakistan. Nothing wrong with that at all. But we also need to be honest with ourselves. Most of these “myths” are at least partially true, as some others here have already argued.
From Pakistani from Lahore:
1. Pakistan controls the jihadis:
there most certainly is the distinction: alqaeda, bad taliban and good taliban. 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, 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:
Paraphrased from Mr Zaradri’s interview with Nusrat Javed on 01 Dec, 2008:
NJ. ‘Are the civilian and military leaderships on the same page’?
AAZ. ‘Yes they are. Were they not, you would not be interviewing me but someone else sitting in my chair”
3. Pakistan, which Pakistan?
mr hanif, of course, conveniently forgets to mention that many baloch are more anti-pakistan than 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 most 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. Not to mention examples of our responsible behaviour and stability since May 1998: Kargil, 12 OCtober 1999, 03 Nov 2007, 27 December 2007 and the ongoing insurgency in FATA, Swat and Baluchistan.
5. Pakistan is a failed state:
what is the definition of a failed state? didn’tpakistan 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 unless there is a course correction. vj’s, dj’s theatre festivals – if they could be called that.. 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 in the North West. 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.
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.
yes, we’re no saudi arabia. but that is hardly cause for celebration.
7. All Pakistanis hate India:
i know most of us don’t. but was saddened to 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 truth be told, much much worse.
although the general comment about 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.
9. RAW would never do what ISI does:”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.”
hence, the reason for the world to fear the ISI and pakistanis to fear it even more than they need to fear RAW! the ISI has been blindly following and serving the military 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). It is for the Indians to ensure that RAW is accountable to both law and Parliament.
10. Pakistan is poor, India is rich:
true, for now. and the image of the 1980’s. 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. the jihadi chickens coming home to roost, does not help. revisit this comparison in 5 to 10 years time.
I also read the interview that Aqil Mushtaque is referring to and indeed it is alarming. Fortunately RSS is seen as fascist organisation by a majority of Indians and by no means speaks for all of them.
Democracies by definition are untidy mix of all sorts of voices and this interview represents a lunatic fringe. India also has its Khalistanis and I am sure there are a few Taliban and Al Quaeda sympathisers as well. Fortunately for each Sudarshan, they have several hundred Nayars as well. When the kar sevaks of the BJP-RSS got out of hand during Babri Masjid crisis, a polititian named Mulayam Singh opened fire on them to control the rioting.
We hope Indians do not have to resort to such measures often but the fact that it has a constitution that grantees equality for all is citizens and leaders who are willing to enforce it (with force if necessary) should give us hope. The Sudarshans of this world will always be there and tolerating them is the price we pay for the freedom of speech.
I am sure Pakistan would be a better place too once it re-aligns its constitution with the vison of its founder Mr. Jinnah. As I mentioned in an earlier post, India and Pakistan share a common culture and share a common destiny and all this talk of invoking a nuclear war is nothing but rubbish of a sick mind. Please don’t take it as a voice of Indians. Sudasharan does not speak for me.