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.
Thank you for providing your point of view. It’s important to know.
Sorry I forgot to write an English translation of the Faiz poem in the previous post.
(Since I do not speak Urdu, I had memorised the poem by heart when I read it, years ago because it was so powerful. The translation below is to the best of my ability, and is also from memory. I will be thankful if any Pakistani Bhai can correct any errors in the poem or the translation).
“Yahi Junoon ka, Yahi tak o daar ka mausam,
Yahi zabr yahi Ikhtiar ka mausam..
Subah ki mast khirami tahe khamand nahi,
aasir-e-dam nahi hai bahar ka mausam.
Bhalaa se humne na dekha to aur dekhenge,
Farokh e gulshan mein saut e hazaar ka mausam”.
This is the time for madness and also a time of brute force.
It is also a time of cruelty but also a time to take responsibility….
The pure reddness of the first rays of dawn is not any bodies slave,
And the season of spring is priceless;
(Implying that it will come, regardless of the current turmoil)
Thus, maybe we won’t be able to see that which will come someday but the others surely will;
And then it will be like a season of a thousand nightingales;
in the paradise of heaven.
Also, I will be very thankful if someone could confirm the context of this poem. I believe it was written when Faiz was in jail, awaiting a possible death sentence. Is it true?
@ Gorki…
Have been closely following what you and the other Indian’s have been contributing on this forum and it has been a surprisiingly good discussion….However, in your 2nd last post I believe you wrote…(without trying to be patronizing) that ..
‘a society were a Nobel prize winner Ahmediya can not be accepted as an equal citizen was probably not what he (Jinnad) would have wanted.’…
point taken and agreed with….However, it does tend to come across as a Holier than thou attitude when you have an entire state of 80 Million folks (and folks in other states) electing and cheering on the genocidal actions of Modi and his cohorts…and Captains of Industry eulogising him to no end….and this is accepted mainstream behaviour ….
so is that a kind of society that your founding fathers would have wanted?
my point is not to banaly argue and not that you cannot point out Pakistan’s issues/flaws……but to do so in the context that you too have fundamental issues with secularism as it exists on paper and what is actually happening and the attitudes we see…My only point is that too often I see obviously sane and balanced folks from your end dismiss the problems we point out as merely ‘one off’ events….or minor irritants when clearly they are not….they are deep tears in the social fabric and a deep disconnect with constitutionalised secularism…
again…my point is not to attack…but to just let you know how I and many others are looking at things…Hope to hear from you more on this forum…
@ Bonobashi…
have immensly enjoyed your comments…..
To all readers but especially to the following:
Arjun
Bonobashi
Pasha
Amir Hussain
I have followed the thread closely and am struck by the fact that once we get past an initial mutual suspicion and try to hold a civilized conversation, how much the educated Indian and Pakistanis are alike in thoughts, hopes and expectations of the future.
It is up to people like you and all other moderate like you and other sane minded people on both sides of the border to build an opinion in favor of co-operation between our two countries. Regardless of where the artificial lines were drawn in 1947, we share a great land that has given rise to a remarkable people and a remarkable civilization. We can not unhitch our destinies. The extremists will continue to try to destroy our combined culture but as long as people like Amir are there to see the pain of the other side and shed a tear for them, we will be fine. The darkest times can bring out the best in people some times. Let it be now. I want to finish with a poem by Faiz I read years ago in an Indian magazine, translated by Khushwant Singh;
Yahi Junoon ka, Yahi tak o daar ka mausam
Yahi zabr yahi Ikhtiar ka mausam..
Subah ki mast khirami tahe khamand nahi,
aasir-e-dam nahi hai bahar ka mausam.
Bhalaa se humne na dekha to aur dekhenge
Farokh e gulshan mein saut e hazaar ka mausam.
Let us all build a public opinion for a better tommorrow.
bonobashi
many thanks for the offer to help. wait till there is another movement like the one for the restoration of the judiciary in pakistan.. and then see if you can gather in front of the gateway to india.. in solidarity with your fellow democrats in pakistan.
in the mean while, lets try and comfort rather than demonise each other if, God forbid, there is another terrorist atrocity. i was at a candle light vigil in lahore on 28/11 in memory of 26/11. indians, if so inclined, could have done the same for the marriott bombing in islamabad. it DOES make a difference.
we in pakistan are trying to struggle with all we can muster against the dark and evil legacy of Zia ul Haq and the Afghan war which has continued and become further putrified. we struggle regardless of pakistan’s image in the world which makes our task 10 times more difficult. we know very well that we must carry on whether india helps us by being wiser and displaying much more foresight than what many might consider normal, or decideds to play politics and settle old scores.. or just becomes a gleeful spectator. we, the moderates of Pakistan, just have to carry on. Sooner or later, all moderates of this world will have to realise that we all have to carry on to save ourselves from the extermists on BOTH sides. Ultimately, it’s not a clash of civilisations but a war between those who say ‘kill or be killed and those who say ‘live and let live’. the ‘live and let live’ bunch has to wake up. the sooner the better. to george bush’s “you’re either with us or against us”, i say, we’re against the terrorists and we’re against the imperialists. label us as you will. we’ll do what we need to do.