Back in 2002, I was returning from Friday prayers when I saw an unusual gathering of singing and quasi-dancing Mullahs. Unusual because I had always assumed Mullahs to be against all types of art. The amused crowd were listening to chants of “Taliban aa gayay, Taliban aa gayay.â€
I smirked. As if!
Pakistan is a nuclear country with the seventh largest army. We’re safe.
The Mullahs’ songs have been answered – the Taliban indeed are coming. And with them the cowards are bringing a lifestyle that destroys everything Pakistan and Islam.
Oh no. Wait! “This guy is on the paycheck of those who are trying to break Pakistan. Taliban are heroes, its America which is wrong.” Yes, this is the typical self defense mechanism coming to full force. Having nothing to lose, and having been already declared a CIA agent earlier in life I suppose I’ll continue. Continuing with a genuine fear, that these words are falling on either deaf or hostile ears. Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan is over if all this chaos continues.
Jinnah’s Pakistan is a dream gone wrong. Perhaps if he knew that the dreamland for living in peace, harmony, religious tolerance and freedom was going to become arena for public flogging where laughs of sadist barbarians and the screams of minors will echo, he would not have decided on creating it. Had he known that there would be more suicide bombs in his country than any other place in the world, where fundamentalists would go around the cities threatening women, where school children would have to undergo security protocols as if they were in a war zone, would he have even bothered to work for the green and white?
Still, Pakistan is not what we worry about. All our esteemed talk shows chatter on is whether there should be 17th Amendment or not and on the statements by America and India. Yes, American drones and Indian statements are a threat to our sovereignty. Yes, the balance of power is important. But even when the Taliban have killed more people than India, American Drones or our tyrant rulers, taken over more of our land and have made us feel more unsafe than anyone else in the past thirty years? What other definition of sovereignty is there than protection of lives and property of people, maintaining writ of the state across the territory and having people feel secured? Why can’t we have some programs discussing the atrocities of the Taliban, the acts of terror that they do and how they have destroyed Pakistan?
No, it’s the “Hindu Zionists†(notice the contradiction?) working on a CIA sponsored conspiracy to break Pakistan. There are the good Taliban who fought the Kuffar off and the real issue is the CIA. Apparently, everyone has all the time in the world to devise every action we do, plan it to perfection and then make the evidence of their involvement disappear. Are we really that important for the rest of the world to worry about when they have their own countries and problems to tend to? Even if the Taliban are foreign funded should does that not mean we should double our efforts? Remember when India briefly occupied few territories near Lahore in 1965 how the whole country ran to defend it? My grandfather had stories of people going with sticks to support the army. I am afraid I will not have any such stories of patriotic resistance to tell anyone when another enemy has taken control of a fourth of NWFP and roughly one twentieth of Pakistan. Perhaps we should ban “Yeh watan tumhara hai, tum ho pasban is kay†for it seems no one really care about Pakistan, except the Zionist Hindus of course.
But no, remember the glorious days of the Caliphs? Remember the great Pakistani Fauj, who under the Ameer-ul-Momineen, Zia–ul–Haq, crushed the Russians? This is only a plan to make America taste the same fate! For a nation which already lives in denial, these conspiracy theories are all we need to turn us completely schizophrenic. Army is great and it will deal with any task assigned to it. More of the same comes from everyone turning patriotic everywhere. This automatic knee-jerk mechanism has seeped in our blood and shut off our brains.
For the love of God can anyone explain me why the great Army of Allah, whose laurels we sing from the day we are born, has still not been able to jam radio stations pouring terror in Swat? Have the core commanders not even tried asking the army engineers how radios work and how easy it is jam them without even having to be in the line of fire? Can they not even figure out if they only played “Who let the Dogs out†at the frequencies the Taliban use it would stop this vitriol? Why is it that these Taliban leaders can appear before journalists in broad daylight and roam freely without any trouble even when they claim responsibility of attacking Pakistanis across the country?
Perhaps the real question I should ask is why do I even care?
When I took time off from Harvard to be part of the lawyers’ movement I had seen a ray of hope. There were concerned citizens and lawyers who stood for what was right no matter what the consequences. We fought for a principle and won with the hope that things will slowly improve. Today the very judges we had faith in released the cleric of Lal Mosque whose crimes everyone knows about. If the judiciary was going to release people whose crimes were recorded on TV perhaps it does explain why Taliban are spreading like an incurable cancer. Imagine who would be hanging in “khooni chowk†had Mullana Abdul Aziz kidnapped a few Taliban officials or fought against them and killed their men?
Yet when you think all’s over, somehow someone comes up. Someone whose name keeps your head from drowning. Perhaps this sick torture has to be long and painful where we chase mirages of oasis, never to really reach them. Perhaps for all the atrocities we have committed to our own people require us to be made an example of so no other nation follows our path. Why do ray of hopes like Afzal Khan, who has socked it up to Taliban and refused to be removed from Swat alive, appear every now and then? However he stands to die in the rain. Alone.
Can anyone please name one Pakistani leader who has said the same? Forget that has anyone Pakistani leader said that he will go and get the Taliban to give up their arms? Will the real leader who can get rid of these monsters stand up? Imran Khan? Qazi? Nawaz Sharif? This silence is criminal!
What’s worse that these leaders of ours have unanimously approved a state within a state run, which is not accountable to anyone, absolves all crimes of the Taliban and gives a safe haven to those who are there to kill us? What sort of a Nizam-e-Nonsense is this when no one even tried to debate the issue properly and even consider for a second that giving blanket amnesty to the Taliban might not, even if it be infinitesimal, the right thing to do? No for the politicians this does not matter. All they are interesting in mudslinging at each other and more ministries. Our media and sheeple are busy devouring the latest gossip while Pakistan burns.
But unlike what people think it will not be because of Zardari’s corruption or Gilani’s incompetence or Salman Taseer’s antics.  We have survived them in the past, and so we’ll do again. But any country that falls to the Taliban will never recovered.
The Taliban are here to stay and unless we stand up against them in every possible way Pakistan will be lost – for good! It will be the silence of the lambs which destroys us. You will be responsible if Pakistan fails.
Sammad Khurram is a student at Harvard University and turned down an award from the US ambassador as a mark of protest against killings of Pakistani soldiers by US drone attacks.
Meengla,
I read the article. Thanks for providing me the reference.
I am amazed by the details that many Pakistanis know about their military, its arsenal and its operations. This gives me an interesting perspective. Military has dominated so much of Pakistan’s history that this is all its people talk about. And one cannot justify all this without an enemy. And that enemy is India. I’d like to say that India is not such a nefarious country. If you look at history, all attacks against India have come from Pakistan, Mumbai being the latest. If India had done what Pakistan had been doing, what would Pakistan’s reaction be?
India is not pointing its guns at Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. These are also independent nations sharing borders with it. Why would it treat Pakistan separately? The reason is that most of the antagonism has come from the Pakistan side. Indian military takes its order from the civilian government. And the government has changes many hands with varying ideologies. Every nation has to protect its borders. India did take Pakistan’s hand whenever peace initiatives were offered. But then Pakistan’s leaders engaged in back stabbing activities – Kargil in 1999 when Indian Prime Minister had worked with Nawaz Sharif on peace building. Musharraf changed his mind and began to understand the truth that India is not so much of a monster and he introduced back channel diplomacy. It was to pave way for long lasting solution. Mumbai attacks happened and Pakistani establishment had to be arm twisted by Western powers to admit the truth. How would that bring any trust in Indians or their military towards Pakistan?
The bottom line is this. Pakistan’s military rulers have used the paranoia about India as a threat and have misled its people to consolidate their hold. Now in Pakistan, the military has a country.
Pakistan has one of the world’s most talented people, be it sports or arts or journalism. Your country could have become like a Western nation 50 years ago if your people had been given a chance. It had American alliance all these years and look at countries like Japan, Singapore etc that were also American allies. Pakistan could be at par with them. Taliban is a sign of backwardness. Indians are not the enemy. It would do a lot of good if moderate Pakistanis read international magazines and books and educate themselves about how they have been misled. We Indians do not want war. Our security set up is only made for response for an attack. We have too many issues to deal with and we want to progress. We’d like Pakistan to compete with us in arts, technology, education, sports, business and constructive activities. We could be competing for contracts for ship building or steel making. It is so unfortunate that you people have been hijacked into believing that Islam is under threat, Pakistan is under threat and so on. There is no such thing.
@Mauryan,
Some of what you say has merit. But please you and others read the following excerpt from Farrukh Saleem’s latest article and ponder: Is there any chance Pakistan is going to launch a conventional attack on India in near or mid-term future? How about the converse: India ‘cutting Pakistan’ into half? Is India helping the peace in the region by make Pakistan concede Kashmir to India under the threat? I think not. Except for a couple of apologists for the Talibans in this blog, you can see that, elite or not, the ‘chattering classes’ of Pakistan are overwhelmingly opposed to the Talibans. And yet it is hard not to think from within the shoes of Pakistan’s army strategists. Why can’t India give the breathing space to Pakistani military, without asking for Pakistan to concede permanently, to take on the militants? Please re-read Dr. Saleem’s article before you or other respond.
Peace.
Here is the excerpt.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=1743 34
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At least 11 per cent of Pakistan’s landmass has been ceded to the Taliban. Where is the Pakistan army? I Corps is in Mangla, II Corps is in Multan, IV Corps in Lahore, V Corps in Karachi, X Corps in Rawalpindi, XI Corps in Peshawar, XII Corps in Quetta, XXX Corps in Gujranwala and XXXI is in Bahawalpur, In effect, some 80 to 90 per cent of our military assets are deployed to counter the threat from India. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and sees its inventory of 6,384 tanks as a threat. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian air force and sees its inventory of 672 combat aircraft as a threat. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and notices that six out of 13 Indian corps are strike corps. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and finds that 15, 9, 16, 14, 11, 10 and 2 Corps are all pointing their guns at Pakistan. The Pakistan army looks at the Indian army and discovers that the 3rd Armoured Division, 4 RAPID Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade have been deployed to cut Pakistan into two halves. The Pakistan army looks at the Taliban and sees no Arjun Main Battle Tanks (MBT), no armoured fighting vehicles, no 155 mm Bofors howitzers, no Akash surface-to-air missiles, no BrahMos land attack cruise missiles, no Agni Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles, no Sukhoi Su-30 MKI air superiority strike fighters, no Jaguar attack aircraft, no MiG-27 ground-attack aircraft, no Shakti thermonuclear devices, no Shakti-II 12 kiloton fission devices and no heavy artillery.
Pakistan is on fire and our fire-fighters are on the Pakistan-India border. To be certain, none of those Indian tanks can cross the Himalayas into China so Arjun MBTs must all be for Pakistan. Thus, the Pakistan-India border has to be defended. Then, what about this hyperactive insurgency that is snatching away Pakistani physical terrain — bit by bit? There certainly is no easy way out. America wants the Pakistan army to neutralise threats to the mainland US. The Pakistan army, on the other hand, has to defend the Pakistan-India border. The need of the hour, therefore, is for all organs of the Pakistani state — the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the military — to put their heads together and devise a National Counter-Insurgency Policy.”
There are lot of good people in Pakistan. Everyone deserves a good life and follow their faith. Islam in Pakistan is mostly based on Sufism. Pakistan’s problems came from short sighted policies of its leaders who did not think far ahead and work towards laying the foundations necessary for a nation’s future and growth. The end result is the all efforts have been one dimensional. The only thing that has achieved any growth is its military and the nukes. It is not surprising that the military is the only thing people look up to for every solution and it has become the only thing that Pakistan has.
If you compare India which won its independence at the same time, there are certain things that its leaders went after and it is bearing fruit today. India took to socialism and secularism as the law of the land in the 1950s. It had no other choice because of its diversity in every possible way. It tried being non-aligned. But cold war geo-politics pushed it to lean on the USSR. India got rid off the feudal lords within 20 years of its independence. There is no elite class in India. And there is no single ethnic community that dominates its military or politics. Its leaders diligently set up institutions for higher education, scientific research and exploration. Now India has management and engineering institutions that rank within the top 100 in the world. Nation building needs a concerted effort.
Pakistani leaders squandered away all the advantages the country had – one religion, smaller in size, plenty of resources and highly intelligent population. Impatience and enmity with India spoiled all that. An unnecessary obsession with Kashmir and contempt over India have helped Pakistani leaders to mislead its people for the past 60 years. India’s goals are not Pakistan specific. However, everything Pakistan took up was Indo-centric. Even its participation in the war against the Soviets was Indo-centric. Get the CIA to help in every possible way to hone the skills of the Mujahideen. Once they were defeated, there was this enormous pool of war hardened veterans who could be unleashed into India to continue the never ending proxy war with India. And Radical Islam was the fuel that was needed. Pakistani leaders made a huge blunder in 1989 by trying to take on India. Within a couple of years, India opened up its economy. Twenty years later, the stark contrast between India and Pakistan show. India has progressed to such an extent that it is being looked at with respect in international circles, despite its drawbacks. Pakistan has nukes and Taliban and the monster does not like to feel trapped. So it has begun to eat Pakistan from within. The military is confused because Taliban was its creation in the background of the Afghan conflict. If the military engages against the Taliban under international pressure, it will only help strengthen the monster and help it spread even more. The military is having to choose between the devil and the deep blue see now. What they choose will decide which way Pakistan will go. Pakistani public have been inactive for too long. The long march will not help as the public have failed to assert themselves right from the beginning. Pakistan is facing a civil war that will lead to further erosion of its foundations. This is unfortunate. But it is only a matter of time.
@Bukhari Sahib: yes. WE Pakistanis stop supporting extremist elements of both pro-religion and anti-religion like seculars and Liberals.
extremism is mindset rather a group of people. Extremism is all about imposing the views on others. When I see people here chant Kaafir then I find no difference between then and ppl on ground. You do not need a weapon to impose an ideology. , You can even use a TV or Papers to impose your views on others as I see how media(both print and TV) is busy to impose the liberal version of Talibanization but this does not hurt because anti-Taliban forces always loved it as for them progressiveness is all about exposure of bodies,music and Dance masti. Even west does not consider it part of their advancement but then our desi elite class always embrace the residue of West and preach it here and there by getting dollars in form of NGOs and what not. We have to getrid of such mind set otherwise nothing can be done.
@ Adnan Siddiqui…
Let me clarify something for you…
I am from Mardan…….Im from that soil and from the very people that you want to see subjugated….and whats more…..I actually KNOW people in Swat and Buner…..and to top it off….i actually get to TALK to them….
dil kay behla…??? have you no limits man? your told facts to you face…and despite have NO…i repeat NO idea what it is that your talking about and yet…typically like a Mullah think that you have a God given right to declare what is right…true and what is wrong….