by Dr. Haider Mehdi
“Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism.”
- Chris Hedges (in an article of the same title)
My generation grew up in a different Pakistan. A different Lahore, a different Karachi, a different Peshawar, a different Quetta, a different Islamabad and an entirely different country.
In Lahore, people sat in Pak Tea House and Coffee House and talked about politics, poetry, religion, culture and friendships gave birth, on a daily basis, to youthful romanticism of our times: the mutual seduction of kindred spirits within the confines of our cultural values and the gentleness of Urdu poetry, songs, geets (lyrics) and the Lahori humor. We celebrated basant (the kite-flying festival), maila-charagha (the festival of lights) and Urs Data Gung-Baksh (the festival of a saint). We observed Muharram with great reverence.
Karachi used to be alive twenty-four hours a day all year round. It was a city of “lights”, “fashion”, hustle-bustle of a truly cosmopolitan metropolis. Ethnic diversity and tolerance was the hallmark of this city. Peshawar was a beacon of hospitality, a tribute to human gentleness and an affirmation of a rich community life. Quetta’s apple-laden trees decorated its roads everywhere and the Balochis colorful existence found its spirit in its music, songs and even in its cuisine. Pakistan’s rural society existed in purity, simplicity and the zealousness of hard-working people.
Pakistan was a different country then: we lived in relative peace, tolerance and mutual harmony. A delicious puri nashta cost one rupee, petrol was Rs. 2.50 a gallon, schooling was cheap, sugar and food were plenty, and a round-trip by PIA from Lahore to Karachi was Rs. 250.
The majority of Pakistanis were poor even then, but there was no mass starvation, deprivation suicides, forced prostitution, massive collective depressive communities, agonizing socio-psychological conditions, economic collapse, and no one knew of crippling demoralizing inner fears. We did not know of institutional violence and extensive state terror – though police brutality and legal system atrocities were common, bureaucracy was horribly cruel, corrupt, inefficient and unbelievably powerful vis-à-vis the citizenry, commerce thrived on black-marketing and the political class wholly and completely indulged in vested interests, inappropriate use of political power and mismanagement of state affairs.
Even though we lived with a million vices as a nation, but strangely enough, life was not as painful as it is in today’s democratic Pakistan. Neither was the entire nation, every one of its citizens, griped with such forceful, depleting and paralyzing fear – a fear that the management of the survival of this country has gone out of control. A fear that we all may be blown away from existence the next moment, if not literally then at least in a metaphorical sense!
Do you realize the seriousness of our contemporary political crisis?
The present state of our deplorable existence is the work of our decade-long political leadership inclusive of Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship and the incumbent political dispensation in the country.
The fundamental failure of our national policy is this country’s ruling elite’s destructive all time political-economic-military alliance with the US and its allies (now India included).
Even at the time that I have described as the “golden days” of Pakistan’s past, our ruling elite was fully and comprehensively politically engaged with the US and its allies. However the US was in a different political mode then: it was fighting its own self-invented “demons” – the communist ideology and the communist nations (though communism was not a threat – it was a political experiment to solve mass poverty). The objective of American foreign policy was global political-economic and military domination.
In the present-day world, the policy objectives of the US and its allies remain same: worldwide imperialist hegemony and exploitation by the West’s multi-national corporations.
However, in the contemporary equation, the West’s enemies have been redefined: Now we are the “demons.” They have declared a war against Muslim nations, their people, their faith, their culture, their traditions, their values and customs, their history and even against their existence as we know it today. Huntington in “The Clash of Civilizations” warns that if we do not transform our civilization to a Western model, then we must be prepared for an ultimate obliteration through successive wars at the hands of the West: We are given no choices.
700 Pakistani citizens died in American drone attacks in 2009 alone. It is not accidental!
What the US and its Western allies do not understand is that their present war is not against an economic-political ideology (communism). This war is against a people, a faith, a history, an existential reality, an entirety of a civilization, an actual formidable historical presence and an enduring spiritual entity. They, the US and its allies (which include collaborating political elites in Muslim countries), cannot win this war. Indeed, they can unleash havoc, a wave of destruction (as they are doing now), but they cannot and will not win!
Coming back to the context of Pak-US relations, consider the following most plausible scenario in the immediate future:
Through covertly managed organized violence, collaborations, propaganda, bombings and political manipulations, the US succeeds in destabilizing Pakistan to an extent of complete political chaos, limited anarchy and a near civil war situation. Under the pretext of threat to international security, American and Nato forces are moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Pakistan’s nuclear assets are seized, a puppet regime is installed: Pakistan is de-nuclearized, India (the newest US ally) becomes a dominate regional power, Iran is contained, China-Russia growing political clout is checked, the US-West’s historical global dominance is achieved – the world is saved!
Is that what the Pakistani nation wants and deserves?
Imran Khan’s perspective on Pakistan’s foreign policy and domestic priorities is correct: we need to politically-militarily disengage Pakistan from the US-West’s global objectives. We need to immediately end this so-called “war on terror” against our own citizens. We need to negotiate peace with political dissidents in NWFP, Balochistan and in every corner of Pakistan. We must appreciate the fact that political dissent is not terror!
We ought to, by engaging our own citizens and political dissidents, quietly and secretly do a complete “cleansing” of the foreign elements and local collaborators involved in organized violence in our country. This can only be accomplished by a determined, independent, nationalist and highly efficient political leadership that can make national policy without American influence and interference. And this is the ultimate requirement of our times.
At last, Mian Nawaz Sharif, said something right the other day: the public in Pakistan needs to think in revolutionary ways now.
Allow me to go one step further: what we need is revolutionary political leadership in this country. We deserve a change in the political mindset and political conduct of this nation’s leaders. We need fresh leadership in Pakistan.
We all do not need to be politically loyal to our contemporary political dispensation or to our present political allies. We must completely reject a global political system of US-West’s dominance.
We all ought to be political dissidents! After all, dissent is a vital element of the democratic political process. It is a duty of an engaged citizenry!
One day we all might be considered terrorists by our Western “friends.”
Never mind. So be it!
The writer is an academic, political analyst & conflict-resolution expert.
We are TERRORIST, no doubt at all, but for those who wage war against us, for those who undermine our sovereignty and Kaffirs of the world who want to eliminate us. This is the WORD OF ALLAH, ” and strike terror in to the hearts of enemies of Allah and your enemy, whome you know not but Allah does know” (Alquraan). Let the West Call us the terrorists.I am proud to be a terrorist.
Assalam U Aaleakum
· WE are NOT TERRORIST as AMERICA and WEST claimed, WE are FREEDOME FIGHTERS and we have moral rights and duties, no doubt at all, BUT We are TERRORIST for those who wage WAR against ALLAH and MUSLIM UMMA, for those who UNDERMINE SOVEREIIGNTY and KAFFIRS through out the WOLRD, who want to ELIMINATE MUSLIM UMMA from PLANET EARTH. We MUSLIM have seen in AFRICA, BOSNIA, GAZA, LABELON, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN and now in PAKISTAN.
· NO body talk about these TERRORIST CONTERIES, like AMERICA, ISRAEL, EUROPE and INDIA, not to mention the UN. HOW they are creating TERRORISAM in other MUSLIM COUNTERIES. WHY?
. BEWARE YOU LOTS time is running out for YOU, SOON ALLAH(SWT) WILL PUNISH YOU ALL for this HORRAFIC and BARBERIC ACT.
· INSHAALLAH, YOU will never be SUSCEED IN YOUR MISSON, because ALLAH (SWT) said, Several Places in QURAAN that HE will, HIMSELF safegaurd the DEEN E ISLAM AND MUSLIM all over the WORLD. DO NOT worry about ENEMY PROPAGENDA.
· This is the “WORD OF ALLAH (SWT), ” AND STRIKE THE TERROR IN TO THE HEARTS OF ENEMIES OF ALLAH (SWT) AND YOUR ENEMY, WHOM YOU DON’T KNOW, BUT ALLAH DOES KNOW”. AL-QURAAN.
· O! MUSLIM UMMA, TIGHTLY hold the STRING of ALLAH (SWT), DO NOT DIVIDE among youself, be UNITED. AL-QURAAN
. LET the USA and WEST Call us the TERRISTS. I am PROUD to be called as a TERRIST. IT is my duty as a MUSLIM to fight against the enemies ALLAH and MUSLIM UMMA by writing the truth against them.
· Finnaly I humbly request all MUSLIM COUNTRIES to PULL OUT from UN, because UN ALWAYS working against MUSLIM COUNTRIES and helping TERRORIST CONTERIES, against MUSLIM COUNTRIES.
Bravo!
One of the best Articles I have read in a while.
God Bless you Dr saab.
“This war is against a people, a faith, a history, and an existential reality, an entirety of a civilization, an actual formidable historical presence and an enduring spiritual entity. They, the US and its allies (which include collaborating political elites in Muslim countries), cannot win this war. Indeed, they can unleash havoc, a wave of destruction (as they are doing now), but they cannot and will not win!”
The logic that the Taliban represent a civilization and they a formidable spiritual entity is grossly inaccurate, The Taliban do not even represent the Afghan nation as they derive their forces from phustuns which are proportionate of 45% of ethnic population of Afghanistan.
Moreover Dr, Haider’s and many like him would like to quote Huntington’s theory of “Clash of Civilizations” which is an academic paper not a foreign policy doctrine as implied over here. The proponents of such theories also exist is the Muslim world.
This war will not end as suggested if we disengage ourselves from the coalition, for the ultimate goal of the extremists is to topple the regime and to radicalize the Pakistan society.
Dr Sahib fondly recalls the multi-cultural and fashionable traits of Karachi correctly! My question however is would hustle and bustle still be there if these extremists are in power?
@ammarisb
Ammar, what you represent here is a very common phenomenon of fear of the unverified, and extrapolation of the events to something you do not know of. Have you ever analyzed the plausibility of what you say, like many others, that the extremists’ agenda is to conquer Pakistan and form a radical rule over 170 million people, without their will? Has it ever happened in the human history ever? That 170 million people with such a big spectrum of cultures, languages, and even views, understanding and practice of religion will be subdued by a group whose only action so far is violence? And that violence too at the support of the foreign nations who provide them weapon, explosives, money and equipment? (of course, these are not manufactured in Pakistan) Let us try to be somewhat rational about it.
When did these extremists decide to conquer Pakistan? See, we need to have a proof or some level of certainty before we jump ourselves into a journey which will only bleed us to death if we do not win? Why only in the last 3-4 years do we see all this? Why is West and the other forces pushing us more to fight it? Why every political problem, such as Balochistan, every ethnic issue, such as in Karachi, and every sectarian knot, such as sunni versus shia, being lumped all into one word, terrorism?
Fear based on violence can lead to masses drawing conclusions like the one you have done. Then we do not care to verify the facts and not even analyze the cost and benefits, or to think what options do we have at hand. You do not have to listen to Huntington’s thesis, but at least in a very local sense, you have to understand the dynamics of the problem Pakistan faces today; of course, with attention paid to historical events of the last decade, and the contribution of external intervention. Because, even if the answer comes out to fight a war, we still have to ask why would the US and West give us resources to fight; no nation fights other nation’s war. If it happens, such a coalition is bound to lose. Whether the West gives us resources/aid to fight against our enemy, as Zardari and his team has been asking for, or we pledge and send our troops to fight against the US’s enemy, this is a logically flawed scenario and is bound to fail in both cases.
@FMK I appreciate your insightful comment, but I was in no way trying to imply that Pakistan is under an imminent threat from extremist elements, the nuclear arsenal is not candy that can be snatched away.
I completely endorse your view that no nation fights another nation’s war, and for this winning this war we need to take ownership of this war, until then we will be clueless
@ammarisb
Thanks!
Exactly, the day when we start to take the ownership, this problem of internal violence and extremism will be defeated. When our government and its people at the positions of responsibility stop showing off their “progress report” to the US, and wishing to receive a pat at their back. When they rather tell them that we do not want your intervention in our internal matters, that you also have to follow our laws and constitution; and that we will not take dictation from you on who to consider our enemy and do an operation, nor who to sign an NRO with, or execute via judiciary.
Unless that happens, the external forces will keep having a party at diverting their enemy to Pakistan at one hand, and keep twisting our arm to bend, and stretch, to do the insane things, posing threats to our very existence.
@FMK! The ownership bit is crucial and as you said we should stop showing the “progress report” as it does put undue pressure on the armed forces and a hasty operation has its own repercussions. The operations must continue but we have to set the goals and to devise the means to achieve them.
The Denmark government is providing a 12 million $ grant to Pakistan for rebuilding the 473 schools destroyed by the Taliban, a kind gesture indeed but as responsible citizens we must ensure that the money is spent in the right area. Education has long been a neglected domain and this aid should not be spent upon buying fancy protocol motorcades!
Leave your response!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Recent Comments
Discuss Topics
Blog Comments
Search