As I sit down to write this article, I am sad and deeply troubled for four reasons. I am sad that I had to lose a friend, Saleem Shahzad; I am sad that I had to write an open letter to Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Director-General-ISI; I am sad that letter got such a massive response; and I am sad that far from understanding what I wrote and why, the sleuths decided to respond by leaving pitiable comments through fake names, expressing the same putrid thinking that has brought us to this pass.
The thrust of the letter was simple. I tried to inform the DG-ISI that people were pointing fingers at the ISI and that the agency he heads is deeply distrusted by a very large number of people. Both of these are facts and not a figment of anyone’s imagination. Nor is this an external conspiracy. This distrust is grounded in how the agency has evolved over the years and how it has become unaccountable.
Allied with this was my contention that I consider this disconnect the biggest evolving threat to the state, the entity that has always been my unit of analysis. But because this entity as an organising principle can be easily problematised, being more imagined than real or biological, its cohesion and acceptability are a function of its legitimacy. That legitimacy comes when people accept the state as working on their behalf and when the core aspects of the identity of a state are accepted and internalised by the people to the point and where any external challenges to those core aspects are simply not entertained.
Anything short of this and the state begins to lose its legitimacy. A loss of legitimacy is, in many ways, the gravest threat that a state can face. Pakistan today faces this threat at a very high level. This is because the state first empowered various right-wing elements to fight its covert wars, and then lost control of those elements after staging a U-turn under external pressure. One consequence of this lack of control is that those radicalised elements have since run amok and created a bloodbath within Pakistan. The left-liberal enclave, on the retreat for a long time, has always been alienated from the state which it correctly considers to be heavily biased in favour of the military.
The result of all this is the near-absence of a centre and very deep internal fault-lines that, over the years, have only further deepened. It is woefully inadequate to say that all these fault-lines are produced by conspiracies against Pakistan. And it is downright dishonest to say that anyone pointing out these fault-lines is working for the enemies of Pakistan.
States have faced greater military challenges than the one facing Pakistan today. But those that come out victorious are not fractured nations whose homes lie divided. We are. And no amount of propaganda, dissembling and petty lying can negate that fact. It is these divisions which our external enemies are exploiting. Identifying these divisions therefore does not make one an enemy of Pakistan; in fact it is those ignoring or hiding our divisions who are betraying this country. Let there be no doubt about this.
Any writer would be happy to get a huge response to what he or she writes. Why then did the response to my letter make me sad? Simple. It proves the contention contained in the letter that we now have a disconnect between the military and the civilians, which disconnect is our biggest internal threat. And how does one address it? By being an ostrich? Pretending it doesn’t exist? That all is well? Quite the contrary.
Those Pakistanis who are distrustful of the state, the military, the intelligence agencies – not to mention politicians and political parties – are not enemies of this country. For the most part these are decent people, with families and jobs who would like nothing more than to see their country prosper. They would like nothing more than to hold a green passport with honour and dignity. They are all patriots, and given what they want, probably more patriotic than those contemptible sods who choose to fudge issues and malign others.
Finally, the ghost-written responses to my letter make me despair because they show so clearly what is wrong with us; they also prove, if proof were still required, that our only strategy when in a hole is to dig further. If it were just about myself, I would have written a satirical column, lampooning these ghosts who live in a phantom world. But this is about a state which is my only abode, my only identity, regardless of where I might be. It is home.
Let me reiterate. No matter what these apologists of the old and defeated paradigm might say, Pakistan has to reinvent itself; it has to woo its people and give them a sense of belonging – regardless of caste, creed, colour, ethnicity, religion and religious denominations. The day this happens, the external world will have nothing to exploit. No external intelligence agency will be able to hire its people to advance its agenda and this country will interest the world rather than worrying it. There will be no disconnect between the military and the people. No one will have to write an open letter; no one will read such a letter. No one will be sad.
In Bertolt Brecht’s play, The Life of Galileo, Andrea Sarti, Galileo’s student, is frustrated by his inability to stand up to the Inquisition and says: “Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.” Hearing this, Galileo replies: “No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
The writer is Contributing Editor, The Friday Times.
This bimbo is about to loose a whole country and he is looking for reasons in HIS sadness. Saab gee your admittedly your sadness is weightier than the nations but once in a while write something other than what your masters want
Hello sad sack. You are a complete idiot from Army mate. I can see this clearly because of your low IQ, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors :-). Grow up for Gods sake, apologize to the nation for the atrocities you have committed against the Pakistani nation. Or we Pakistanis will do to you what Indians have done to you.
an excellent column yet again.
@ anon
yar where are u when hamid mir,zaid hamid, mubashir lucman,hamid gul are forming and promoting opinions? why dont you go and correct these people? all u see is ejaz haider. i dont know where u live but where i live everybody agrees with mr ejaz haider. its about time we reigned in our militray/isi.
Dear anti:
let me be specific:
1. i have the same or even worse opinion about the people you mentioned in the
beginning. i wish i had a venue to face them.
2. NO. Ejaz Haider is not the only person i see.
3. i live in the United States. i am looking at Pakistan from outside into it.
My heart goes with everyday common people of Pakistan. i feel there are
things taken away from their everyday happiness and i am mad about it.
4. "about time we reigned in our military/isi". i am in 100% agreement with
you.
Finally, you confused me by making, i would say, opposing statements. How does your first idea against hamid mir et-al jell with reigning on military/isi!
Aren't these part of the same body?
And, thanks for letting me know your sentiments. i respect you.
Ejaz Haider what ever has jotted down is absolutely right and not only I am agree with but whole nation will laud his thoughts and notions, Ejaz Haider Sahib, my cordial prayers are with you, may Allah secure you from "DEVILS". And I pay you a rich tribute.
'Sense of Belonging' is the mantra, but who is going to implement it. The society is polarised on the basis of language, faith, culture, social status and region. Even if the parliament scraps the present constitution and formulates a new one where all these divisions are taken care of, the hatred and animosity fed to the people since Seventies is not going to evaporate.
Sense of Belonging is not forced externally, it oozes out from within. Creation of Pakistan had more to do (by the masses) with the hatred of Hindus than the love of Muslims. That element of hatred was exploited by the leadership to make Pakistan. Since its independence the establishment has failed to transform Pakistan into a welfare state; instead it has utilised state resources for the defence of the state against real/ imaginary enemies while the masses were fed the slogans of patriotism and religiosity.
Before independence 'Hindu' was the only other to be despised, and now numerous 'others' have replaced one, and this trend has been successfully employed and exploited by various organisations on the basis of ethnicity/ sect/ language. Now this voracious multi headed monster is beyond control of any party /organisation and institute.
Well said! I do bear similar thoughts.
And look at where this led us to. Look at the Rangers incidents.
What promoted this kind of behavior. Is this how we want us to be remembered?
Ejaz has noble intentions but he knows that it is an impossible task, because in the words of Zafar Hilaly 'this nation is in free fall, let us wait when it hits the ground. Only then we will learn whether it is d..d or hurt'. Let us wait and pray.
" Unhappy is the land that needs a hero". This benchmark proves that it is really UNHAPPY land. The remains of 'Jinnah, Iqbal, Bhutto, BB and many other unsung and always sung' heroes are blessing the geographical corners of this land.
Sad but true!!! Unfortunately arMy Has proven to be a menace for our beloved country…
I am an Indian, living in India. First of all congratulations to Ejaz for such a wonderful, honest letter and also this post. We, in India, also are faced with a similar situation (even if we boast of a thriving democracy) where the govt. sends 5000 policemen to attck peaceful, sleeping demonstrators.Most Indians, on a one to one basis, will say, they want a peaceful, prosperous Pakistan. Both our contries are full of people with closed minds, what we need is an open mind to debate openly various points of view without getting personal. I agree with Mr.Haider that it is time people in Pakistan are given hope and the means to create the Pakistan envisaged by Mr. Jinnah. The same goes for India.
Very well said. Although i believe that ur tone was much softer than wht it should have been in the last article still it touched the right points.
Army n specifically "Agencies" are No angels or Holy cows and they shouldn't be. I ll not talk about wht the Conquerors (oh, soldiers) of Pakistan have done to Bhutto, Nawaz, Jouranlists, Laal Masjid students n above all Balochistan.
Just see whts has recently happend in Quetta n now karachi. These Men in Boots are not ready to allow Law to touch them – they get our support to show us the Guns.
They blame politicians…hah, from the appointment of ISI chief to the shuffing in the army is explained to US.
One Solution – bring the Generals down: Cane them and hang them publicly. shooting them will not be justified
^ still i wish the Conquerors (army) of Pak best of luck in THEIR War of Terror! Its not mine
these guys forcefully made it mine!
I'm sad too because the famous quote of Brecht (Andrea: "Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero." Galileo: "No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero." …) is the most emphatic commentary on today's Pakistan.
Ah! I thought I had lost you Mr. Haider. I read your last article in Daily Times in which you did not disclose your future plans. I thought you might have opted for Dubai, the second capital of Pakistan. .Honestly I have been missing you since then.
Lucky me. Few weeks ago, I happened to see Pakistan Today and to my joy there you were with your forced smile face.
Rafatullah Khan
NY
Reinventing Pakistan is the most pressing need for our country. If people like you start using this word more often, then positive change can take place. Problem in Pakistan is not ISI or military. It is our civilian governing systems. No one talks about bad bureaucracy, bad police system, bad/lack of local governments and bad taxation systems. All writers are hypocrites or, are paid by the civilian Elite to stay mum about these things. I have seen no columnist talking about reforms, reforms that have never taken place since independence.
Very well said. By making military and ISI accountable DOES NOT mean that we are enemies of Pakistan. This mistrust and disconnect between civilians and forcess have reasons which are very proment and a blind can’t miss them.
Ever expanding ‘gernala-bads’ compounds after compounds for military officers are tolerable (to some extent) if the performance is not doubtfull!! But here the question is, after this recent events, about incapability and integrity.
*Applauds*
It is sad. Equally sad is your woeful understanding of cyber dynamics. Those comments could come from anybody. One person could have an entire conversation with himself on the internet and not have anybody know it. The saddest is that you take responses so seriously.
Excellant piece, but My Dear Ejaz, after writting such a piece, you must be ready to face wrath of "Ghairat Brigade".
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