One would imagine that our National Defence Day that passed by this week would perhaps bring fresh hope for security and stability amidst all the brutality, warmongering and malcontent in Pakistan. While it may have passed silently for the majority of the population just going about their business on a normal work day, cyberspace was abuzz with a new meme. And this one didn’t involve any cat videos for a change but a photograph taken from low-earth orbit.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but only to fools who can’t read a thousand words. For others, it’s worth a lot more – about a hundred billion dollars more. That’s the estimated cost of the International Space Station (ISS) aboard which astronauts from Expedition 28 photographed the Indo-Pak border region last month. Released to the public only a few days ago, the spectacular night-time vista shows the floodlit border zone snaking for hundreds of kilometers across the earth’s surface. While a view of the illuminated border may be intriguing, the ISS photograph also shows several large urban areas that are clearly distinguished as clusters of light. While some may find the night-time cityscapes of Delhi and Lahore to be beautiful, the truth is our cities look more like a cancerous growth on the face of the earth than anything else. But that’s a digression better reserved for next week.
If you’ve previously ooohed and aaahed at the hackneyed foot stomping ceremony at Wagha, rest assured the ISS photograph will show you the border like never before. It is, for want of a better word, enlightening. One always knew we had a border problem, but to join the ranks of countries where manmade structures are visible from space seems a bit premature. After the Great Wall of China and the Palm Island in Dubai, who would have guessed that a South Asian nuclear hotspot would attract so much attention for its photogenic quality? But we do—and it’s not for a very good reason.
The border between Pakistan and India has regularly seen attempts at infiltration by terrorists, as well as the movement of arms and contraband by smugglers. In order to prevent these practices, the installation of floodlights was sanctioned by the Indian government in 2003 and is due for completion within the next six months. That’s nearly two thousand kilometers of floodlights which will have been constructed entirely on India’s dime (At least now we know where all their aid money goes).
It’s too bad we don’t have any claim to it but one cannot help but wonder whether this is the final insult to a nation facing a crippling energy crisis and a breakdown of law and order? Could it be that India is taunting us with high-flying security arrangements and energy surpluses as we struggle to maintain some semblance of normality with candles, generators and uninterrupted power supplies? Maybe not, but then what else are neighbours for if not to ensure we are perpetually trying to keep up with the Joneses.
You see the trouble with neighbourhoods these days is that there are more hoods than neighbours in them. Just go to any of the urban or rural areas of Pakistan and you would find communities struggling to hold their own in a country filled with crime, mistrust and greed. If self-preservation is so deeply ingrained in our DNA, why should inter-relations between the likes of India and Pakistan be any different? Why pretend to be chums when we have been engaged in armed conflict ever since we gained independence? While there have been four wars and many border skirmishes and military stand-offs, there are also allegations against both countries for engaging in proxy wars by providing military and financial assistance to violent non-state actors. So exactly where are we headed?
After years of watching the laying of floral wreaths and listening to audacious declarations of impregnability on the occasion of Defence Day, coming face to face with the extent of our neighbour’s vigilance was a bit heartening. The optimist in us will always say that good fences make good neighbours. And it’s not hard to see that while Pakistan may not have invested a single cent in the construction of the floodlit corridor, we still benefit from it. Sitting less than thirty kilometres from the border, one cannot help but feel just a little bit safer knowing that no matter how dismal and bleak things may get with WAPDA and the Taliban running around these parts, the lights are on and at least someone is watching.
The writer is a consultant on public policy.