One should not be much surprised by the president Zardari’s speech of 21 Oct wherein he expressed his hopelessness in forging a consensus with opposition parties on a military operation in North Waziristan. Just a few days back, the ruling party tried to table a resolution in the parliament to get consent on North Waziristan operation but had to back out as opposition parties were not ready to support the same. He regretted the increased polarization in the society which has heavily affected the war on religious militancy.
One example is murder of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer whose murderer was later garlanded by lawyers. The government couldn’t get any prominent lawyer to pursue the murder case on behalf of deceased governor’s family, while a former Chief Justice of Lahore High Court offered his services to defend the governor’s murderer. Take the case of attempted murder of Malala YousifZai; after reluctantly condemning the brutal attack, several mainstream political-religious leaders started confusing an already disjointed nation – some were of the opinion that it’s work of American agents as no Muslim Jihadi can do this, some questioned why so much focus on Malala, why not other girls killed in attacks, some started linking it with drone attacks. Taking such distorted stand, they were in a way supporting the militants.
Yes, there is polarization in the society which is divided among religious, ultra-religious and liberal people. Yes several of ultra-religious militants are armed to the teeth ready to kill anyone, and then there are people whose inaction or silence is in a way supporting the militants. But should we assume that we have entered in a street with dead end and militancy is our way of life. It is duty of all the liberal forces in Pakistan, be it PPP, ANP or MQM, and civil society not to surrender for fear of life. If Pakistan has to survive, we have to defeat the evil forces of dark, otherwise sacrifices of 40,000 civilians and military personnel will go waste.
Yesterday it was Salmaan Taseer, today it is Malala, tomorrow it could be any party leader as militants lump all the liberal and right-wing parties as agents of the West. Time is running out; if we don’t agree to take the job, someone else will do on our behalf. And in return we will get only regrets.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia