Sitting on the fence

In Pakistan, it seems, convenience trumps concern for human life

There is hardly anything pleasant about this week. This was originally supposed to be a piece about killings of anti-polio workers and the plight of Christians as Christmas approaches. The plight of both had something in common with the late Mr Bashir Ahmed Bilour—his beliefs and actions, like theirs, were on the wrong side of a line that decides whether or not you will be allowed to live.

The Awami National Party (ANP)—true to its creed, imbued by intellectual giants like Ghaffar Khan, Bacha Khan, of standing up to bullies—has taken the firmest stand against violence in the name of religion too. And they have paid a heavy price for that. The KP information minister has faced multiple attacks and lost his son in one such attempt. Hundreds, if not thousands, of ANP workers at the grassroots level have been systematically targeted by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their multiple off-shoots. Make no mistake about the magnitude of these sacrifices. Not only have hundreds of families lost their loved ones but a political party has lost grassroots level workers—meaning that come the elections the ANP party machinery will be significantly handicapped in mobilising its support base. As a friend from KP aptly reminded me recently, “You win elections if you can draw out the voters. For that you need people. ANP is running out of people.”

ANP’s stance, the latest casualty of which has been the martyred Mr Bilour, is nothing short of heroic. From the day they took office they have highlighted how the TTP and its ideology threatens everything that we want for ourselves and our children. Sadly, because of the Punjabi conditioning of Islamabad, Peshawar seems a long way off. Therefore, even the federal government and GHQ were slow to respond to calls for military action in Swat. Once the army began to feel the heat itself, it kicked into action but Peshawar has not become any safer and we, over time, have become immune to the plight of people there. Many can afford to believe, while living in Lahore and Islamabad, that Peshawar isn’t Pakistan. Convenience trumps concern for human life.

The federal government has not done enough to protect the ANP and the message that it stands for. The security agencies should have done a more thorough job of anticipating the violence that anti-polio workers would suffer and adequate steps should have been taken. Their task has not been helped by the conspiracy theories on the media that turned Shakil Afridi’s story into a specter haunting the security of life of anti-polio workers. Even if Shakil Afridi did what he did, the media could have been far more responsible in distinguishing his actions from the general campaign against polio. An ad by the ministry of health can do little good if news channels follow it up with shows manned by people promoting conspiracy theories. Free speech? Sure. But a media house can and must invite those who want to challenge the absurd conspiracy theories being promoted. That is often lacking.

The mortal fault of the martyred Mr Bilour, as well as the anti-polio workers, is that they stood up against systemic ignorance and hate and decided to challenge a reductionist narrative. They paid for this with their lives. The sad part is that many in this country will still blame the US, Israel and India for this. They will, despite blown up schools and bullet riddled bodies, support negotiations with people who want nothing less than the destruction of Pakistan as we know it. They won’t even believe the TTP when they claim responsibility for this. Negotiations, apparently, is the way forward. Even Santa would find that absurd.

You don’t need to have taken a class on negotiations to know that it helps to negotiate from a position of strength. By caving in to the TTP, we do not gain anything. Furthermore, in all this talk of negotiations, no one seems to be considering what will happen to those people who will be forced to live under TTP “rules”? Should the state of Pakistan abdicate all responsibility towards them? If they don’t want polio workers in their midst, should we accept that? And if we don’t accept that then, sure as Christmas, the battle can’t take place on the negotiations table. Who are we kidding?

There are lines in Pakistan now that you shouldn’t cross now if you want to be safe. But people like Mr Bilour crossed them being fully aware of the consequences. And that is the choice that we must make now. Either take a stand or sit on the fence. The latter guarantees security in the short term but uncertainty in the long run—you will never know what about you irks the believers and they will come after you. The benefit of taking a stand, without prejudice to morality, is that you at least know the bargain that you are entering into. That you stand for the security of this country’s citizens and the education of its children. And maybe that is a far better ideal to die for than being naïve or being killed by a stray bullet while you are twiddling your thumbs, sitting on a fence. And by the way, Merry Christmas. Stay safe.

The writer is a High Court Advocate and a partner at Bhutta, Khan & Mir (BKM). He is a Barrister and holds a Masters degree from Harvard Law School. Contact: [email protected] or Twitter @wordoflaw. Views expressed here are strictly his own and not the law firm BKM.