Of genuine change and fake noise

Our fault tolerance confounds me

We have epitomised the notion of ‘charity begins at home’. We are winning over the world with peace and secret Islamic formula and obviously, we start with killing Shias and Ahmadis first. The way we’ve managed to refuse to budge even an inch in the midst of extreme violence and killings, makes us the most tolerant nation of all. It takes a great deal of ‘tolerance’ to simply change the channel and move on to discuss how lecherous that new Indian song is, or better drool at Turkish soaps and later on fret over degrading moral standards.

For every serious matter being discussed we always have more pertinent issues, ‘more-serious-issues-that-should-have-been-discussed-first’ logic ready at our disposal. Just when the Hazara massacre protest escalated into its second day and the bodies started to decompose, I came across a status update calling for ‘real jazba to bring about genuine change as social media outrage won’t work’.

The real ‘jazba’, I suppose, will only set in when the grieved Hazaras will finally decide to bury their loved ones because the rest of us were too busy sharing pictures of ourselves with the same pose for the umpteenth time.

We will manage to churn out real jazba only when non-serious and loudmouthed circus orchestrators suddenly decide to bestow their imported political guidance from Canada, without any agenda that makes sense to the rest of us – the earthquakes-tsunami-drone deprived lot.

The real fun and genuine patriotism will only come out loud if tension on LoC escalates and Pakistan army announces how it has been busy teaching lessons to Hindu lunatics at one hand and trotting nuclear arsenals on the other hand. Only then, our ‘actual change’ seeking patriots will care to speak out through status updates and trumpeting hollow jingoism.

Or here is an even better deal. Patiently wait for next Gaza-Israel war because ‘genuine’ mouth foaming and swearing is only meant for Israel and its ‘jooish’ lobby. Till then, keep on shamelessly ignoring the fact that some 87 Hazaras ( errr…hazara kon?) have been killed in one blow. Till then how about laughing off at memes from groups like ‘shugal mella’?

Amongst those who have refused to budge is our very own dent less military. Asking for army to step in is similar to asking TTP, the overseer of smaller terrorist organisations, to take charge. The comparison may sound over the top but let us not forget how the army, in 1988, under Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s leadership, had let a laskhar headed by their very own Osama bin Ladin pass through checkpoints which led to killings of around 700 Shias in Gilgit. The usual response pattern is to dismiss Shia-Sunni rifts as work of Irani intelligence agencies, which in turn exempts misery and death of innocent civilians on political grounds. Therefore, army taking over charge will mean nothing more than change in the posting patterns of the military.

The very military that is asked to protect the civilians can’t afford to wage a crackdown on hardcore Sunni terrorist outfits and lose its secret allies (terrorist organisations) in the midst of popular demands for negotiations. Ever increasing support for negotiations itself is a manifestation of the fact that now the establishment’s allies in Balochistan are influential enough to trade power and violence on their terms. Perhaps the success of this policy shift can be evaluated by TTP’s latest announcement that they will not attack Pakistan Army, for now.

Talking of army’s role, how can we forget that it’s the same establishment that still chose to keep the status of an entire province merely as a buffer area with Balochis as guinea pigs? It has been repeatedly criticised for disappearing citizens just like that and perpetuating human rights violations without being answerable to anyone.

Not to mention the role of ever flourishing apologentia and televengalists which, at the end of the day serves as a buffer for anti-extremist sentiments by explaining how these killings should not be taken as humanitarian crisis but merely a political rift created by various intelligence agencies across the border.

As hopeless as it sounds, if military and civilian establishment are serious about tackling the issue, they should start with a major policy shift with regards to Balochistan instead of appeasing the Taliban. Unfortunately, at the moment, the proposition sounds as far-fetched as those measly commendations given by the authorities.

The writer is a political satirist. She can be reached at [email protected]