Let us all remain in the character and abstain from overreaching or overacting
Both Pakistan and Turkey slayed one PM each. We hanged our Bhutto, they executed their Menderes. Both nations boast many other similarities too. Becoming increasingly religious is one. While Turkey still retains its secular credentials to some extent we in Pakistan, without any restraint or recourse, are wallowing neck deep in religiosity as it makes all things earthly and ethereal more sacred, more holy
Turkey had it again. Turkey countered it this time and made its boots pay. Finally, Turkey changed the course of its history for all times to come. The mighty, predominantly secular hydra-headed military was reined in and cut to size in the wake of a failed coup d’état. And we folks here in Pakistan are cent percent sure that if and when given the similar circumstance, we’ll prove that we ain’t no Turkey at all. We’ll caress our jawans and make way for their tanks and trucks and give them our own pistols and guns (in case they’ve forgotten their own arms back in the barracks) to boot out the people we voted in.
Both Pakistan and Turkey slayed one PM each. We hanged our Bhutto, they executed their Menderes. Both nations boast many other similarities too. Becoming increasingly religious is one. While Turkey still retains its secular credentials to some extent we in Pakistan, without any restraint or recourse, are wallowing neck deep in religiosity as it makes all things earthly and ethereal more sacred, more holy.
We are easily bored folks whose only salvation lies in continuously seeking new stimuli and new shocks to satiate our sense of fulfillment. Many among us, I kid you not, when came to know of a coup being underway in Turkey prayed for it to succeed as only then it’ll pave way for a similar ‘change’ in Pakistan. And when it failed miserably, even the mighty sportsman had to utter his wishes in a wistful manner by saying that in Pakistan, things would be different, a similar coup would succeed here, people will welcome it and so on and so forth.
Well, sir, can I ask Your Speediness a few questions? Sir, what irredeemable sin has our elected government committed that they be forced to leave office in midterm? Have they upended the Constitution? Have they sabotaged the foundations of this state? Were they not given a mandate for five years by the very people who are ‘lesser mortals’ in your eye but have a single vote to cast just like you?
No, sir, we’ve come a long way. In a democracy, we, the people of Pakistan will decide who will rule us and who will be kept at bay and denied a chance. Ask any student of political science and he’ll tell you that despite certain drawbacks and flaws, democracy is still the ‘lesser evil’ of a government than autocracy or junta rule. Dearest sirs and ma’ams, let us please put our thinking hats on and dare to put up with the boring bits of democracy and avow anew that we’ll never, ever root for so-called strongmen, transgressors and their henchmen.
As to His Speediness, my liege, I fully understand the intense cravings for sweetmeat a person with a sweet tooth quite often has. But can’t a great many human ATM machines around Your Preciousness provide a ton or two of confectionaries as and when desired, or must there be created an occasion or a coup to provide you and your tigers an excuse to distribute ‘mithai’ as much-awaited ‘tabdeeli’ has finally arrived all dolled up in a khaki garb and flaunting hard-soled boots.
The majority didn’t mourn her. The minority that did, did so as a knee jerk reaction. The candles were lit, the deceased was remembered for her defiance and capacity to startle more conventional souls with her bold and brash antics
On a serious note, Erdogan of Turkey has reduced his army to a bare skeleton of its former glory, the Turks better indulge in some soul searching about what do they expect from a soldier who gets beaten up, his weapons snatched away, gets paraded half naked in the streets, whipped and flogged, handcuffed and thrown behind the bars because he couldn’t refuse an order as he has to follow a ‘chain of command’. I guess the only lesson to learn from human history is; it is always the pigmies who pay for the desires and designs of pharaohs.
In the ultimate analysis, we are all a bunch of pawns, scapegoats, fall guys, tools and Toms, Dicks and Harrys who live and die for causes too great for our tiny consciences to even contemplate, let alone embark on.
Now that we are done with the macro, with the mighty world of power politics and the fate of great men, let us solemnly recount a murder that took place in our voyeuristic, overtly faith drenched, covertly sexually repressed society. Qandeel Baloch, the most recent seven day wonder, got strangled to death by her brother. She was a victim of a mindset who wants to enjoy all the pecuniary benefits that brazenness, audacity assures when shrouded in anonymity but when it’s time to pay the devil by shedding one’s namelessness, it turns murderous and all the traditional notions of honour dawn upon us.
The majority didn’t mourn her. The minority that did, did so as a knee jerk reaction. The candles were lit, the deceased was remembered for her defiance and capacity to startle more conventional souls with her bold and brash antics.
Since Qandeel Baloch was neither Qandeel nor Baloch, her escape from her own name and identity was an attempt to forge a new destiny, to befool her kismet with an acquired name. Well, her flight proved to be even shorter than that of Icarus, whose father, the great maker of mazes, Daedalus made the labyrinth at Crete and when imprisoned in there made a successful escape from it along with his son, Icarus, who flew too close the sun, burnt his artificial wings and met perdition.
Well, there you are, dearest sirs and ma’ams, our Icarus died as the odium she accrued from around proved murderous and slayed her, ending her short flight of fame and notoriety.
