Far cry from Quaid’s Pakistan
Let’s face it. Most military dictators that have ruled Pakistan were anathema to the original idea of Pakistan. And politicians, barring a few honourable exceptions, have not fared any better
“You are free, you are free to go to your temples, and you are free to go to your mosques or any other place or worship in the State of Pakistan. You belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”
— Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan: 11 August 1947.
Sixty-nine years ago since these words were uttered by the Founder of the Nation they almost sound hollow in the backdrop of what Pakistan has become today. Adding insult to injury, some self-styled historians interpret Pakistan being an Islamic state, more so a theocracy. They deliberately choose to ignore Jinnah’s such utterances or couch them with his other speeches regarding the role of religion in Pakistan.
For years Jinnah’s landmark speech was banned on the media. However thankfully now a section of the media does mention it. Even I noticed it on some hoardings posted by the Punjab government last year.
There is perhaps a belated realisation even amongst the state functionaries that we have veered away from the path chosen by our founding fathers. However despite paying lip service to the need for changing the narrative there is nothing on the ground. Hate speech and intolerance in the name of religion or ethnicity continues unabated.
Let’s face it. Most military dictators that have ruled Pakistan were anathema to the original idea of Pakistan. And politicians, barring a few honourable exceptions, have not fared any better.
Take the case of the present ruling lot. For years the PML-N has slavishly adopted the same mantra as espoused by the religious right.
Ironically, after terrorism being inflicted in the name of a jaundiced interpretation of religion started threatening the very existence of the State that our leadership — military and civilian — were forced to wake up from their deep slumber. Had it not been for General Raheel Sharif — the relatively new COAS at the time — a policy of appeasement towards the jhadists would have continued unabated.
The present government staged a charade of negotiating with the terrorists in 2014. A few amongst the negotiators, however, actually believed that there could be a negotiated settlement with the TTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan).
But most knew it was a futile mission. How could one bargain with those who want to foist a theocracy, abhorrent to the very concept of a modern state, virtually at the cost of undoing Pakistan?
Nevertheless, since Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched in June 2014, there has been a seamless and concerted effort to go after the terrorists. Interestingly, however the state is still harbouring (or tolerating) ‘good jihadists.’
The latest putsch by the terrorists that has wiped out the crème de la crème of the legal fraternity of Balochistan is another wake up call of sorts. The prime minister and the security establishment, huddled together in marathon meetings, have expressed a fresh resolve to root out terrorism.
It has been acknowledged that most of the facets of NAP (the National Action Plan) remain unimplemented. A task force is being formed to execute the twenty point plan that was hurriedly put together in January 2015 to crackdown on terrorism in the aftermath of the heinous attack on Army Public School in Peshawar.
It included measures to stop religious extremism and protect the minorities. A National Counterterrorism Authority was also envisaged under the plan that never got off the ground.
Independence Day is an appropriate occasion for introspection and to reset course. Both the military and civilian leadership say that we are fighting an existential war against terrorism
Paradoxically, counter-terrorism is not merely good policing or superior intelligence. It is equally about the political will to change the narrative.
On this Independence Day the khaki and mufti Sharifs should resolve that Pakistan should follow the edicts of its founding fathers rather than fighting ghost wars based on misplaced concepts and ideologies. In the absence of a multi-faceted and focused strategy merely creating fresh tiers of monitoring mechanisms is bound to fail.
Initially half-hearted efforts were made by some functionaries of the Punjab government to discuss measures for change of the so-called narrative with a select group of intellectuals and journalists. But this initiative soon fizzled out perhaps owing to lack of interest from the top.
The PML-N leadership, clearly focused on the next election due to be held by 2018, is too engrossed in providing electricity, roads, highways and metro-trains before election time. Investing in education, healthcare and other social sectors are very low in their order of priorities.
In the meanwhile some jhadist groups and sectarian outfits continue to spew hatred unabated. Perhaps the underlying thinking is that if they do not directly target us why bother stirring a hornet’s nest?
Allegedly many of such outfits continue to be the assets of the ubiquitous establishment. Despite the vociferous denials, our detractors continue to allege that the security apparatus makes a clear distinction between the good and bad jhadists instead of going after terrorists of all hues and colours.
Resultantly some of the proscribed organisations even on the UN list continue to have a free run. Obviously a lot has changed since Zarb-e-Azb in the mechanical sense. But a lot more needs to be done.
The Quaid envisaged good relations with all our neighbours. It can be convincingly argued that it takes two to tango. But instead of wallowing in self-pity and being overwhelmed by a sense of victimhood we should be revisiting our security paradigms and attitudes towards our neighbours.
Relations with Modi’s India will remain thorny. But even here there is a lot of room for improvement. Ties with Afghanistan are also perennially frayed.
When the Americans used to plead with General Raheel Sharif’s predecessor General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to go after the Afghan Taliban he used to retort that the future was Afghan Taliban and hence, “we cannot wish away our neighbours”. He would add, “You (the US) have the watches, they (the Taliban) have the time”.
Perhaps General Raheel Sharif does not believe in the same self-serving mantra. Nevertheless unless Afghanistan and Pakistan agree not to harbour terrorists on a reciprocal basis both countries cannot have a handle on terrorist threatening both states.
Independence Day is an appropriate occasion for introspection and to reset course. Both the military and civilian leadership say that we are fighting an existential war against terrorism.
But this war needs to be extended to other fronts as well. Jinnah in the same address to the constituent assembly declared: … I want to make it quite clear that I shall not tolerate any kind of jobbery, nepotism or any influence directly or indirectly brought to bear upon me.
Almost in every sphere, Quaid’s Pakistan is a far cry from what he had envisaged it to be.