The PM was generous with endowing out of the national exchequer hefty cheques worth 20 lacs to each family whereas the Parachinar victims were further tormented with humiliation that came in the form of measly financial morsels coupled with the hesitation to address and condemn the issue of sectarian violence against them
23 June 2017, the Last Friday of Ramzan, would be remembered as one of the goriest days for the people of Parachinar, a north-western city of Pakistan that is the capital of Kurram Agency (FATA). The peaceful residents were callously killed in twin bomb attacks carried out by the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that has been responsible for the assassinations of thousands of innocent Muslims whom they deem worthy to be killed because of their sect.
The attack most certainly was the most condemnable thing to have happened to the very innocent Muslims who were busy shopping for the upcoming holy festival of Eid. But what is even more condemnable is the lack of seriousness that the incident received from the government.
The Shi’a community has been carrying out a peaceful sit-in protest for the past week, but ironically, the PM, who was agile enough to offer his condolences for the victims of the Bahawalpur Oil tanker incident where innocent, illiterate, poor people died because of their own naivety, gullibility, poverty and greed, collecting spilled oil in their containers, had no time for them. The PM was generous with endowing out of the national exchequer hefty cheques worth 20 lacs to each family whereas the Parachinar victims were further tormented with humiliation that came in the form of measly financial morsels coupled with the hesitation to address and condemn the issue of sectarian violence against them.
This most certainly is a grave issue that not only questions the tilt of our foreign policy towards the Wahhabi ideology of the KSA but also the inability of the government to apprehend the increase in sectarian violence if Iran is disgruntled and the issue is not dealt with timely sagacity.
It is unnerving that when outfits like LeJ and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar have been banned, they are still able to carry out assassinations of innocent Muslim citizens of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It clearly reflects the absence of a concerted national narrative that should clearly denounce sectarianism. Obviously the foreign policy is a natural extension of the domestic policy. The irony of fate is that we till now have utterly failed to chalk out a domestic policy that would propagate inter-sect harmony and clearly condemn any sectarian clash. This is indicative of the lack of will of the government to address the searing issue of sectarianism that is resulting in
- Irreplaceable loss of innocent lives
- Increasing resentment amongst the Shi’a community that forms around 15pc of the total population
- Marring the identity of the country which was acquired in the name of Islam but now stands divided between the two sects of the very Islam.
The government needs to be proactive rather than showing much delayed reactions. This seed of sectarianism needs to be nipped in the bud. Islamophobia is on the rise globally, the whole world seems to be witnessing chaos. Pakistan cannot afford to let itself burn in the fire of sectarianism.
Of course there are forces that are bent upon causing political, economic and religious upheavals within our country, but it is highly naïve to put the entire onus on the exogenous factors without realising our own shortcomings.
We have failed to empower our people. Our people are poor, helpless, and illiterate with no knowledge of their basic rights. They are vulnerable because our governments over the years never felt the need to turn them into social capital by providing good quality, subsidised education
Thousands of innocent Shi’a have been killed in cold blood by the followers of the Wahhabi ideology who are funded and trained by the Saudis and their allies. What is happening in the Middle East should be a wake-up call for Pakistan. We are treading an extremely dangerous path where on one side we have the Saudis who have been our foster parents for decades and have been buying our loyalties with petrol and dollars. These Saudis are responsible for the mayhem in Syria and the Gulf-Persian divide. These very Saudis are responsible for the indoctrination of religious extremism by funding Talibanisation in Afghanistan and hence Pakistan. On the other hand we have our neighbour Iran which is disgruntled with Pakistan for having no narrative to denounce the discrimination against the Shi’a, for facilitating the banned outfits to continue their crimes against the Shi’a community by giving them patronage and allowing their members to make their way into local and provincial politics which provides them impunity and leverage to carry out their crimes unchecked. Pakistan has been dilly-allying on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, which is reflective of the lack of political will to augment ties with the neighbour only to avoid flak from the Saudi and American gods.
Yes, India wants to achieve its goal of Akhand Bharat, wants to disrupt CPEC, aspires to become the regional hegemon and is most definitely involved in carrying out disturbances in Baluchistan via Afghanistan and Iran. Their own officer Kulbhushan Jadhav confessed it all, I need not say more. But it would be highly foolish of us to hold India entirely responsible for our current socio-economic and political mess.
We have failed to empower our people. Our people are poor, helpless, and illiterate with no knowledge of their basic rights. They are vulnerable because our governments over the years never felt the need to turn them into social capital by providing good quality, subsidised education. Instead their unflinching commitment towards building roads and damns and turning the three cosmopolitan cities into giants of concrete, is certainly condemnable and criminal. The approach of the government reeks of their myopic vision and monarchic tendencies where they believe that the proletariats should eat cake if they can’t find bread but shouldn’t disturb their calm by fussing over petty issues like poverty, starvation and epidemics of intolerance, disease and crime.
My heart goes out to the families of the victims of Parachinar and Quetta killings. May our rulers realise the gravity of the situation. May they have the moral courage to set their priorities right. May they have the political will to steer this country out of the vortex of so many ailments. May they have the conscience to look beyond their vested interests and work for the people of the country irrespective of caste, creed and colour.
How hypocritical of us to join the bandwagon in criticising Donald Trump for building the wall against the Mexicans , where we have virtual walls built all over our country. Walls of hatred between the federating units. Walls of intolerance between sects of the same religion. Walls of bigotry, corruption, immorality that keep truth and honesty from prevailing.
Here is wishing for a better, tolerant, peaceful and sustainable Pakistan.