Soliloquy on the Independence Day

At war with the tyranny of geography

Nations rise and fall.

Through culture they reach the pinnacle of glory and through conspiracies and mistakes,

they turn into the debris of history

“Our righteous cause has triumphed. Are we now going to besmear and tarnish this greatest achievement for which there is no parallel in the whole history of the world by restoring to frenzy, savagery and butchery.” (Jinnah)

It is said that Pakistan’s myth of persecution and exaggerated sense of self has made it a paranoid state, as a psychologically introverted national mindset, resistant to critical self-analysis and dead to the incessant calls of change, tends to be suspicious and paranoid. Its pristine existence is told to be corrupted at the hands of the largest assembly line of terrorists which is an alleged yield of its compulsive use of Islam as an instrument of domestic and foreign policy. Internationally, tagging it, as a rogue state, with an unrelenting anti-terrorist campaign, it is endeavoured to declare it a veritable killing field as apparently, most of the acts of terrorism carry Pakistan’s footprint. Its ideology is under unflinching reproof and its nuclear teeth are under acute hunch. Allegedly, emotive lessons of history and an anthology of selective facts fill the syrup of false emotions of patriotism in the restless bosoms of Pakistanis. This doesn’t end here. Incessant efforts, throughout the short span of its life especially now, to declare Pakistan internationally isolated is on rise which has always been successful in brimming it with an apocalyptic fear of annihilation, from the womb of which its security doctrines took birth, turning it into a security state instead of a welfare one as espoused by the founder. Adding to a deep dive in the quagmire of ideological fissures, its rescue is made impossible by media’s opinion managers, conspiratorial hype of which has brought sensational and immature journalism to the front. Consequently, the search for an answer to why Pakistan releases such skepticism and distrust ends in pandemonium, even after a sober and pragmatic analysis of the situation. Thus, there is no answer to the fact that why it has become the world’s favourite whipping boy. Although, dilating on the causation, it shows dissemination and overlapping of prejudice in each case brought under the inquiring brow.

The primordial ambition of this monologue is to contribute a drop of water in the sky-touching fire of propaganda against our beloved homeland. This one-sided, insidious and unabashed demonstration of prejudice needs to be compared with and contrasted to the flagrant reality of Pakistan’s existence. The current narrative constitutes an integral pattern of chiseled distortions in fashion of a well thought out scheme of things. The account is soaked in prejudice. The hoary stories have no legs to stand upon and find them sailing in murky waters of logic. This fiction is totally unacceptable being bereft of even an iota of truth or merit to stand. In reality, it is aired to foul the atmosphere.

It is not altogether false that Pakistan has been turned into an ‘Animal Farm’ and its dismal and disconsolate people into dirty animals. The nation has been saddled with the bundle of lies and concoctions. Truth is kept away from the clarity of layman, either through muzzling the media or swaying it, hitching their unhindered access to secret vaults of verity. The laurels of the incumbent regime also include the dissent-crushing Cyber Law which beckons yet another installment of cascades of curses where journalists and writers, not for sale, would either be fined, harassed or arrested in battalion sizes. Of course, it is not unheard-of. In Zia’s regime, especially, and even before him, eminent scholars were threatened with being hung upside down. Printing presses were stolen under the veil of Martial Law regulations. Journalists were given whipping sentences. The regime sat on the backs of journalists like the Berbers on horsebacks. All this is obviously with an exception of state’s harnessed press. Nevertheless, the regimes have more than once exposed themselves. They never hesitated, in fit of power, to release the poisoned darts towards the factions striving for the proverbial-cum-real dawn of Faiz whose virgin visage has drawn many a night-bitten, tattered travelers to abandon the solace of a beloved’s embrace to march into the horizon of a bright day.

It is not untrue as well that accidents chase this land like loyal dogs, yet it has displayed its potential to survive in the wild. It is constantly at war with the tyranny of geography. It has kept alive its unique ideology, making it wade through the barrage of criticism and rebuke. It has launched one of the biggest military operations to rule out the stance of it providing an unwavering support to terrorism. It has always presented the dove in reply to the pallet-ridden aggression of the enemy. Cutting short the multitude of references, it will not be false or too much to say that Pakistan hasn’t neglected its obligation, at national and international level, to wash away the dirt on its linen. But the post-Martial Law developments in the sub-continent, the upsurge of anti-American vitriol (making it a difficult ally of US), the future of the nuclear device it holds and oscillation between alignment and non-alignment debate and host of internal crisis are poignantly pertinent to the destiny of Pakistan.

Nations rise and fall. Through culture they reach the pinnacle of glory and through conspiracies and mistakes, they turn into the debris of history. Hence, it’s the high time for Pakistan to mend its ways. It’s time to regain the audacity to quote its history and retrieve courage to salvage the philosophical content of its ideology. It’s the time to establish its susceptible innocence and castoff the eulogies of vilifying nations. It’s the time to discredit the accounts of its solitary confinement and open its arms, wider than ever, to the comity of nations. It’s the time to defeat the floating fictions of it becoming a failed state and resolve to cast away the ominous shadows of dereliction. It’s time to dispel the notions of self-doubt and embrace what is offered in odds and ends.

Let’s think beyond the imperatives of necessity and refuse to pardon error in the grammar of politics. Let’s eliminate the factors instrumental in setting up a demolishing squad of bomb-blasters, sharp shooters and knife runners and harken back the memories of the Muslims who were running their blood into water for this homeland. Let’s recast the rational and emotional framework of perceiving the world and decline to be the lamentable creatures of God. Let’s stop crowning successive blunders and failures of the self in fit of the misguided pride and vainglory and cut down the ever-stiffening neck of arrogance. Let’s be the servants who promised to Mr Jinnah to follow him “through sunshine and fear.” Let’s curb the voices declaring that “Jinnah’s Pakistan is dead.”