It seems this is a very good time to try, in conjunction with some astral signs, to make sense of our national sense of direction against the backdrop of our entire history – starting from those early stirrings of the struggle for freedom.
But this is bound to be a hard and painful exercise. And there is some evidence that we are not up to it. We find solace in hiding from history.
In any case, Friday was December 16, a flaming reminder of two of our national tragedies. While that woeful surrender in Dhaka had taken place 45 years ago, the massacre of our schoolchildren at the Army Public School, Peshawar, took place just two years ago and our memories of it are fresh and throbbing.
Fortunately, this occasion has overlapped with the release of the report of the inquiry commission on the Quetta carnage that had taken place on August 8. It is a damning indictment of how the government has been dealing with the terrorist outfits, in defiance of its professed campaign against the militants. At another level, it exposes the degeneration of our system of governance.
It so happened that news stories about the report, though mainly in the English language press, were published on the very anniversary of our two catastrophes, with an obvious linkage to the terrorist attack on the Army Public School. Consequently, its scathing findings reverberated in the National Assembly on the same day. It therefore became an observance of the 16th of December.
In a personal sense, I was already in a depressed state of mind regarding the national security formulations of our rulers after attending a dialogue on relations between Pakistan and India. This was held under the auspices of Pildat in Dubai last Sunday. Though this was the fifth round of the Pakistan-India Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue, it was the first time I was attending the session because of a session titled ‘Role of Media in Improving Relations between Pakistan and India’. There was also another session on the issue of poverty in both countries.
Now, the human dimension of this incessant animosity between the two nuclear neighbours that rises and falls has always been known. But what I want to underline here is that every time we deliberate on this relationship, which is largely incomprehensible to the rest of the world, our mind turns to why and how Pakistan came into being and what destiny was envisioned for it by its founder.
In this month of melancholy memories, we will soon be celebrating the birth anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This will provide another occasion to remember the campaign he had led – though we do this in a drab and ritualistic routine. We are very selective about how we recount our history and the drift has been so dreadful that the religious bigots now claim spiritual ownership of this unfortunate country.
Just two days after the birth anniversary of the Quaid, we will feel depressed on the anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. This was another day of infamy in the life of Pakistan. It is another dot that we need to connect to decipher the meaning and impact of the jihadi sentiments that were injected into our collective psyche. We may give credit to Gen Ziaul Haq for this inception, but the seeds were perhaps sown much earlier.
I have referred to these separate strands which, I believe, are glaring in the story of Pakistan. It should be possible to bring them together in a proper study of what went wrong and how we can make amends to live up to the expectations of millions and millions of ordinary people who have suffered inordinately in their yearning for liberation.
The pity of it all is that the ruling ideas do not apparently take into account the needs and the aspirations of the people. Ideally, an objective and insightful analysis of issues – such as our relations with India and our encounter with religious extremism – will lead us to the path of progress and democratic advancement.
We should be grateful to the Supreme Court of Pakistan for appointing a judicial commission comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa to look into the Quetta Civil Hospital massacre. It is great that the 110-page report has seen the light of the day. It will almost be a curse on us if the powers that be do not take the report seriously and do not accept its recommendations.
As an aside, we now have an example of the relevance of a proper judicial inquiry into a major incident that is has also been released to the public. You may call it an aberration because reports of the inquiry commissions tend to disappear into the inner depths of our bureaucratic labyrinth. It would surely have made a difference if the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report on the East Pakistan debacle had been released on time and if its findings had prompted appropriate action.
The content of Justice Isa’s report is alarming. It presents a shocking testimony of incompetence at various levels of our administration. But what is most disturbing is its verdict on how high functionaries may have condoned the activities of terrorist organisations. It is on this basis that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan came under fire in the National Assembly on Friday and there were demands for his resignation.
The Quetta tragedy was only one of a number of major terrorist attacks that have taken place in Balochistan and other parts of the country after the Peshawar school massacre two years ago that gave birth to the National Action Plan. This plan prescribed a comprehensive strategy to not only combat the terrorists and the extremists but also sought to erase the roots of militancy from our society.
This is not the time to assess the success of either Operation Zarb-e-Azb or the national initiative that came as a response to the Peshawar tragedy. There have certainly been some victories against the terrorists on the ground. But the battle that is to be fought in the minds of men has yet to be launched.
Our ruling elite, at both ends of the Islamabad metro, apparently has ties with some militant groups. That is how the religious orthodoxy reigns supreme. On the first of this month, a candidate backed by a banned party won a Punjab Assembly by-election and got more votes than the candidates of the three major national parties combined. What does this mean?
The writer is a senior journalist.
Email: ghazi_salahuddinhotmail.com