There is always too much on your plate when the year is ending. This last week of December makes you look before and after. While the spotlight is more likely to be on personal lives, the political situation that is now in an exceptional state of flux should remain a point of reference. Overall, it is a time to be somewhat pensive and ruminate about what is to be.
Universally, the end of the year is celebrated in the media with a review of important events of the past year, with endless lists, say, of the best books or movies in the media. The dominant trends and developments are explored in the context of their future prospects. For the world, this was the year of the Trump presidency in the United States. The campaign against sexual harassment will have an impact on social relations in many countries.
In Pakistan, too, 2017 was exceptionally eventful. In fact, this was the year in which the country’s political fault lines were fully exposed, raising issues about the power and limitations of national institutions. A sense of crisis has deepened with some very recent episodes in the problematic history of Pakistan and the memories that are associated with the month of December.
For instance, there was the sixteenth of December that marks two major tragedies in the nation’s life. Tomorrow, we will ritualistically invoke the memory of the man who led us to freedom 70 years ago – irrespective of the fact that the dark passions that command popular thinking in this society now are a negation of Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s vision and of his politics.
But there is another date in the final week of this month that poses very difficult questions about what we have made of Pakistan. On Wednesday, the 27th of December, we will observe the tenth anniversary of the murder of Benazir Bhutto, a leader who had the courage to challenge the forces of terror and extremism. It is another tragedy that is hard to bear. Or even explain in the context of fundamental ideas that have governed Pakistan.
As I said, 2017 has been a momentous year. Your choice of what you think was historically the most significant event may reveal some aspects of your political convictions. Because we are so pathologically polarised, thanks to the media, we generally do not agree on the meaning or implications of any particular event.
Take, for instance, the judgment made by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on July 28 of this year, disqualifying a sitting prime minister. Against the backdrop of our history which certifies the vulnerability of our civilian leaders and the unapologetic longevity of interventions, in defiance of all constitutional norms, this could be billed as the top story of the year.
On the other hand, isn’t the ouster of a prime minister before the expiry of his constitutional tenure rather business as usual? After all, all our previous prime ministers had followed a similar path, with variations on how the judiciary had played its role. This means that we should look elsewhere to identify the most significant event of the year.
Incidentally, it is staring us in the face. Yes, a very significant historical event of immeasurable magnitude was staged just last month on the Faizabad Interchange in Islamabad. We will need perceptive historians to assess its meaning and role in the evolution of Pakistan. More important is to understand its impact on the future of Pakistan’s politics – not just in 2018 when elections are to be held, but in the long term. How this spectacle was concluded was, for many observers, a reminder of another surrender enacted in December.
At this point, let me tell you that the caption of this column is an allusion to a 2005 book written by Joan Didion. ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ was an account of the year following the death of the author’s husband. It was acclaimed as a classic book about mourning. This is how she explained ‘magical thinking’: “Thinking as small children think, as if my thoughts or wishes had the power to reverse the narrative”. The title took inspiration from anthropological use of the term ‘magical thinking’, by which catastrophic events can be averted.
I am suggesting that 2017 was our year of magical thinking and how we wish we could have avoided some of its catastrophic moments. I do not have the space to list all the major headlines of the year and I think that what has happened this week, including the briefing of the Senate Committee of Whole by the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), is also very important.
In any case, I must not omit the February 16 suicide bombing at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalander in Sehwan in which over 90 persons were killed. There were other acts of terror, including in Parachinar in January and in Quetta only last Sunday when a church was attacked. And yes, there was also something to cheer. Our hearts were lifted with Pakistan’s victory against India in the final of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy in June. What a thrilling moment that was.
Now, however, we are surrounded by deep concerns about, mainly, the tussle that is developing between national institutions. The ‘Baba’ metaphor that the chief justice used in a rather angry speech in Lahore prompted comments on how the judiciary has really failed aggrieved citizens who have to wait for justice for not only years but often for decades. Some harrowing examples were projected.
But the civil-military equation in the country is at the heart of many of our problems of national security and governance. The ebb and flow of politics last week was astounding. Just when strong rumours about the life of the present parliament were floating all around, a sudden fall in the temperature was recorded when the COAS came with his top aides to the Senate on Tuesday. Everyone seemed satisfied by what had transpired in the ‘in-camera’ session – reported extensively, nonetheless.
More reassuring, actually, was the approval by the Senate a little later of the constitutional amendment that has finally paved the way for elections to be held in 2018. There was this critical clarification by the PML-N that Shahbaz Sharif will be the prime ministerial candidate in the next elections. But this sense of relief may be a camouflage. We have still to come to terms with what had happened on the Faizabad Interchange and if there is a plan somewhere about how the story will play out.
The writer is a senior journalist.
Email: ghazi_salahuddinhotmail.com