Fascism brooding

Last Friday, schoolchildren were attacked once again. But this was neither in Swat nor in the outskirts of Peshawar. This happened in the very home of the republic’s military headquarters and the twin city of the federal capital, Rawalpindi. Sixty masked men, armed with iron rods, entered the MC Model Girls High School and terrorised, thrashed and threatened the female teachers and students. They ordered them to observe a strict dress code, which in their view is Islamic, and warned the inmates of the school of graver consequences if hijabs are not worn from now.
The disturbing news is that the local administration and law enforcing agencies did not even care to register an FIR in time to bring these culprits to the book. Even more disturbing is the statement of a police official belonging to the New Town Police Station who confessed to a reporter that they were under instructions not to do anything in response.
The lines are drawn in Pakistan and they are drawn in blood. Few would dare challenge if the act of barging into a girls’ school and instilling fear in the hearts and minds of teachers and students could be termed Islamic. Or why should girls wear hijabs or veils in an all-girl school even if one goes by the most orthodox of the interpretations of religious texts? But before getting into any polemics of what is right and what is wrong in the ideological realm, every parent of a girl child in Pakistan is reminded of an acute vulnerability, insecurity and a complete breakdown of state authority (or even worse the complicity of some of its operatives in such acts).
It is also told that these men who attacked the school are most likely to have belonged to a religious seminary close by. They were masked and this fact can’t be established with evidence if a proper investigation is not carried out. Whoever they were, they committed a crime. But are they really responsible themselves in entirety of what is going wrong here? No. These frustrated men, mostly young, are denied quality public education, gainful employment in some productive sector, opportunities for being creative and enterprising and a decent health system.
Besides, it has remained the policy of the dominant institutions of the state of Pakistan to whip up religious emotion, encourage conservative outfits to raise funds and arm themselves, and allow seminaries to flourish. Those who run these seminaries are self-proclaimed custodians of faith, increasingly rich and influential, and they first provide children coming to them with food and shelter and then equip them with a bigoted zeal.
What I am saying here has been written, commented upon and dissected by many academics, authors, analysts and journalists a thousand times before. But those in positions of power do not seem to care. Meaning thereby, powers that be, civilian and military, are guilty of complicity in all acts of violence by religious extremists against the citizens of Pakistan. If they plead not guilty, it is time for them to bring the house in order.
What is brooding in Pakistan for long is fascism based on a particular brand of faith. Fascism is also defined in terms of attitude, not just for a political system. If a state or a society becomes fascistic, it challenges its own existence. The world comes together to set it in order. Fascist Germany had comparable firepower in the middle of the 20th century but it was still flattened. We are just a walkover. Any Pakistani would dread such a time.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and author. Email: harris. khaliquegmail.com