A Faustian bargain

We do have a lot on our mind with the terrorist attack in Peshawar on the blessed and essentially unifying day for Muslims in the wake of the Faizabad debacle in Islamabad. This week has been a real rollercoaster.

An additional incentive to contemplate the national sense of direction is the celebration of the golden jubilee of the PPP. This should allow us to look that far back into our past and, as the poet said, “pine for what is not”.

It should be instructive to compare the magical possibilities of 50 years ago with the hideous realities of today and decipher the roles that were played by our leaders in their separate encounters with the available circumstances and with the not-so-easily fathomable dictates of history.

In many ways, the Bhutto phenomenon and the role and legacy of the PPP cast a long shadow on our existing predicaments. That is how I believe that we can weld together our abiding struggle against terrorism, the recent surge in bigotry and violent extremism and the demise of hope that was kindled by the rise of the PPP into a broad assessment of the present crisis of not just politics but the state itself.

The manner in which the Faizabad sit-in was terminated after an abortive operation is a testimony to the veritable defeat of the ideals that we associate with the creation of Pakistan. We have all the evidence to show that the fanatics who brazenly flouted the code of civilised behaviour were made to prevail over the might of the state.

Incidentally, on Monday – the day on which the army brokered the deal to end the sit-in – I read an op-ed piece in an English daily with this headline: ‘Attempted suicide: illness or crime?’. Naturally, the two leading psychiatrists who co-authored the article had highlighted the fact that in Pakistan, attempted suicide is still considered a crime.

There was a reference to the laws that exist and to the bill to decriminalise suicide attempts that was recently presented in the Senate. It was deferred on the grounds that “attempted suicide is a crime” and “forbidden in Islam”.

In any case, watching the proceedings of the day on television, I was prompted to think whether, like individuals, entire societies can also suffer acute depression and require some form of psychiatric assistance. This is something for social scientists to ponder. But rulers and leaders who shape and steer public opinion have to be mindful of the collective state of mind of the nation.

So, are we afflicted, at this time, with some kind of collective malady that gives rise to dark passions of, perhaps, a suicidal nature? It may be argued that what we witnessed at the Faizabad Interchange for nearly three weeks until Monday was not entirely a manifestation of sanity and sound mental health. At the same time, we could see that a large segment of population was plugged into passions that were aroused by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasul Allah.

Against the backdrop of the rise of a new strain of religious extremism and intolerance, with its Barelvi credentials, it is difficult to imagine what Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was able to do in the then West Pakistan 50 years ago. His was a populist revolution that has not been replicated in our politics. I am fond of saying that he was a thread of scarlet in the drab fabric of Pakistan’s politics. He awakened the immortal longings of ordinary people for democratic rights and freedoms.

The PPP that we now have, led for a decade by Asif Ali Zardari, has strayed far from the party that was born in Lahore with its progressive, liberal and left-of-centre platform. Indeed, the tragedy of Pakistan is that the space for liberal values in our public life has continued to shrink and the PPP must bear some responsibility for this momentous regression.

But there is no denying that the PPP has been the most pertinent point of reference in our political history. Whether it can now be revived with the projection of young Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as the reincarnation of his mother’s and his grandfather’s charisma is a subject for another occasion. I find it difficult to rescue my thoughts from the disastrous debacle that was enacted on the Faizabad Interchange on Monday.

The more you think about the deal that was struck with the protesters, under the aegis of the army, the more you worry about the future of this country. It would be no less damaging if the bargain was just a tactical device for political expediency.

It is possible that the powers that be are now engaged in a review of what has happened and what its implications would be at various levels. Some form of damage control may be in order. An impression that the establishment supports obscurantist elements in our polity, irrespective of the passions that these elements command, could weaken the nation’s resolve to confront violent extremism and intolerance.

There is already a great deal of confusion about how the National Action Plan is being executed. Meanwhile, the terrorists have not yet been completely defeated, as Friday’s attack in Peshawar has certified. Those who had staged a sit-in to paralyse the capital did belong to a different category but religious extremism of any brand is bound to play a subversive role in any civilised community.

It so happens that we are approaching a few anniversaries during this fateful month of December that are associated with some of the most painful memories of our existence as a nation. Remember December 16? In 1971 on this date, we suffered a defeat that we have still not come to terms with. We tend not to talk about it.

By a strange coincidence, we had to endure another tragedy on the same date three years ago. The barbaric massacre of our schoolchildren in Peshawar should have been an incentive for a paradigm shift in our ruling ideas. What has happened since then has indicated that we still hesitate to learn our lessons. We may look at where we are today and wonder why we are unable to build a modern, tolerant and genuinely democratic society.

The writer is a senior journalist. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com