Conference held on ‘Identification & Actualization of National Narrative’

ISLAMABAD: A National Conference on “Identification and Actualization of National Narrative of Pakistan” was held on Thursday by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), was an earnest attempt to initiate a dialogue between various stakeholders, identifying a narrative that reflects the cultural and sociological ethos of the country.

The acting-President IPRI, Rashid Wali Janjua, highlighted that the current era has succeeded post-modern one, in which the machine learning and algorithms were driving the narratives, and the new generations like Millennials, Generation Z, and Alpha were grappling with the identity crisis. The pearl of high price, therefore, in narrative making was the answer to questions like who we are and where do we intend to go.

National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said there was a need to improve communication strategy to project stories to the world without being apologetic. He said the fact was that Pakistan had been a victim of a negative narrative in the past that projected an image quite apart from the actual reality.

Senator Mushahid Hussain observed that Pakistan has contributed immensely to the world in terms of culture, peace-building and sense of togetherness and said the narrative was in a need of being reinvented. He said there are three tectonic shifts that Pakistan was undergoing i.e. such as confronting a Hindutva-driven India, recent ouster of the United States from Afghanistan and the social media revolution. He called for building a narrative based on ground realities, and it has to be people-driven and not state-centric. Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar highlighted the need for calibrating the country’s foreign policy in accordance with the national values and interests, which are based on a human security centered paradigm.

Senator Aitzaz Ahsan held forth on the need for discovering the true roots of identity, which may be based on the national narrative, as the predilection for seeking extra territorial identity needed to be replaced by a celebration of indigenous culture. He regarded Quaid-e-Azam’s August 11, 1947 speech as the Grundnorm of our national narrative, decrying the adoption of foreign cultural and linguistic symbols as part of our cultural and linguistic identity.

He reminded the audience of the falsification of history, due to which the real indigenous heroes like Raja Porus and Dulla Bhatti were forgotten and invaders were being celebrated. He stressed on the need for a tolerant, inclusive and pluralist narrative that celebrated diversity and pluralism.

Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology Dr Qibla Ayaz said the religion is the foundation of the narrative and we needed to celebrate the fact that divergent sects of Muslims had evolved a 22-point consensus called Istekham-e-Pakistan charter.

Senator Javed Jabbar said the identity of Pakistan has, in fact, been actualized and there is no need to worry for it. He said Pakistan has survived all odds and has overcome adversities to emerge stronger, reminding the audience that the nation-state was a recent concept in a large historical continuum of mankind and we are a young nation that has a long way to go. He pointed out 30 elements of identity, including with positives, eclipsing the negatives. The panacea to most of the problems is a high quality education that should be available to all segments of the society.