We're not Making Any Sense!

Below, I have mentioned some aspects of our everyday life. I request anyone with more knowledge and wisdom to please explain how these patterns of behaviour make any sense, because I surely cannot understand them.

1. We routinely criticize our society and claim that the majority (if not everyone except ourselves) is uncivilized, selfish and stupid. At the same time we refrain from doing a number of things we want to do, and also stop others from following their hearts’ desires by simply saying “What will the people say?” Viewed together, the two concepts mean that we do not act according to our will because we are afraid of disapproval from a bunch of uncivilized, selfish and stupid people.

2. We ignore the finer things in life, spending our time wholly on the pursuit of more. More money, better office, higher status, more power and argue that we are doing it for our children, so they do not have to worry about these things in their life. At the same time, we insist that our children work hard in their life and as an incentive, show them that they will achieve the exact same things. Any child who refuses to comply and instead enjoys the riches accumulated by his parents is considered to be a spoilt and worthless individual. In turn, the children spend their lives in much the same manner and claim to be doing so for their children. I fail to understand where the generation that might be the actual beneficiary of this meaningless hard work is.

3. We take no interest in natural beauty and even such simple leisurely pursuits as walking and instead bury ourselves in our efforts to become more successful and richer. And then, we spend a part of that money buying televisions and treadmills so that we can walk on a machine and watch a fake picture of natural beauty while doing it.

4. Anyone who has a habit of visiting certain areas to watch young beauties dance to melodious music is considered the worst kind of individual. However, it is acceptable to watch much worse dances and related acts on the television screens. In fact anyone objecting to such shows is labeled a fundamentalist and narrow minded person.

5. We hate people who are habitual liars and hence cannot be trusted, but we feel no pangs of conscience lying about our whereabouts on the telephone or even asking someone to tell the caller that we are not around.

6. We consider anyone who knows less than us on a subject a fool and anyone who exhibits knowledge greater than us, pretentious.

7. Anyone going faster than us on the road is a maniac and anyone going slower is a moron.

The list can go on for ages. I feel these examples show the paradoxical and senseless way in which we perceive and spend our lives. We don’t have double standards; sometimes I feel that we don’t have any standards at all. I would welcome anyone who disagrees with me and convinces me otherwise. In fact he/she would be making my life much more comfortable.

Accuse Me Please!

Are we a failed state? I do not know the technical meaning of this phrase but I have had just about enough of hearing discussions on the question. I do not know whether we are a failed state but we do suffer from a dearth of good governance and are fast becoming a failed government and a failed nation.

Forget about the condition our economy is in, the threat of terrorism, the state of our judiciary or the general law and order situation. These problems have been here for a long time and there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance of their leaving us soon. Government officials have a long list of reasons for their failure to tackle these issues. Maybe they are right. Who knows? Maybe there really are such huge hurdles in their path that they cannot possibly do anything about these pressing problems.

But what about the simpler matters. Ignoring what our government cannot do, why not focus on what it can do. Here are some news items from just the last few days. Before reading on, remember that I am restricting myself to only a few of the incidents that took place in the past couple of days. The actual number of such occurrences in the whole of the country should best be left to the imagination.

• A 12-year old boy died after falling into an open manhole in Gulberg.
• A 26-year old man died after falling into a ditch in Gulistan-e-Johar.
• A 21-year old woman, who had been married less than a month ago, died of drowning in a sewerage drain.

The last incident needs a little elaboration. The said drain has also claimed at least two other lives (both children) and neither theirs nor the woman’s body has yet been recovered. Now, what kind of hurdles does the government face in its effort to cover manholes or prevent innocent people from drowning in sewerage drains? What could be more important than a human life? And to lose it in such a manner! There just cannot be any excuse.

One would imagine that after such incidents, the administration would be rattled and immediately take steps to prevent a repeat of such avoidable loss of life. Sadly, this never happens. When asked to comment on the tragedy involving the newly married woman, the town Nazim simply said that it was an accident (as if the people were wondering if it was a conscious act by the drain). He further explained that encroachment by the people over the area of the drain made it difficult for the government to clean it. What a load of bullshit! The worthy Nazim should be reminded that getting rid of such encroachments is also the responsibility of the government and explaining that the government messed up one part of its job (cleaning the drain) because it had messed up another one earlier (removing encroachments) might just be one of the most stubborn, insensitive and silly explanations ever.

Think about it. A drain that is so dirty that anyone falling into it cannot come up because of the fauna growth (the local people tried to help the woman by cutting the grass on the drain but could not succeed), so filthy that at least three drowned bodies have still not been recovered. Still, the Nazim has an explanation which helps him sleep at night.

And it’s not just the fault of the government either. We are as much a part of the government as anyone else. The government is elected by the people; the Nazims are symbol of the power of the electorate. They are answerable to us. In case you are wondering how the people reacted to the death of the woman, read on.

The people of the area were naturally angered by the death and blamed it totally on the ignorance of the authorities. They did not file any protest or complaint. They did not notify the higher authorities. They did nothing to find out the right persons to contact in order to redress the problem. What they did was block the busiest thoroughfares of the area, pelt stones on passing vehicles and burn tyres on the road.

What have we come to? As a protest against the needless death of an innocent individual we caused huge inconvenience to hundreds of other innocent people.

Another part of this frustrating saga was the reaction of the authorities to this protest. Forgetting all the causes of their failure in protecting the life and property of the public, they jumped to unhindered action to stop the violent protests. Did they have a plan to do that? Of course not. They resorted to the old and time-tested strategy of baton charge and tear gas, a decision that further antagonized the already wild people.

Maybe this uncivilized way of protest could have been excused as a reflex reaction had the protestors resorted to more sensible methods after their initial anger subsided. But the end of the issue was again the same old one. The higher authorities (the news report does not mention who exactly) came to the scene and ensured the people of their full cooperation after which the protest died down. The people did nothing to make the authorities elaborate on the kind of cooperation they meant, the specific steps they would take or the timelines. In short, just like we do at election time, promises were heard, believed and the matter went down as quickly as boiling milk goes down once the stove is switched off.

This might not be too significant an event amid all the long marches, suicide bombings and governor rules in this country, but it reminds us of the kind of people we have become. Our government is not capable enough to cover manholes, clean sewerage drains or peacefully take care of angry mobs. And we, the people, have no clue how to react to such incidences, we cannot differentiate between wild and violent ways of registering our protest and the peaceful and effective ones and all it takes to deflate our anger are a few meaningless words by someone in a position of authority.

And then there is the silent majority, the Pakistanis who might have been in one of the cars passing on the said road. A stone or two might have been thrown on them. What do we do? We criticize the ineffective government, the uneducated masses and the overall deterioration of the society. We forget that we are educated and civilized, it is more our responsibility than anyone else’s to do our part to improve the situation.

We must stand up and take the blame for whatever is going on. We must stop giving or tolerating excuses. Only then can we begin to realize the extent of our responsibility. We might fail (in the short run, we most probably will) but that is better than not making the effort. I don’t exactly know what any single person might do about such issues, but I know that everyone should try and find out some way. As for me, I am starting with bringing this issue to the notice of all the readers who didn’t know of it, and reminding all those who have forgotten the gravity of the situation.

For anyone else who seriously wants to do something, I suggest a start by changing your perception of Pakistan from “this country” to “our country” and of Pakistanis from “them” to “us”. These are our problems not “Pakistan’s”, as if it were an alien land. And it is us who are failing as a nation not “Pakistanis”.

And remember the famous saying “He who excuses himself, accuses himself.”

O Brother, What Art Thou!!

“How do people make it through life without a sister?” asked Sara Corpening.

One could easily replace ‘sister’ with ‘brother’ in the above sentence and it would sound equally true. The relationship between siblings provides a unique face of love. For sisters, brothers are friends, companions, guardians, protectors, guides and the most reliable support. Brothers are also normally extremely sensitive on the subject of their female siblings. Any harsh comment about one’s sister is bound to raise tempers and turn the mildest of men into angry defenders of their pride.

I once read a story by Stephen King titled “The Last Rung on the Ladder” which dealt with this relationship beautifully. It tells the story of a brother and a sister who had this game where they would take turns to climb an old ladder in their barn and leap off into a pile of hay. On one such occasion, the ladder breaks and the sister is left hanging by the last rung. The brother quickly gathers a lot of hay under her and then asks her to jump, which she does and gets away without getting hurt. Later, the brother is amazed to find out that she wasn’t even looking at what he was doing and had no idea that he had collected all the hay. She just jumped when he asked her to, believing that as long as her brother was there, he would never let her get hurt.

The feelings brothers have for sisters are more or less the same all over the world, the only exception being the most barbaric of cultures or individuals. Keeping this mind, I don’t have words to explain my reaction to news such as one that appeared in today’s paper. A man in Lahore killed his 30-year-old sister (mother of three children) for that most common of reasons; he suspected that she was having an affair with another man.

Incidences where a husband kills his wife on such a pretext are extremely common in our country. At least one such occurrence can be found in the papers everyday and it always hurts me to see this sort of attitude towards women. But whenever news about such an act by a brother comes along (unfortunately there is no dearth of such brothers in Pakistan either), it is beyond being hurtful or depressing. It is impossible to imagine how a brother could do such a thing.

We are all (supposedly) Muslims and I would not go into the details of what status Islam gives to women; I believe we are all more or less aware of it. But forget Islam for a moment. Let’s accept that we are not even close to good Muslims. What about simple morals? Or common sense? Or a heart? Such news forces me to wonder whether the men who are ready to draw battle lines whenever the honour of their sisters is threatened, do so to protect the poor women or just their own twisted concepts of ghairat (probably one of the most misused concepts in our society).

Maybe we are still barbarians. We still consider women our property. Their supposed honour is nothing; what matters is our own silly idea of what raises or lowers our prestige. We are ready to kill anyone who raises a finger towards them because it is us who are indirectly being dishonoured and we are ready to kill our own sisters on the mere assumption of some immorality, for exactly the same reason.

I know all of us are not the same. But the fact that most of us take such incidents and the concept of kari as a part of our culture which cannot be eliminated whether we like it or not, says a lot about us too. The incidence quoted above occurred in Lahore, not in some far off tribal area. Lahore, the heart of Pakistan, the second most developed city of the country, home to the University of Punjab, Government College, the Alhamra Arts Centre; the centre of cultural activity in Pakistan. And what worries me even more is that the peers of the said honourable(?) man would probably justify his action claiming that it was the only course available to a ghairat mand brother.

I hope we forget our petty complexes someday and begin to understand our responsibilities in all the roles of our life. A brother who cannot protect his sister can be forgiven, but one who becomes a fatal threat to her himself should not be spared. Unfortunately a large number of such psychopaths go scot-free in the end and in a number of areas of Pakistan such a killing is not only not a crime but is considered a courageous and honourable deed.

We should stop believing that we are honourable or ghairat mand  people until we have the sense to comprehend the meaning of these words. Until then, may Allah protect sisters from their brothers.

A more pertinent question for us would be.

“How do sisters make it through life with a brother?”

Vasant Panchami!

Despite the limits placed on the celebration of Basant this year, the festival has managed to claim more than ten lives according to news reports while almost a hundred people, including many children, have been injured. The populace of Punjab, where the festival is primarily celebrated, seems divided over whether kite flying should be permanently banned or not. I do not want to get into that debate. My wish is simply to spread a little information about the event that a number of my fellow Punjabis may not have.

Whereas it is common knowledge that Basant is predominantly a Hindu festival, its actual basis is not that commonly known. Basant has been traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of Shukla Paksha (fortnight of the waxing moon). The festival was originally called Vasant Panchami, vasant meaning spring and Panchami the fifth day, which was believed to be the first day of the season of spring.

According to the Hindu Vedas, this day is dedicated to the worship of the goddess Sarasvati. Schools normally remained closed in Hindu areas on this day and children busied themselves in decoration of areas where the goddess was to be worshipped. Kite flying was a small portion of the festivities and gained popularity only in certain areas of the Punjab.

Ask Punjabis, especially Lahoris, and they would vehemently defend Basant claiming that kite flying was a passion and that they just wanted to have fun. They would probably claim that they had no clue about who Sarasvati was and that attaching this cultural occasion with Hinduism was the work of fundamentalist narrow minds.

There is nothing wrong with having fun; but when this fun threatens the life of other members of the society, some rethinking needs to be done. Every year a large number of young boys lose their lives or limbs falling off roofs or being hit by vehicles because their eyes were fixed on where the kite was flying instead of where they were going. A number of others are killed or injured by electrocution. Much more tragic than any of these are the lives, mostly of young children, lost due to injury by the dor. That is no way to die. We just cannot keep threatening the lives of innocent children who are the future of this country, this way. This cannot be our culture. I don’t recommend a complete ban on the practice, but I do think that if this practice is to continue, concrete steps have to be taken to make it a safe one. As long as we cannot come up with a completely safe solution, we must swallow the bitter pill and restrain from having this kind of fun.

Pakistan is not the only country where kite flying is pursued with passion. In fact the sport which originated in Ancient China, is extremely popular in a number of other countries of the world. Somehow, in Pakistan it holds the undesirable distinction of being one of the most fatal sports.

Coming back to Sarasvati, the fact that almost all of our passionate kite flyers know nothing about her is not something to boast about. Ignorance is a curse. I feel that basant nowadays has so little to do with Vasant Panchami that awareness about the origins of the latter can hardly affect the celebration of the former. Nevertheless, knowledge always helps.

Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge. If we can’t realize the gravity of the fact that innocent people lose their lives due to a simple pastime, maybe we should learn a little from Sarasvati’s prayer, which ends with these words

“Oh Mother Sarasvati remove the ignorance of my mind and bless me with the eternal knowledge.”

 

 

 

The Battle is Won, the War has Begun!

Today is a big day. After a long time, we have cause for celebration. So, forget all the negativity for one day and enjoy the moment. The people of Pakistan, led by the lawyers and ably supported by the media have won. The reinstatement of the judges should once and for all remove any doubts we had about the power of the masses.

The movement owes its ultimate success to the determination of the lawyers, the freedom of the media and the courage of the people. Some analysts have gone to the extent of comparing this triumph with the creation of Pakistan and I agree with them to an extent. Like 1947, the people rallied together for a cause they believed in and forced the powerful classes to buckle under the pressure of mass upheaval.

But after the rejoicing is over, we should remember some other aspects of independence. The creation of Pakistan resulted in the coming to power of a privileged class that soon forgot the common man in its pursuit to gain maximum advantage for themselves out of the success. Such a fate should not descend upon this victory as well.

This is a time to brace ourselves and make sure that this struggle does not go waste. The creation of Pakistan was not the ultimate goal; it was only the means to an end. The reinstatement of judges is exactly the same. We have not achieved an independent judiciary or a just society yet, but a major breakthrough has been made.

Let’s hope we don’t follow the old path again. 

Teein Dhuz!

Oh my god what a turn of events. I guess I shouldn’t have slept so early, for better or for worse it seems the long awaited long march is over. Isloites have lost out on all the action, Imran Khan never got the chance to show his moves, the worst reality show of all time ended without a spectacular ending. As a nation we seem to like each other now & quickly trying to forget the past to go into the future. 

Only time will tell that what will change & what will remain the same. I will as always would shy away from commenting on rights and wrongs of it. But would hope that this kind of protests never happen again and we become a nation who can convey our opinions/thoughts through our votes and are able to control our leaders in the comfort of our homes as opposed to be blown away by tear gas in the streets.

That can only happen if ever we can actually understand the whys and whats of all this. At this point I am not sure if we do.    

Only If!

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell

I am free and am going to exercise this right today since the best kind of freedom is not granted from without but rises from within.

The Long March is upon us. At this crucial time when the whole nation holds its breath, when every man, woman and child looks at the unfolding of an adventurous saga with a mixture of awe, hope and fear, I have decided to step forward and burst a few bubbles.

But first, let me accept the fact that I am delighted at the way the people of this country have rallied together for a common cause (that more than half of them don’t understand the cause is immaterial at this point). I have always felt frustrated at the indifference and apathy of us Pakistanis. We seemed to be a lethargic nation that did not bother to utter a syllable of protest no matter how gross an injustice was being perpetrated on us. Not anymore. We have changed and changed for the better.

Also, let’s give the devil his due. I feel that, for this awakening, we should be grateful to President Musharraf’s decision to grant freedom to the media. That the General himself became a victim of the events that ensued from this freedom is testimony to its usefulness.

Now, back to bursting the bubble. Sometimes I feel that we, as a nation, are like innocent children. We fight over trivial matters, show extreme laziness in certain areas and unfathomable urgency in others and, as seen in the case of this movement for the restoration of judiciary, sometimes we start congratulating ourselves too soon. As I have admitted earlier, it is delightful to watch our countrymen uniting for a cause, but it is the beginning of an awakening, not the end. We have a long way to go before we can make sense of things and reach rational conclusions.

We must not forget that we celebrated with great zeal the coming to power of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, we danced with joy when Benazir became our Prime Minister, we ecstatically hugged each other when Mian Nawaz Sharif replaced her and distributed sweets when Musharraf overthrew the Mian. We, like children, take every change as a sign of better times. This may be because we are always waiting for messiahs and hope that every new face in the government is exactly that.

Starting from Khawaja Nazimuddin, Pakistan has a not-so-proud history of leaders becoming unpopular soon after coming into power. Protest rallies were not uncommon against the supposed democrat Z.A. Bhutto. Protests continuously simmered against General Zia though they could never let out steam due to the dictatorial nature of the regime. Opposition parties continued to engage in marches and rallies against the PPP and PML-N whichever was in power at the time. Finally, PML-Q faced mellow criticism in the first few years of its reign and some of the worst protest in the history of Pakistan, in its last year.

So, protests are nothing new. Also, it is about time we forgot the fantastic notion that the elections of 2008 were some sort of a revolution. Democracy in Pakistan has never witnessed a political party retaining majority in the legislatures for two consecutive terms. The government has always lost and this is exactly what happened to the PML-Q government. We did not bring any revolution, we just did what we habitually do every election, that is, vote for the opposition.

Furthermore, let’s do away with all the high and mighty ideas we have about this movement for the restoration of judges too. Each and every opposition in our history has tried to rally the support of the masses to overthrow the government. The fact that this time, the masses have come out in huge numbers should not negate the truth of this.

The lawyers and civil society, charged up by the constant bombardment of emotional jargon from their TV screens and fiery speeches by their leaders, have given this movement a more interesting face, but this should be taken as it is, without adding too much spice (which is almost a cultural necessity for us).

The fact is simply this. PPP and PML-N combined forces against the rule of Gen. Musharraf, forgetting all their differences because that was the way they could return to the corridors of power. PPP ended up more successful in this pursuit whereas PML-N was left at its mercy. As long as PML-N believed that it had something to gain from this marriage of convenience, it continued its support for the PPP government, first as a coalition partner and then as an enlightened opposition. However, when the leaders of PML-N were disqualified and barred from contesting elections, the party faced the prospect of losing not only this government but also any chance of forming one in the future. This was when they decided to come out firing (or marching) on all cylinders and take Islamabad by storm.

Now we have a situation where the PML-N has nothing to lose and appears to be prepared to go all the way to regain power whereas the PPP has everything to lose and is making preparations to take every possible step (and a few impossible ones) to stop this maneuver. That is what this is. As always, a struggle for power, and that is what it should be viewed as. Unless ………

Unless, we the people of this poor old land, realize that we are the power behind these people. The common man is out on the streets in huge numbers. That is what can make this protest any different. Only if the common man can keep a clear head. Only if the common man does not forget that he is not fighting to get his hands on the reins of power. Only if the common man realizes that it is he who decides the future of this country. Only if the common man puts his foot down and raises his voice, not against an individual or a party, neither for any individual or party, but for justice and against injustice, regardless of the face behind it.

I am not in favour of this Long March. I am not against it either. I am all for the fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan. And I am against all tyranny, injustice and selfish, brutal lust for power. I am just waiting to find out which one of the two this Long March turns out to be.

We are the crossroads. The battle is not between PPP and PML-N, nor is it between the deposed judiciary and the forces of oligarchy. The battle is between the common man fighting for his actual right to freedom and the usual classes fighting for their perceived right to rule. Unfortunately, the battle lines are not that clearly drawn. Only if we keep our eyes open and fight the enemy within as bravely as that in front can we make this movement any different from the others. Only then can we take pride in the struggle. And only then can we take the liberty of actually congratulating ourselves on a job well done.

Allah bless us with wisdom, courage and success.

It Wasn't Me!

“Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.” Lily Tomlin – US Actress

Life is not nearly as complicated as we perceive it to be. All around us we see people complaining of life being too hard or too unfair. We might have become used to this sort of attitude and might believe that such feelings are an inevitable part of everyday living but simply becoming used to something does not make it the truth.

The importance of such a perception of life must not be underestimated. A continuous belief that life or the world or fate, whatever name one gives it, has been unfair is extremely dangerous. It can lead to unimaginable vice since people who believe that the world is not fair do not feel any obligation to be fair to the world and this is what leads to all kinds of trouble. I have heard a number of analysts explaining the acts of terrorism and barbarism rampant all over the world by saying that this is the way anyone would act if he was subjected to the kind of injustice faced by these oppressed people. Though this may sound logical, it is not.

I believe that rationalizing these perceptions is essential if we want to move towards a comfortable life. For anyone interested in looking in the mirror and admitting his / her faults, the following is a humble effort to show the way.

The most common blunder we make when confronted with our faults is to start by feeling so guilty that no reasonable step can follow. That is not the way to start. The first step should always be an attempt to rationalize our perceptions and emotions with an open mind and then try to figure out if they make sense or not.

Why do humans always have such a huge urge to complain? Regardless of whether our complaints are justified or not, it remains a fact that we take a strange pleasure in shifting the burden of our woes on something or someone else.

First the disclaimer; I am not a scientist or a sociologist or a psychologist or any other gist. I am just your normal person, who is trying to figure things out for himself. I believe that this habit of complaining stems from three simple factors. First, that we want to achieve something, most commonly this something means a certain way of life. Second, that we believe that we have not and / or cannot and / or will not be able to achieve it. Third, that we think this failure is not because of any fault of our own but that certain other factors that are beyond our control are responsible for it.

Anyone, who has experienced or continues to experience these bouts of complaining, must ask himself or herself a few questions. Most importantly, we must re-visit our aims in life and try to figure out if they make any sense or not. What we often forget (or maybe never realize in the first place) is that any aim that is not primarily in our own control is a bad aim. Whether we eventually achieve it or not is secondary.

For instance, if our aim is to make money, it is beyond our control, our aim should be to make the best possible effort to make money. Aiming to win a game, though looks justified, is actually flawed. Aiming to make the best effort to win a game is what we should be looking for.

So, if we continue to keep making the best effort, we can never fail due to any external causes. Our only failure could be a failure to do our best and that will lead to learning from our mistakes and improving ourselves.

In my personal experience, I have always seen two distinct groups of people. One, who are always working hard and continuously learning from failures and getting better, and others who are complaining of how something that they couldn’t help avoid intervened to stop them from achieving what they wanted. I have never met someone, at least not yet, who did both. So, I am forced by my experience to believe that people who complain do not give their best. Not to say that they don’t work hard, but the moment they shift the responsibility of their failure to external causes, their efforts immediately fall short of the mark.

We must never judge people. But what is infinitely more important is that we do not let other people’s judgement about us, affect us in any way. If we believe in God, we must also believe that He is the only one whose judgement matters. If we must look for other judges, then let’s not look any further than ourselves. Only God and we know what resources and hurdles we have in our life. So, only God and we can judge whether we did our best or not.

So, here is the way to go. First, decide on an aim which falls within your control. Second, judge your success or failure by the effort you made, not by the results. Results are based on so many other factors that you can do little about, that thinking too much about them would only waste your time. Give results importance only to the extent of using them to analyze how you could do better in the future. This sort of an attitude will ensure that you never have anything to blame for a failure except yourself since you will face no failure except an inability to do your best. And, believe me, when the only possible complaining is complaining about your own actions, few will feel comfortable wasting their time in this fruitless activity.

Third, and most important of all, don’t let others, who don’t have any right to judge you, or any clue about how to accurately judge you, have any kind of effect on how you judge yourself. Following this line of thinking should give two results. One, you will never feel hard done by the world when you fail and two, you will be able to look at things independently and form much better opinions than those formed under the influence of what others say.

Most significantly, it should help you stop complaining. Life is a continuous learning curve. The only real success is to learn more and develop further as a person. We have no obligation to explain to the world the reasons for our perceived failures. And we will always be in a position to improve and avoid actual failures.

Long Long March!

Here we go again. Another long march is upon us. This time, we are marching for the independence of judiciary. There are a number of people in this country who are extremely gladdened by this turn of events. We are overjoyed to see that we have finally risen against the tyranny of the ruling classes and have, at last, shown the courage to take a principled stance in front of, first a military dictator, and now a civilian one. The entry of the Sharif brothers, along with their party into the movement has reassured us. The lions are with us and now we will not stop until we get what we want. And with this kind of resolve, we are sure that we’ll succeed. Nara-e-Takbeer Allah o Akbar (Or is Chief Tere Jaan Nisaar, Beshumaar Beshumaar more popular now?). 

Let’s get one thing clear here. I have nothing against independence of judiciary or the right of the people to protest or march to wherever they want. It’s just that I fear this movement, like everything else in this country, is under a severe threat. This threat does not come from its detractors in the government or its enemies within. It comes from the capacity of human beings to be so swayed by emotions that they lose the actual plot. This movement too is in danger of completely losing its plot.

I fully support all the people who take part in this march as well as those who support it. I just want to make a few things clear. Call it a reminder to the Pakistanis. We have this very bad habit of putting people on high pedestals overnight and also of pushing them off in a moment. We perceive everyone as either an angel or the Devil. Hence, we have lost the capacity to evaluate humans and interact with them. In truth the human being is an extremely complex creature and always falls between the Angel and the Devil. We must realize this so that we can judge the good and bad qualities of everyone and then decide what benefit or harm he can do to us. Most of you (if not all) know the facts I am going to state here, but I guess, we suffer from severe bouts of amnesia. So let’s refresh our memory.

• Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (then at the Balochistan High Court) was one of the first judges to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) in January 2000.
• In May 2000, Justice Chaudhry was one of the 12 judges who ruled that the removal of the Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was legal on the basis of the doctrine of necessity and hence validated the rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
• In 2005, Justice Chaudhry was one of the five judges who dismissed all petitions against the 17^th Amendment, Musharraf’s retention of uniform and the Legal Framework Order (LFO).
• In 1981, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, was handpicked by Gen. Zia ul Haq and made the Finance Minister of Punjab. This was the start of his political career.
• In 1985, Nawaz Sharif became the Chief Minister of Punjab with Gen. Zia’s consent.
• Nawaz Sharif while Prime Minister was charged with contempt of court and a mob of his supporters attacked the Supreme Court while hearing of the case was in progress. Instead of rendering an apology on behalf of his supporters, Mr. Sharif removed the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah from his post.

I don’t intend to say that these people are evil. I just want to remind our people that they are humans, not angels or devils. We must keep a clear head and stick to facts. I have never seen a man change overnight but somehow we are adamant at believing and convincing others that these two supreme leaders as well as a number of their partners have transformed themselves into the messiahs that we had always been waiting for. We have to wake up.

We will never be saved by any Judge or political leader. We are our own saviors. We should follow any leader as long as he is on the right path, regardless of who he is. Similarly we must stay away from anyone who does not seem to be going where he should, regardless of who he is. There is nothing wrong with struggling for liberty, freedom, independence of judiciary, democracy and so on. But please, let’s not put undue burden on individuals.

We want an independent judiciary, good. We think that Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry symbolizes an independent and impartial judiciary and is the only one who can get us there, unfair. We want democracy, good. We think that Nawaz Sharif and his party is the surest path towards it, unfair. Why should these individuals be burdened with such huge and unreasonable expectations?

Just a little bit about our lion’s speech in Faisalabad the other day. He screamed to a huge slogan chanting crowd a list of all the sacrifices he made for democracy. I’ll mention just three of them here. Firstly, that he fled his country and spent seven years abroad. He asked the overzealous crowd whether they could spend even a single day outside their beloved country and there was a loud NO heard in response (I wonder what would have happened if someone had thrown a foreign visa amid the crowd at that time). Secondly, that he forced his party members to take their ministerial oaths from President Musharraf (Wow! Becoming Ministers! That is some sacrifice!). And third that now (when they have been barred from assemblies) he and his brother are protesting in the streets against the tyranny of the PPP government. Interestingly, in all his speeches, the Mian rarely mentions Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and concentrates mainly on the decision against himself and his brother and how that has harmed the future of his country (read family).

Rather than expecting a person to take us to our destination, let’s move towards it together. We are with any leader as long as he’s leading us towards better days. The road is important, not the leader. We should be more bothered about where we are going rather than who we are following. 

Most of the people in democratic countries take centuries to learn this. We must learn this now. In a democracy, every one of us is the ruler. Our opinion is important. It matters. We matter. Make sure you put your mark on the history of your nation.

People who believe in something just because their leader says so walk a tight line. Enlightened people follow a leader because he says what they believe in. Go ahead and follow these men but don’t forget that they are our leaders because we made them so, and they should serve as our leaders only if they stick to their word and their promises. We are their strength, rather than vice versa. We come first but only if we believe in ourselves. Until we keep following blindly, we’ll keep marching, and it will be a long long march.

 

Sure Thing!

According to a leading newspaper of the country, when the concerned Superintendent of Police was contacted regarding the security lapse that led to the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, he said that since he had just recently been posted, he was not sure about providing VVIP security to the visiting players. He further clarified that Blue Book security (the highest level of security in Pakistan) was provided to individuals and not groups. Other sources confirmed that Blue Book security is normally reserved for the President, the Prime Minister, Governors and the Chief Justice and it can be provided to any other individual if the government desires.

First let’s get the facts clear here. The government of Pakistan promised the Sri Lankan management that the team would be provided maximum security and stressed that they did not have anything to fear on their tour. The government does have the capacity to provide Blue Book security. A few things really bother me here. First, why did the government not desire to provide the visiting team with the best possible security? This is especially alarming since most of the cricketing world had already refused to tour Pakistan citing security reasons and the Intelligence Agencies had forewarned the government about the possibility of such an attack. And second, what is the logic behind this principle of providing maximum security only to individuals and not groups? In the current scenario we should be extremely conscious of our reputation in the world and our prime concern should be to take every possible measure to make sure that nothing happens that could make it worse.

However, what’s done is done. The past has no importance except what you learn from it. This is true for individuals as well as nations. We must learn from this incident and not take decisions on security issues in such a laid back manner ever again.

But what bothers me much more about the news report above is not what kind of security was provided to the Sri Lankans. It is the statement of a senior Police officer saying that he was not sure about the kind of security to be provided to the team. Not sure! Unbelievable! But then again, maybe it is not that big a surprise. How many of us are sure about anything.

I think this is one of our most fundamental problems. We, Pakistanis, are never sure. I have rarely seen a housewife who is sure about what to cook for lunch, or a driver who is sure about whether to stop at a traffic signal or keep moving, or a customer who is sure if the price he is paying for something is too much or too less, or a voter who is sure about why he is voting for one person and not another, or a government that is sure about what policies it wants to implement and the list goes on and on.

We are a nation of cricket lovers. I wish we could learn something from the game at least. Ever seen a batsmen being run out? 99% of such dismissals occur when one or both the batsmen are not sure whether to take the run or not. If both decide to run and don’t become unsure in the process, you will rarely see one of them being run out. We, as a nation, are like our beloved Inzi, destroying all the hard work put into an innings simply because we were not sure.

What is the reason for this? Probably that we have a terrible habit of being satisfied with illogical and irrational explanations for things and sometimes with no explanations at all. We don’t want to know for sure. There is a popular song in Pakistan which goes Laal meri pat rakhyo bhala jhoolay lalan, sindhri da, sehwan da, sakhi Shahbaz Qalandar, Dama Dam Mast Qalandar …….. All of us must have heard this song hundreds of times since it is sung at every wedding by the sisters, cousins and friends of the bride and groom. A year or so ago, I asked a number of such young girls what they actually understood by these words. Surprisingly not a single one of them was sure about the meaning of what they had been singing on joyous occasions all their lives.

I do not intend to exaggerate the importance of this ignorance. After all, it’s just a song. But this attitude is not restricted to songs. We are not sure about anything from our choice of dress to our choice of religion. The only difference is that where we feel free to ask others about the trivial matters like what to cook for lunch or what to wear for a wedding, we are much more reluctant to ask others about our religion or what kind of security to provide to a visiting group of players.

This sort of behaviour is bound to lead us to disaster (if we are not already in one) and the worst thing is that we will probably not be sure if it actually is a disaster or not. Unfortunately, life does not come with three umpires who can at least raise a finger or press the red button to free us from the indecision about our ultimate fate. But then again, who knows? We are a nation stranded in the middle of the pitch indecisive about whether to run or not.

We have made huge blunders throughout our history. It is time to start learning from our mistakes. Being sure is not the path to success; it is not even the first step. It comes way before that. If we are not sure, we will never be able take the first step. Let’s start by admitting our faults. Let’s accept that we don’t know. Let’s start the search to find out the truth; the truth that we can be sure about.

And it is not that hard. I will lay down certain truths that I am sure about. One, that our country is in the most undesirable condition. Two, that I, being a citizen of this country, must shoulder a part of the responsibility for this state of affairs. Three, that I have to play my part in improving the conditions. Four, that I don’t have any idea how to go about it. Five, that I am determined to try my best to find out how I can contribute more and to do whatever I can.

Let’s stop the uncertainty. Someone who is certain that he does not know is still better than he who is uncertain. A batsman who does not take a single run may look stupid, but he has hope. One who has attempted an uncertain single and paid the price has none. But let’s not sound too pessimistic. We have many more innings to play and it is never too late to learn except when it is.

If nothing else comes to mind, start by learning the meaning of Dama Dam Mast Qalandar. If you already know that, you are already on your way.

Socrates based his assumption that he was the wisest man in Greece on just one piece of knowledge which he realized that none of the others wise men had. And that was oída ouk eidós meaning “I know that I don’t know”.

Indifference Kills, Absolute Indifference Kills Absolutely!

“There's nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can't clearly articulate why we're doing what we're doing.”

Yes, I am demoralized. Optimism is fast ceasing to be an option for Pakistan but I always try my best not to lose hope. And it is becoming harder everyday. I am not demoralized by the conditions in the country, all nations go through good and bad times and the great nations of the world were not the ones who never had troubles but the ones who rose up from the worst of them.

France before the revolution of 1789, England before 1688, the USA before Abraham Lincoln, Arab before Islam, all showed a glum picture and had troubles which might dwarf our own. My demoralization stems from our leaders. I am disgusted with their attitude, callousness and utter confusion about where we should be headed and what our strategy should be.

The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team is a shame but the statements of our government after the attack are nothing less than shameless. Our worthy governor (read ruler) stated that these were the same terrorists who were responsible for the Mumbai attacks. What kind of a statement is this? On one hand we claim that we have no clear idea who was behind the Mumbai attacks, and on the other, we are actually identifying other people to be the same as them. This could only mean one thing, that the government has no clue about these people either.

We were also treated to a memorable press conference yesterday where our ruler explained how the disqualified Chief Minister of Punjab was involved in huge frauds specially in the Sasti Roti program (the fact that a large number of people were actually getting cheap rotis and that this provision ended as soon as the Chief Minister went meaning little for him) and that the PPP was handling the Benazir Income Support Program  much better. In short, we were being convinced that his party is better, the other a bunch of criminals. Ask the Sharif brothers and you will hear the exact opposite.

Will someone tell our leaders that WE DON’T GIVE A SHIT. People are committing suicides due to poverty, we have a parallel system of justice in the North, Taliban and terrorists are breathing down our necks, we are internationally considered as worthless beggars who cannot be trusted, players from other countries are attacked with grenades if they dare to come here, the de jure Chief Justice is ridiculed by the lawyers themselves, the actual Chief Justice is left to roam the streets asking for justice, the whole nation is fast sinking into severe depression. We don’t care how good any party is!

Our Second Caliph Hazrat Umar (RA) said that even if a dog died in his rule, he felt responsible. When a trade caravan camped outside his city, he was so concerned for their safety that he spent the night on the outskirts of the city to ensure that their lives and assets were secure. Once, when Hazrat Usman (RA) was on his way to buy a piece of land, he passed some people who were crying for food. He distributed all his money among those poor and went home without making the deal.

I don’t ask our leaders to copy these people but at least they can show a bit of humanity. Today, when the people are screaming simply because a roti costs five rupees, our leaders are having the feasts of their lives. Five policemen were killed trying to protect the Sri Lankan team while our leaders are living amidst security provided by hundreds.

We have committed blunders time and again. It is us who bring these people into power. Us, the people of Pakistan, who have ashamed democracy with the way we cast our votes. All those who repeatedly vote for these people and then sit back watching till they are called to vote again should be concerned. And all those who do not even cast their votes and are satisfied simply criticizing and cribbing about what is going on should be ashamed.

We are in a far worse situation than ever before. Before 1947, we did not have a land to call our own, now we have a country that we are ashamed to call our own. The choice is clear. We have to either leave this country or love it. And if we love it, we must show it. There’s nothing to lose anymore. Fear the time when the ignorant fools that make up such a large part of our population will be the only ones to be seen here. The educated Pakistanis, the ones who still have their brains in order, who can think sensibly must act. We must start thinking, not only about our own petty selfish lives but about the country. We have to stop fearing the truth; we have to take our problems head on. We have to stop being indifferent. We have to unite.

For starters we have to spread truth as much as we can. We are afraid of the truth, afraid of looking in the mirror, afraid of consequences, afraid of power, afraid of wealth. Ang San Suu Kyi said “Fear is not the natural state of civilized people”. We have to stop being afraid and act like a civilized nation. We have to realize that we are in trouble and each one of us is responsible for it. Truth never hurts; it’s the lies that kill us.

If you don’t get a leader who is good enough, find a better one, or become a better one. Be yourself. A life of fear is much worse than death.

“Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive -- the risk to be alive and express what we really are.”