“Apna
Muqaam Paida Kar”
(Make Your Mark in the Annals of History)
By Mohammad Ashraf
Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
“Apna Muqaam Paida Kar”
was the title-theme on Allama Iqbal’s birthday
(November 9) this year in Pakistan. The nation
was urged by the government to follow the motto,
“Apna Muqaam Paida Kar” - earn a place
of respect for yourself in the comity of nations.
The blowing up of 42 soldiers – under training
at Dargai on November 8 by a suicidal killer,
and the death of some 82 Taliban’s at Bajaur
a few days earlier - had already established the
state of the “Muqaam”, Pakistan as
a country had carved for itself in the worldview.
“Khudi me doob kar Zarb-e-Kaleem Paida Kar…
Hazaar Chashmay Phutai Gei…”, and,
of course, a petrified nation of some 165 million
individuals everyday remains constrained to witness
the multiple sprouting and mushrooming of such,
blood-springs and gory ‘zerbs’ as
it saw at Bajaur and Dargai in the recent past.
The season of denials must end now. Let President
Musharraf admit once and for all that Pakistan
is in the eye of a terrible storm; that Pakistan
has almost become a home to extremism whatever
the reasons; and that it has happened so, partially
owing to his own ambivalence toward combating
fundamentalism.
He compromised too often with forces that just
bought time to make a lethal mix of religion with
the futility of life, and who justified the loss
of innocent lives for some ‘higher cause’,
though it had been in clear violation of the established
laws of Islamic warfare. And the whole nation
that appeared more vibrant and progressive in
the 60s, now stands as a robot, silent and helpless,
watching stoically all kinds of acts of terrorism
perpetrated on them in the name of religion.
Somebody, somewhere, for sure, is preaching that
suicidal killings are a shortcut to Paradise.
CD’s titled as, “Buy your place in
Janna”, as if it was as easy as buying a
piece of land, are more in sale than once were
the Indian movies, and the keenest buyers are
the youth of the area. There is no secret, as
reported by the BBC, that after the military action
at Bajaur some 271 stood in line to enlist themselves
to undertake a suicidal mission for the purpose
of wreaking vengeance on the military.
The Dargai incident was thus an expected happening.
If poverty, repression, inequality, deprivation
and political suppression had been a base and
the main cause leading to terrorism, then Pakistan
long before would have become a terrorist country.
But it did not happen so, though all the above
mentioned factors had never been absent from the
life of its people.
The whole of Africa that had always been ruled
by thugs and dictators, and had been a greater
victim of a harsh brand of colonialism, should
have become the main producer of the maximum number
of terrorists, but it did not. Nor did any Latin
American country become a fertile ground to creating
the kind of suicidal killers which the Middle
Eastern countries have produced. Their Carlos
and Jackals and Nidals found only the Middle East
a fertile place to have their brand of terrorism
prosper. Why so? Why did Viet Nam which had more
than seven million of its people killed in the
war with America, not produce the kind of hijackers
and suicidal killers that we see too often produced
in the Muslim countries? Some Sikhs and Tamils
of Sri Lanka resorted to this mode of killing
in this part of the South East, but not even once
did this religious epidemic touch Pakistan till
the ‘80’s as far as my memory guides
me. Why so?
It is a highly dangerous trend which may deliver
some short-ended results for a short time; but
in the long run it is as dangerous as any radioactive
material, bound to backfire, a kind of genii difficult
to be rebottled once it is out. It becomes further
lethal when it begins to draw its sustenance from
religious distortions, because the true spirit
of religion demands its immediate end, and warns
those who practice it with their eternal abode
in hellfire.
These rent-a-son agencies are now thriving in
the tribal areas of Pakistan, though they have
their recruiting headquarters spread all over
the country. President Musharraf knows them fully,
as did Ms. Benazir and Mian Nawaz Sharif. When
Marry Anne Weaver in her book ‘Pakistan
in the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan’
wrote, “If the U S goes to war against Iraq,
miracles may be needed to keep Pakistan…
from blowing into deadly pieces… The accumulation
of disorder in Pakistan is such that it could
well be the next Yugoslavia, worst actually…
it is Yugoslavia with an atomic arsenal”,
one felt irritated on reading such forebodings
for a country that could be anything except being
a religiously fanatic country.
When Stephen Phillip Cohen in his book ‘The
Idea of Pakistan’ wrote that Pakistan was
a State that was born to flounder, as it was based
on an idea that has failed; a country in which
every ruler’s success is written in the
State’s failure… one felt constrained
to disagree with every word he wrote. Now all
this and much more that appears in the pages of
world journals seems to be coming true. All fingers
invariably point in one direction, which is, Pakistan.
Why? It is hard to brush aside all this as malicious
propaganda. After all, why all of a sudden Libya
is not in the headlines, and Pakistan is?
What’s wrong with these Muslims who make
lofty claims to the understanding of Islam?
According to one scholar, such Muslims are a victim
of many paradoxes which they are not able to resolve.
For example, they like industrialization but are
against Westernization. They love to watch a TV
but are unwilling to accept that its watching
can culturally influence them as well. They believe
firmly in brotherhood, but in practice are devout
nationalists, regionalists, and are ethnically
and religiously divided. They are further confused
because on one hand they find themselves living
in a highly pluralistic and globally linked age,
and on the other hand they are stubbornly rigid
and are not willing to change and improve. The
visionary founder of Pakistan understood this
dilemma of Muslims as he himself had been a target
of their religious narrow mindedness. He envisioned
Pakistan as a country which would be proudly both:
Muslim as well as modern. Is Pakistan so?
WHAT SHOULD PAKISTAN DO UNDER
SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES?
1. Pakistan is an old ally of America, both need
each other, and both should stay so in all circumstances.
After all Canada and Mexico that even share borders
with this super power do not always agree with
America all the time. Pakistan must make sure
that America does not wriggle out of Afghanistan
as it did before, and that America understands
Pakistan’s concerns about Afghanistan, and
sees wisdom in the solutions Pakistan offers to
come out of the mess.
2. Enough is enough. All efforts without any further
waste of time must be made to see that a true
dawn of democracy in Pakistan takes place. Democracy
is not alien to Pakistan. People of Pakistan have
always yearned for it. A façade of democracy
is more dangerous than no democracy. Look, what
wonders true democracy can work. The recently
held mid-term elections in America, even at a
time when it has been in a state of war in two
different countries, has compelled a sitting president
to change his foreign policy and his approach
towards war on terrorism, and the deployment of
American soldiers abroad.
3. The goodwill atmosphere created recently between
India and Pakistan must flourish till it leads
to the solution of Kashmir, acceptable to the
people of both the countries as well as to the
Kashmiris.
4. Pakistan must not interfere in the affairs
of Afghanistan, and instead of accusing Karzai,
it must sweep under its own cot and set its own
house in order.
5. Pakistan’s stand on terrorism must be
firm and unequivocal. Half-hearted approach in
this matter will not be acceptable to the world
now.
6. Pakistan must invest heavily in education,
research and in the alleviation of poverty and
inequality; it must allocate big funds for the
provision of drinkable water. These needs are
greater than Pakistan’s freedom from national
debt.
7. All institutions, especially of justice, merit
and democracy must be promoted at all levels and
in all earnest. Look what Singapore has accomplished
just by promoting meritocracy. Let the Judges
of the highest court bear the main burden of deciding
matters that are sensitive and are highly controversial.
8. Pakistan may not be insecure if it fails to
get F-16’s and submarines; but it would
definitely be weaker if it fails to establish
hospitals, good schools and good governance.
9. Three indicators establish a country’s
development: the wealth of the nation, the prosperity
of its people, and its standing in the international
forum. Pakistan is doing poorly in all the three
sectors. Terrorism anywhere in the world somehow
finds its genesis in Pakistan. A 100 billion in
the Foreign Reserves would not put Pakistan in
any better world estimation than what it is now,
except a committed effort to tackle the problem
of terrorism in Pakistan. The ISI and its retired
officers, as admitted by President Musharraf himself
and as some of them have claimed so without any
inhibitions, need to be bridled.
10. Pakistan must devise ways to lessen the power
and influence of religious extremists in the country,
and it must do so by supporting genuine Islamic
scholarship as a counter measure. Sustained efforts
need to be made to explain the meaning and essence
of the Qur’an and Sunnah to the people in
the light of modern challenges in a language that
they understand and by those whose scholarship
and credibility is above board. It should not
be deemed unholy by a serving head of the army
to admit that the simple and naive mullah became
a reckless militant only after the military men,
serving or retired, began accosting him. This
link must be broken as early as possible.
The Muslim world, including Pakistan, is accused
of having an odd blend of victim-hood and triumphalism,
which may not be entirely wrong. A change in the
American policy towards Iraq after the mid-term
elections, or the death sentence of Sadam Hussain,
has been viewed in the Muslim countries with mixed
feelings; each reading in it the message that
suits its agenda. It is not a matter of exaggeration,
but a fact that nobody can defeat America; America
some times defeats itself. Right now, what Pakistan
needs to do is to come out of this perpetual state
of denials-cum-embarrassments, and establish its
credibility. Watching its national interests,
it should not be difficult for Pakistan to establish
that its efforts to tackle the monster of terrorism
are genuine.
America may be willing to listen to Pakistan’s
point of view better in the light of the new circumstances
if there is an element of sincerity in Pakistan’s
commitment to fight terrorism; but first Pakistan
also needs to admit that it is as much a victim
of terrorism itself as it has been responsible
for its spread. After all there had always been
authoritative account of the linkages between
Pakistan’s powerful Islamists and its professional
army, says Stephen Cohen while commenting on Husain
Haqqani’s book ‘Pakistan, between
Mosque and Military’. Army once nurtured
them; Army now has got to take care of them.
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