Something Rotten In That Pity State Of Pakistan

Since yesterday I was trying to do two things. One, find out Tariq Ali’s commentary on Pakistan’s situation and two, the well being of my family members back at home. I had not been able to get through overloaded phone lines. Finally this morning I received a short text message from one of my brother saying, “We all are OK but Pakistan in not OK”. And my brother is not a political activist or any thinker, just an ordinary small self employed person mired in his daily struggles to provide for the family. His comment speaks volumes. Then I opened the Internet and there I find Tariq Ali’s commentary on FOTH website. Thank you organizers! From an intellectual and knowledgeable person like Tariq Ali who had access to first hand information about many dramas going on in the world, to an ordinary person in the streets of Pakistan, the feelings are the same. All are struggling to see if there is any hope left.

And as I had myself tried to see what hope, if any, is left, Tariq Ali’s article does show a glimmer in the shape of PPP reorganizing on new lines. But taking a closer look on the nature of forces working in that ambience, chances of that happening is a big if. A big cloud hangs over PPP if democratic principles are not upheld because of Benazir’s will which is not opened yet. Regardless, Tariq Ali had pointed to the right direction: the only hope lies in the people organizing through democratic institutions. But forces against progress and humanity are rampant and unbridled. Will this little seedling survive?

Hope is …. that tune which never stops at all”.

It is no more relevant what flaws personally Benazir had. What is relevant is to recognize how vicious, wicked and ruthless the enemies of people are and how fixedly they are determined to destroy any possibility of growth of even a semblance of progress. It is a simplistic view to see Benazir being murdered only because she was aligned with America. Her murder closes a chapter in the history of Pakistan and opens a new possibly bloodier and more tragic phase. Maybe it is time to start having a closer look into the basis of all that. There is something rotten in the state of Pakistan, the only other country in the world created based on principles of religious faith in contrast to British Imperialists’ own proclaimed beliefs in the principles of theory of nationhood. Maybe we now should wake up to the history’s cruelest joke and grow up to face the ironic reality in the eyes. And may be then we can begin to see what is rotten in that pity state of Pakistan.

Mutaal Mooquin

December 29, 2007