By Qaisar Sultan
The character of people and nation may be defined by their reaction to their mistakes. The mistakes in the life of individuals and nations are natural. The way nature works that the life may learn through its mistakes to evolve. The hyenas in the jungle learn by their mistake of challenging and attacking the lionesses in the presence of male lion. This survival mode is being transferred into the genes and the experience of each pack of hyenas. The mistakes of challenging the lions make hyenas clever in dealing with the lions. The Pakistani leaders have no problem challenging the most powerful country in the world. We, humans, have hard time accepting and rectifying our mistakes; that is a flaw in the weak people’s character. As the simple saying goes, “We all make mistakes”- That is one truth that most of us cannot deny. The great nations made not only mistakes but blunders; those that survived learnt from those mistakes and corrected them. We may find a great debate in the differences between the mistakes made by the wise and imbeciles; there is always a thin line to differentiate; both could be simply innocent or lack of appropriate wisdom in a particular affair. But there is another mortally caustic element in this regard, called willful transgression from the natural, civil and moral laws or norms; they always come to haunt the individuals and nations. We may assign these willful mistakes to the original sin which demonstrated the willful transgression of Adam. They are two ways looking at mistakes; first is to recognize that a mistake is made; and second is to figure out how and who made the mistake, and finally how do we correct them? The question is always raised regarding the ingrained sense of rectitude in the very basis of a society and individual life- That the debauchery becomes part of the justification for all the wickedness and wrong; the mistakes and moral decay represent the very basis of our social and moral conducts.
One thing the Pakistani civilian and military leadership assert without any qualm is that nobody has ever made any mistake. Right from the infancy of the state, the Objective Resolution has its defender; that basis of our constitution has provided cover for so many religious absurdities that our nation cannot appreciate or even recognize; Why do we have to blame general Zia? – He was little more zealous than his predecessor regarding the purity of religiosity in public lives. After so much mayhem and impairment to the morale of the nation, very few can see the mistakes made at the beginning and throughout the existence of the statehood. The judiciary defended the treason of the military institution suspending the constitution on their will; no mistakes were admitted by our justices or the military generals. Again, why do have to blame the military generals; they had the power of gun and the support of judiciary and opportunist and unscrupulous civilian and religious politicians. The minute those generals left power, the politicians go back talking about democracy and the Supreme Court now crow about the importance of upholding the constitution. The transient disposition of the power culture in Pakistan negates the legitimate power and purpose given to all the institutions which have been manipulated for the personal and ethnic gain.
After a long time, military and its subordinate organization, ISI, seem to be vulnerable. They are under lot of pressure within and outside of the country. This is the best time to change things for better; first thing that should be done is to take ISI out of the military control. What these clowns do? Instead of correcting the situation, they go out and lie about how they feel about these outfits; everybody has found religion of a great reverence to ISI. They were all victims to the treachery of this rough organization. Who does not know that they have done so much mischief in the internal politics of the country- they have bought and sold politicians? The civilian politicians who could not stay in power or those politicians, who wanted to come through back door, used the powerful ISI. The money of a poor nation was stolen and given to the most corrupt politicians. The second offense to the country, region and the world was their involvement with the extremist organizations. They can deny as much as they can; the fact is that they supported Lashkar-e- Taiba, now Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other extremist’s organizations. Even after the blame of complicity or incompetence in Osama Bin laden’s debacle, the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hafez Saeed came out on the street of Lahore with a sizable rally against American intrusion inside the Pakistani territory- It is all for the purpose to challenge and scare the USA. Hafez Saeed is a well-known terrorist, and allowing him to show support to the military and ISI was absolutely inappropriate in the current international and domestic policies. The odd supporter such as the prime minister, president (Luke warm support; he complained to the Obama administration that some in the Pakistani military wanted to see him dead), the MQM and Javed Hashmi show the hypocrisy what the Pakistani politicians feel and say; they think that they have to kiss their feet to survive. All of the above have suffered in the hands of ISI and the military. The MQM claimed that they have lost so many of their activists by the military and ISI- They used to call it extra-judicial killings. Now they are the great believers in the inviolability of those who supposedly extra-judicially killed their comrades. President Zardari and Prime Minister Gillani have suffered in the hands of the military general Musharraf and ISI. The PPP has claimed that Benazir was killed through the military connection (General Musharraf was a military man!). If anyone thinks that all of the above are supporting these institutions for the love of the country, is grossly mistaken.
The idea is not to get rid of ISI; every country needs a competent spy agency to protect the national interests. We have an enemy that is watching us coming apart as a nation. The Pakistani military has fought three wars with India, lot of our brave young men have sacrificed their lives for the country. These institutions have to be in proper civilian control without the fear of a coup or maligning the images of disliked politicians or ethnic groups, such as Balochis through kidnapping and extra-judicial killings. It is time to find the peaceful path of solving difficult problems that people have been facing for so long. It is time to put the money where the large suffering masses mouths are and not to quench the unending craving of powerful generals for more power and money. Let us find friends and not enemies as the military likes us to believe. The American senator John Kerry who is a friend of Pakistan has given a right advice and sort of threat: “We need to find a way to march forward if it is possible. If it is not possible, there are lot of downside consequences that can be profound”- Who is listening to the voice of reason. General Kayani has alluded to the old cliché (Our people will eat grass to fight- That is exactly what is happening right now) that our people are ready to suffer, but not for accepting any mistake. Thank God that we are proud people!
qaisarsultan@live.com