PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER
In this world of conspiracies, spreading of depression has proved one of the very successful strategies used as the war tactics and its repercussions are more fatal and lethal than those of a nuclear bomb. Now survival is not the fate of the fittest ones but of those who don’t fall a prey to depression and disappointment. Throughout the world, most of the countries have their own well organized and well trained wings in electronic and print media. The men belonging to these wings are simply the soldiers armed with pens and words and basically they have two responsibilities to perform; spreading disappointment and depression among the enemies and generating hope and determination among their own people. On the whole their assignment is to deform the facts and figures with the help of misinformation in the larger interest of their own country. But at the same time it is something more pathetic that a very few of these men ‘armed with pen and words’ join hands with the forces hostile to their own land and start playing in the hands of those whose only objective is to shatter the very foundations of their country. Unluckily such men ‘armed with pen and words’ are present in the Pakistani print and electronic media also, though they are few and far between. We always find these ‘unfortunate soldiers’ trying to prove their loyalty to their foreign masters by acting upon the agenda provided to them. Defaming the Armed forces of Pakistan, slandering the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and above all framing the religious forces in every act of terrorism is the actual duty assigned to such media-men and media groups. Such elements are always eager to spread an impression throughout the world that Pakistan is facing the worst situation of sectarian divide and the blood thirsty sectarian extremists are butchering ruthlessly their religious opponents in the streets of Pakistan; but in reality the situation is altogether different.
Be it the streets and bazaars of Karachi, Quetta or Peshawar, it is not the sectarian conflict which has taken lives of countless Muslims in the name of extremism; it is something else. The people involved in such heinous acts of brutal killing in the name of religion neither belong to the Taliban nor to the Tehreek-Taliban and nor to Al-Qaeda because all these three claim to represent the Muslim community and to safeguard the Muslim interests all over the world. These organizations have a grave enmity with US just because they think US is working against the Muslim interests and it is US which has given all Muslims the name of Terrorists. The wave of targeted killings of the Deobandi, Barailvi and the Shia Ulamas and their respective communities is in fact the part of a well organized conspiracy against the Muslims and the sole aim of this conspiracy is to spread hatred based on misunderstanding among different Muslim sects. The terrorists, according to the agenda provided to them, target someone from the Deobandi sect and the very next day they target someone from the Barailvi sect and the third day their target is someone from the Shia community. The game does not stop here; the targets keep on shifting from the religious persons to the political figures; one day someone from the ANP and the next day someone from the MQM or from the Nawaz League. In short every killing, portrayed by some of the prejudiced media groups or media persons as sectarian killing, has another picture behind.
It is true that the Pakistani society is facing a lot of social and financial problems, yet it has an exemplary harmonized religious fiber. People don’t hate others on religious or sectarian grounds. The Deobandis, the Barailvis and the Shias have family relations and connections with one another. They have inter- marriages, they participate in the religious ceremonies, they share the joys and sorrows of one another and above all they feel grieved at any loss the other community has to bear. Just cast a look at the brutal killing of over one hundred innocent people belonging to the Hazara Community in Quetta a few weeks back. Though most of the martyrs belonged to the Shia sect but the whole of the nation was grieved at this massacre. Though the provincial and the federal governments remained indifferent to this sad incident till the very end but people raised their protest against this genocide throughout Pakistan keeping away all sectarian differences. It was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that the protestants in such a large number demonstrated a sit in with eighty six dead bodies of their dear ones for more than three days. These demonstrators were not only the Hazaraz or the Shias; they were from all social and religious walks of life. Though it was really a heart-rending incident but it gave the world a very strong message that the whole of Pakistani nation hates and condemns every act of terrorism and that the terrorists do not belong to it. However, the demand of removal of the Provincial Government and an SOS call to the Army must be an eye-opener to all those who advocate democracy in Pakistan.
Pakistan is a non-violent and moderate society. People are very much loyal to their land and religion and tolerance is the basic lesson of Islam. They know very well that the secret of their survival as a nation is hidden in unity and harmony. Those who are trying to give an impression to the world that Pakistan is an extremist and intolerant society divided on sectarian grounds are simply distorting the real face of this society. Such people are nothing but the puppets whose strings are in the hands of their puppeteers and their target is to demoralize the Pakistani nation by spreading depression and disappointment in it.