One of the first things one realizes about Pakistan is that its population lives in different eras. A tiny minority is attuned to the latest trends in New York and London and it is difficult to differentiate between them and the elite in the western capitals. A huge educated majority is patriotic and many amongst them are pan-Islamists and believe that Muslims throughout the world form an ummah; some but not all are susceptible to the mullah sermons. Then comes the vast majority of our populace: the illiterate poor masses who may or may not be happy according to our newly found trend of conducting polls but simply live to survive.
Such differences may be present in many countries but the magnitude is phenomenal in our country. One segment will know the names of rivers passing through various American states and the salient features of American constitution while the other extreme may not even be knowing the name of our president. The state is not doing much to bridge this gap. We may have one of the largest numbers of news TV channels but most are not accessible in the rural areas where 65% of the people live. Even where they are available, most prefer to watch entertainment on TV. The number of people reading newspapers then dwindles to a miniscule.
We the few reading English newspapers seldom interact with the unfortunate half except visiting rural or far flung areas once in a while to take pictures to share on Facebook. What however is mind boggling is when some in the educated class make assertions like 9/11 was a conspiracy hatched by the CIA and Zionists; or the Islamic State is supported by the United States; or that the killing of Shias including Hazaras is a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan’s opponents.
They ignore the sermons of some in the mosques where the listeners are exhorted to eliminate Shias and assured of a place in heaven for accomplishing it. Nobody wants to die but they never wonder as to why some go to the extent of becoming suicide bombers. They never wonder about the ideology which prompts some to kill Shias including Hazaras when it is difficult for some of us to even kill an animal.
An American friend once came to Pakistan to work in the development sector but returned in a short while saying that the situation is hopeless as people here are obsessed with the life hereafter rather than with improving their current plight. Whenever there is a crisis we expect others to do the work whether it is floods, earthquake, environmental contamination or our pathetic social indicators. Pakistan keeps claiming that more than 100,000 people have sacrificed their lives at the hands of terrorists. However, it took us more than five decades to carry out a military operation in the tribal areas to flush out the terrorists. Nobody bothers to explain as to why this operation could not be carried out decades earlier.
Similarly, I know of no other country in the world including places like Syria or Somalia where weapons like AK-47, hand grenades and rocket launchers are readily available as in Pakistan. This is the reason Islamic State terrorists use knives to attack people in the West or China because they find it difficult to obtain weapons. Instead of establishing JITs and commissions headed by high court judges all we have to do is to control the supply of weapons to drastically cut down on cases of terrorism. Attacking the terrorist ideologies is more difficult but we can again look to the experience of other countries to imitate their actions, although many of them sometimes can be controversial.
Catching terrorists and hanging them in public or conducting their trial in 24 hours is not the answer. If the State shows empathy with the victims then the terrorists feel frustrated. Eleven hazara coal miners were killed in Mach on January 2. The Balochistan Government lacked the courage to visit the protesters in Quetta while the Prime Minister has made a mockery of the whole thing by making it an ego issue. What could a cabinet minister or a prime minister do after all by meeting the relatives of the unfortunate Hazara victims? Not much but they desire to hear words of consolation from the higher ups. The federal government then has the nerve to talk about compensation to the victims’ families. How would the folks in the government feel if they are offered compensation in lieu of their loved ones? Is this the panacea to this tragedy which has not happened for the first time and I dread to say not for the last time in the country?
And lastly, both the provincial and federal government must realize that Iran is watching this closely. It is a shia majority country with an acute interest in the plight of shias all over the world but particularly Pakistan due to the close proximity. Apathetic actions by the Government for whatever reason and to please whomever is going to be remembered for a long time to come. It will be a tragedy as Iran is one of the few countries in the world which unequivocally supports our stance on illegal occupation of Kashmir by India. And this is how we are paying back. Actions speak louder than words. Nauseatic repetition of “brotherly relations with our neighbor” is not going to help. You have to do something positive instead of playing in the hands of terrorists of the Islamic State. The object of terrorism is terrorism. With guns meaning military action, you can only kill terrorists. It is only with education that we can kill terrorism.
The Last Stop 