Future Tense

OCTOBER 2001 - There was a time in the days of the somewhat benign dictator, Ayub Khan, when a loud and sonorous voice supported by text, boomed out at the cinema audiences about the fact that we were about to hear our national anthem and exhorting them to stand in silence and respect. A fluttering flag and the anthem belted out at full volume followed this. Even before the last notes were dying out, the audience having shuffled and stood up somewhat reluctantly in the first instance would start the complicated maneuver of lowering their posteriors. It was not a particularly joyous ceremony then, the army subedar major bellowing of the order irritating rather than motivating the civilians, and over the years, it ceased to have any joy at all. Even when the people knew it was their anthem, they were still informed anyway.

In fact, while the movies continued to play at whatever that wasn’t turned into a commercial plaza, a shadi ghar or a large warehouse, the nation’s prize possession, its national anthem fared quite badly. First, across every cinema house, the faded, scratchy and jumping footage of the flag evoked emotions of despair and irritation. The subedar major voice died away gradually, victim of hundreds and hundreds of re-runs on bad projectors and eventually disappeared. Wherever it was still evident, it was more a shrill squeak and inspired only derision. As for the flag film, it continued to erode at impressive speed, the scratches eventually completely dominating the footage. In the end what you saw was long and jumping lines and occasionally, the flag struggling between them. Not quite the stuff that inspires Goosebumps down your spine. The original national anthem became more and more abridged as the years took their toll and is now reduced to a 30 second version of sorts where the anthem is over before it has begun. The spectators, never quite in the spirit of this nation building exercise, eventually adopted a clever half sitting, half standing maneuver – what else can one call it, and the farce reached its logical conclusion, repeated half heartedly wherever they still insist on playing this drama out thrice a day and four times on Sundays.

Along with the anthem, was a slide of the side profile of Mr. Jinnah complete with sanitized sherwani and cap, which disfigured, distorted and colourless, still evoked a burst of applause from the crowd. Of course no one had the time in the government to ever evaluate what was being churned out in cinemas across the land. The overweight and leaden-footed Ministry of Information which to this day spreads only disinformation, did nothing to refurbish this communication. Neither did the Department of Films & Publications. Where they spent their funds, we do not know. There was a ‘Pakistan ka Tasveeri Khabarnama’ which dutifully covered the comings and goings of the sundry tin pots who were then commanding the ship of the state and since such luminaries never make inspiring and thought provoking footage, the DFP efforts were largely useless and the only thing they succeeded in doing was squander the tax payers money. Whether that department exists or not is not important in any event, because dead or alive, unlike Osama Bin Laden, it doesn’t make a difference.

The issue of a scratchy and worn out national anthem and an equally worn out national flag, may be rather a frivolous way to view the current imbroglio in which Pakistan finds itself today. The common feeling right across the land is one of uncertainty and worry and no one quite knows what’s ahead. Whatever happens, we can be sure of another avalanche of humanity streaming across ravines and rocks to a life of disease, poverty and crime in the land of the pure. A 1400 km border, more porous than an earthenware pitcher is not going to prevent an onslaught. America, which has funded every despot, dictator, and killer it could find all over the globe, is now the knight in tainted armour out to teach the natives a lesson. It is a farce in which 100 nations have taken up cudgels, clubs and staffs and conveniently shed cloaks of truth or justice. The US led dubious fight against terrorism is on and we are sandwiched, not as happily as Maulana Sami ul Haq was a few years ago, in a perilous situation. So far, we haven’t bumbled, which is a miracle and done the right thing extending our full cooperation to our new found friends as they bring justice and fair play to a world run by terrorists. The sad thing is we have never believed in ourselves, aligning ourselves with ghosts, under-estimating our people and basing our policies on short-term personal gains and glory. The flag hasn’t counted for much because it was made an icon to be admired from afar, never to be part of our daily life, our existence. Whatever loyalty was available was paid to the government of the day – the nation, the country, the reason of our very being became secondary.

Ridiculous rules issued by ridiculous men wearing blindfolds made the flying of the flag an offence; the privilege extended to a chosen few. In the mad rush to rob and loot whatever was available, the people lost the flag as well. It is only recently that on a few occasions it is allowed to find its way back to the people. It would be naïve in the extreme to think that worship of the green and white rectangle can solve our problems miraculously, but it is the only way to rebuild ourselves. This government should have called on the people to raise the flag, wherever they could. In schools, homes, offices and streets, the flag should have been flying. People should have come out and distributed paper flags. It doesn’t cost much. A burger equals 400 paper flags but while a burger can reward you with a belch, the paper flag can offer something more lasting. It is a question of having the faith and showing it as well. Waving the flag won’t get rid of the deficit, but it will lift our spirits and give us a new direction. We need to believe in the land we have. We have none other and while there are manifold opportunities abroad, there are even more here where so much has gone wrong. Without delay, there should be an order from the government to immediately replace the worn out shameful national flag footage in the 600-700 cinema halls across the lands. Likewise, at all the venues where the miserable anthem is played at every function, new, crisp and bright recordings should be put in place. It is also time that the anthem is re-recorded; not by Abrar ul Haq but by a gathering of the best musicians we have. Moses did not reveal the old version we have. The heavens will not fall if we change it. It is 50 years old and it is outdated. It was never a great musical arrangement in its hey day; it sounds like 100 wailing cats now.

One day, hopefully not too far in the future, we will see the flag and a shiver will run down our backs. That will be the day we would have changed from a rag tag gathering of people into a nation that’s going somewhere.