Hoisting the Flag

AUGUST 2001 - The bad news is that after 54 years of non-stop efforts, we have been unable to eliminate Pakistan. The good news is that there are plenty of dedicated men and women working hard to succeed and achieve what we haven’t been able to so far. It is of course a matter of choice which way you view the good or the bad but if Pakistan survives today, it is hard to understand why it has weathered attack after attack when almost everything is going against it.

On the night of August 14th, watching the bedlam on the roads of Lahore – one can safely presume it was the same else where, many wondered if the chaos thinly disguised as celebration was the face of the new Pakistan, then there was little to celebrate and a lot to worry about. There was nothing inspiring about the hordes who swept the city streets though many were families out to see the lights, take a walk in the public parks or indulge in the one great reality that is Pakistan – eat. What was thought provoking was the national display of lawlessness that lies at the center of all our problems. This was generously demonstrated by the ‘next’ generation that removed silencers from noisy motorbikes and for the rest of the day and night, turned Independence Day into something of a nightmare. Not that they had to work too hard to succeed in creating chaos. The national psyche is built on and around chaos and total lack of consideration for the next person. Thus the chaos on the roads was rather typical of what ails the nation, brave words of good cheer from the President notwithstanding.

Of the three things Mr. Jinnah left us, it is now a difficult task to judge which one went first – unity, faith or discipline. It is of course not a matter for debate if even one of the three survives. Someone once said that Gen. Yahya took care of unity, Mr. Bhutto took care of discipline and Gen. Zia followed hard on their heels, with faith. Driving into Islamabad from the old Grand Trunk Road, you can see the three sorry looking words stuck on a puny and dusty hill. It is an inspiring sight – in reverse. One can understand that in a nation which boasts of a head count of 140 million (as of last night), absence of discipline can be a side effect that is unavoidable. When that is coupled with inconsideration and overwhelming greed to push ahead at the cost of the next person, a national malaise is born. That has more or less characterized our existence since independence. With this jockeying comes the need to bend the rules and manipulate the situation. Before too long, money, influence and power become the all-important qualities that mean success. What we have now is a nationwide festering sore and how many pristine and determined NABs will it take to catch the crooks is something no one is reckless enough to predict. NAB may well do it, but for every crook nabbed, there are thousands who remain at large and for every one prevented from looting again, there are millions who are engaged precisely in that activity even as we speak.

The reality of Pakistan as it totters on the edge of a new century, is frightening. Reading the President’s speech is all very well and we now have a road map as well. All we need is a road. He declared that the era of loot and plunder is over but how he has arrived at that happy state of being is difficult to understand. Loot and plunder, as most Pakistanis have learnt, is the only way one can progress here. Those who follow the book, do the right thing and live by a code of honourable conduct, perish at the first post. If they survive, it is by the very skin of their teeth – a state of being that can’t be very comfortable or enjoyable. The President means well. One can understand that he can hardly hoist the flag and tell everyone to go home since the gig is up, but the view from Islamabad’s perennially tinted glasses is almost always optimistic. It is only when you reach Chak 142/7 that ground reality hits you. We, who live (and survive) in the cities, almost always think of national issues in the context of our urban experience. The huge bulk of the country does not live like the few of us. There is no power, no water, no sanitation, no hygiene, no medical aid, no law, no order, no roads, no nothing. It is bare existence and constant exposure to the elements. It is the air, water and the sun that call the shots. Those on the ground simply take their chances and hope for the best. The President’s heart bleeds for the poor but that is not going to do much to see them through another harsh summer or a biting winter. The devolution plan will take a lot of travelling before its good effects are felt in Chak 142/7.

Two sectarian parties have been banned whatever that means. Will it stop the killing ? Can the Muslims of Pakistan go out and say their prayers without fearing that a hail of bullets from fellow Muslims will down them as their faces touch the earth and they pray to their God? We all have seen the sad sight of gunmen guarding praying Muslims. Can there be a more telling picture? Do we get the message or are we far beyond that? There is talk this 54th independence year about how much the investment climate has improved. The country is back on the rails with businessmen happily prepared to lend their shoulders to the task of shaping our economic upturn, but it is a long and lovely road. National day speeches have to pump in a lot of sunshine but the grim reality of our precarious existence and our gasping economy cannot be swept away with well chosen and agreeably, well meaning words. Mr. Mirza’s brutal murder is a few weeks old and still the condolence messages come in. Which foreign investor can be asked to ignore that and invest here? This is asking for the moon and a few million stars to go with it.

This government or any other that should come into power under whatever garb it chooses to, Basic Democracies, Majlis e Shoora, National and Provincial Assemblies, whatever, has an ocean of problems facing it. What we are doing so far is ignoring the size of that ocean and happy to be taking a bucket and spade to sort things out. With all the good thoughts swirling in their heads, those who call the shots today, have a frightening task ahead of them. Pakistan’s problems have accumulated for over 50 years. It will take more than hoisting the flag to solve them.