What Solidarity Day ?

FEBRUARY 1997 - Like last year, the nation observed Solidarity Day on 5th February this year to reaffirm its support for the Kashmir cause. Like every year since we decided to observe this day of protest, speeches were made, processions taken out and pledges renewed. Like before, it was also a public holiday and everything was shut down. From newspaper reports it is easy enough to see that the protest day was observed in major cities and towns of the country and it would seem that the strike call was, as it always has been, a great success.

Other than those who actually take part in the processions, make the speeches and lend a hand in organising the strikes, the Solidarity Day, for the majority of the people is another holiday to laze at home or attend to some odd jobs that need attention. There is no argument against the very concept of a strike, this being the most effective form of letting the world know your views, but all things considered, it is still a debatable mode of strengthening the Kashmiris desperate struggle for freedom and the right of self-determination. While the cause of the Kashmiris has been a subject most people in Pakistan are familiar with, there is also little doubt that till the Kashmiris rose up in arms against the ruthless occupation of their land, the issue was all but dead, confined to international debates and deliberations of committees and many, many sub-committees. Each government that took up the reins of power (an unfortunate sentence remembering Mr. Zardari’s polo ponies) in Islamabad, used the Kashmir issue to its advantage, lamenting the fact that their predecessors had done nothing to solve the problem and heaping upon themselves all the kudos imaginable for all the steps they were taking to solve the problem. This has been the pattern that has been followed with great accuracy for as long as one can recall. It is hard for the average person to comprehend the entire picture, used as he is to large claims and long-winded speeches from government appointed functionaries who spare no effort in broadcasting their tireless efforts for the great cause of Kashmir’s freedom from the Indian yoke.

Every now and then, the country has faced embarrassing situations when resolutions have been delayed, cancelled or simply not carried out, inspite of tall claims to the contrary both before and after the concerned events. The real issues have then been cloaked in gobbledygook and statements of such confusing dimensions that no one has been able to make anything of what happened, or as the case often has been, didn’t happen. Delegations comprising leading lights of the country and many not-so-leading lights, have travelled at State expense, stayed at the world’s finest capitals and most luxurious hotels, attended the most internationally spiced meetings imaginable, and come away with not much other than their duty frees and their walloping TA/DAs. This has been going on for ages and the renowned Hubble-Bubble of the land, the Nawabzada Nasrullah has done more cities and more conferences than Henry Kissinger ten times over. Yet the claims notwithstanding, the achievements are dubious, murky and non-quantifiable. In between there has been the phenomenon of Mr. Ahmad Kamal who has now the official record as the diplomat who has his foot in his mouth all the time and is still able to not only retain his various posts, but is actually climbing up all the time. He has done double takes, blatantly denied overwhelming evidence of his incompetence and bungling that has inevitably damaged the Kashmir cause and sailed from one disaster after another leaving behind wreckage and debris that has had to be hastily collected and removed before further embarrassment can be inflicted on the country. He is not the only one. There are other luminaries who have embarrassed Pakistan at international forums and committed unpardonable blunders, yet still managed to escape all responsibility and lived to do the same again. The defeated Gillani Sahib from Multan made a mess of things in the US and was mixed up with the Indian lobby, yet denied everything with a straight face and moved on blithely.

In the hands of such exponents, it is not surprising that the Kashmir case, the claims notwithstanding, has no clout at the international level. The Indians carry on merrily decapitating the hapless Kashmiris day and night while we stumble into every international forum led by people who have no qualification for the job at hand (which is why they are there in the first place). Against this background, another protest day in Pakistan doesn’t do anything for the cause. It is at best another holiday to be added to the large and embarrassing number of public holidays we already have. If the government or indeed the people of Pakistan are serious about doing something for Kashmir then the first thing they should do is to cancel this holiday and observe 5th February by working an extra hour that day so that the country can gain economically, not by closing down so that our impoverished national coffers are further eroded. The cause of Kashmir needs tangible support that can only be provided by a Pakistan that has the muscle to do something. The freedom of Kashmir is not going to come about by a holiday which most people spent flying kites or sitting in the spring sunshine.