A Sovereign Pakistan

A Sovereign Pakistan 

Pakistan has become a classic case of a callous socio-political contradiction. Its people, politicians, its army and holy men can be seen lovingly engaging with the most ubiquitous symbols and gadgets of what they all ridicule as ‘western materialism/imperialism’,
and yet without even blinking for a second, many can be expected to roll out high and mighty examples of oratory about political and cultural sovereignty.

Exactly what does a politically and culturally sovereign Pakistan mean? This question is bound to bag numerous different answers and that should be expected in the diverse ethnic and political milieu of Pakistan. However, this diversity is yet to be recognised
and respected by the state and parts of its society which strives rather unsuccessfully to define and defend Pakistan’s identity as a cohesive and singular whole, constantly dragging in religion believing it to be the glue that could hold the centre of this
ideological singularity.

However, it hasn’t because religion here has many sects and sub-sects, and each sect has its own take on the religious traditions and rituals. It is vital that to keep tensions between these sects at a minimum, government and the state, as well as the media,
stop dragging religion out of peoples’ homes and into the public sphere.

The more religion remains inside the privacy of homes and in the individual family domain the better. Otherwise, Pakistanis of various sects and sub-sects will not only continue judging the validity and authenticity of one another’s faith, they will clash
with the cohesive version of the religion that the state of Pakistan has been peddling for years now.

Sovereignty, like charity, begins at home. We delude ourselves and glorify our importance by constantly suggesting how powerful nations are so interested in us. Conspiracy theorists, fringe politicians, mullahs, Islamists and the chattering classes put us
at the centre of the universe around which malicious superpowers supposedly hatch conspiracies and schemes to destabilise our wonderful Islamic republic.

This is just a mirage; a feel good, rather paranoid, projection, splashed to obscure the many state and social failures this unfortunate republic has been suffering in the name of religion, patriotism and, of course, now sovereignty. On what basis do we
demand sovereignty? What do we have to deserve it? Isn’t Pakistan behaving like a society that molested itself and then called the act ‘ghairat?’

Many would turn around and instantly remind you that we are a nuclear power and a democracy. If so, then perhaps we are only slightly better than the isolationist, poverty-stricken and repressive North Korea. The bomb’s all we have, and as an acute case
of collective neurosis, we so passionately worship our ‘fathers of the bomb’, a device that can wipe out whole populations and countries.

Where are new, quality schools, hospitals, a welfare system, political stability, democratic accountability, a healthy economy, and a life free of sectarian and religious bigotry, bloodshed and hatred? We are all prisoners of certain delusions—about ourselves
and about the many countries that we believe are constantly scheming against us.

We refuse to free ourselves from these paranoid, self-serving apparitions and yet we demand sovereignty from the nefarious designs of our many (largely imagined) enemies? The enemy is us, actually each one of us is to be blamed.

Once we manage to openly recognise and confess our own shortcomings, our journey to a sovereign state based on religious tolerance, economic progress and political plurality shall begin. Till then all we can do is to keep hugging our bomb and raise our bony
fists in a delusional exhibition of empty triumph and hysteria.

(Courtesy Smoker’s corner)

Views expressed here are the writer’s own and in no way represent newspakistan.pk’s official editorial policy!

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Posted by Momina Khan on Nov 16 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry