Zaheer Bhatti
MINE was indeed a badly conceived wish for my motherland, though out of sheer sincerity
for the Muslim nation which had initially promised to become the leader not only of the Third World but that of the entire Muslim Ummah; an expression which is now beginning to sound so awfully discordant. Pakistan which continues to blame the apathetic expediencies of the Muslim world, also needs to look inwards at its own belief system and social behaviour plagued by political delinquencies and sectarian divide which suffers cleavages of factions due to various schools of thought, which have made Pakistan lose its way.
Pakistan is seen concerned about the unfortunate stand-off between Saudi Arabia and Iran due largely to their sectarian make-up as also Turkey, Syria and Iraq, which indeed is being exploited by the Islamophobic Western world including Pakistan’s arch enemy India, but seldom seems to address an even worse phenomenon of factionalism striking at the very roots of the religion of Islam in which such influences have no place. Our pulpit which should have been a source of inspiration and unity among a fraternity gathering five times a day in prayer every day across millions of mosques throughout the country; much more, the tens of millions in Friday mass congregation, is being wasted by the religious biases of the ill-educated clergy bisecting them instead, and mostly talking about man’s duties to God ‘Huqooqullah’ but seldom dwelling upon man’s obligations to man ‘Huqooq-ul-ibaad’, which is the crux of the Messages of God revealed through His Messengers for civility, justice and compassion ordained for the most superior of His creations called human beings, sadly behaving worse than most animals.
This is my lament to the State of Pakistan which gravely suffers from perpetual moral degeneration due to a lack of direction and inspirational leadership among other things, of which Governments of the day have seldom paused to ponder. We are today only Muslims in name, exploiting and devouring each other for personal gains unmindful of our ultimate fate. Lies and deceit, rancor, double-crossing, adulteration, hoarding, black-marketing, smuggling lack of commitment to duty and honesty, are only a few of the crimes against humanity which this nation commits. This may also be true of other countries but in a far lesser degree compared to Pakistan. Not only have countries like Bangladesh considered a basket case carved out of Pakistan but Sri Lanka and Nepal in the neighbourhood, and even Ethiopia a starving African nation some decades back, which are better placed economically than Pakistan. Pakistan never tires blaming India for working against it which is largely true as is its Press which tends to blame everything wrong in India upon Pakistan blindfolded with remorseless conviction without being embarrassed leave alone ashamed. But also true of India is the fact that it demonstrates national unity to the outside world even in its tailored propaganda and false flag operations despite its multi-polarity and political differences at home.
Pakistanis to the contrary in quest of credibility, marvel gnawing at each other totally unmindful of its fall-out to the world which is already fully charged against the Islamic polity. And the contributors to this malady are not only most political parties thrown up by default but also its newly liberated media aged barely a decade and a half, but pretending to have graduated in stature as if with decades of experience behind it, and feeling suffocated over what they style as undue curbs at freedom of expression which most would like to be with no holds barred. This off course is with some exceptions, whose tone, tanner, mannerism and analysis exudes knowledge, unbiased and responsible analysis.
This is by no means to justify the Government conduct against adversarial Press and politicians and its myopic handling of national affairs which leaves a lot more to be desired. It is a shame that while the present Government in Pakistan which is accused of being installed with the help of the Establishment has been seen groping, barring a short spurt in its foreign affairs handling particularly of the Kashmir issue which was actually brought alive largely due to Narendra Modi’s gamble over illegal merger of the State.
It is a lame excuse for Imran’s squad to blame dilution of the Kashmir Case upon the Opposition demos and sit-ins while itself having done little to keep the pressure on or forcing any action by the UN to at least cause lifting of the siege and curfew if not reverse the Indian decision and actuate the morality of a free and fair plebiscite. But it is equally irresponsible of the Opposition to term Imran’s in-action over Kashmir as a sell-out without measuring the fall out of their irresponsible statements, or probing their conscience over their own performance in turn of shelving the issue, which is unforgivable.
Far from keeping his tall promise of being an advocate of Kashmir, Imran Khan has opted to warn people against marching towards the LoC which he considers tantamount to damaging the Kashmir cause without saying how. And what effect so far have his pleadings with International forums and personalities yielded? Quite the opposite, he has ordered indictment of Hafiz Saeed instead of freeing and encouraging freedom supporting Pakistani leadership and answering the call for practical support from the Hurriyat leadership in occupied Kashmir, which sovereign nations were morally bound and legally authorized to provide to a Freedom Movement under the international law. Doing so would be no favours to anyone but defending your own rightful claim to the territory through a UN authorized plebiscite among Kashmiris. If you are a man worth your salt, why have you not confronted Trump over his double face in supporting engineered pro-democracy demos in Hong Kong and passing Bill in the US House of Representatives sanctioning Chinese crackdown against Uighur Muslim terrorists in Xinjiang, but remaining mum and blind over the inhuman Indian siege, torture and killings in its occupied territory of Kashmir!
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
