Nations rise when they struggle together either due to collective interest or after a collective loss. I felt an air of indifference on many National tragedies and found many people emotionally very cold after incidents like attack on GHQ and on KAMRA Air Base and even after reported deaths of so many children and women in Thar Desert Sind (with death toll similar to Peshawar incident) .This all changed after Peshawar incident (Terrorist attack on Army Public School on December 16, 2014).I saw genuine grief in the society. I saw people crying who otherwise appear to be very casual in real life. I am very cautious in believing when media highlights something but it looks like sentiments are actually similar across the country.
So what is next?
If we continue to wait for something radical to happen on its own than I am afraid that things would go from bad to worse. As a nation we need to answer few fundamental questions collectively if “V” want to move on.
1: To what extent do we want religion to be part of civil law? (Current Law and Order situation seems to root from the fact that different sects want to impose their own brand of religion like
a: Jihadists/Taliban who practically promote military war against non-Muslims and who do not allow women to participate in education, economic, political and social activities. These people apparently do not believe in National boundaries and want to form Islamic State /Khilafat/Caliphate by joining Afghanistan, Parts of Pakistan (KPK and Federally administered areas) and some part of China. Current crises is associated with these people.
b:Local Ahle Hadees are the people who are supposed to be well-wishers of Jihadists but most of them physically do not join it. Many of such people are accused to be financially/Logistically supporting Jihadists. Such people are least tolerant towards modern urban culture which is highly influenced by West.
Other sects like Barelvi or Shiates are not known to be imposing their beliefs on the whole society though they are also accused to have militant wings which are used against opponent militant wings. People who advocate support and participation in Jihad indicate that Pakistan constitutionally is an Islamic state but practically unislamic acts like assisting non-Muslim Army (USA), Interest based banking and display of western values on media and at public places etc are growing so its naïve to assume that such a state would ever call for Jihad and its very natural that independent Jihadist groups are spreading.
2: Are “V” ready to allocate budget to our Police the way “V” do for Army?(One accusation on Army is that it never allows another force to be built which is trained on military standards but is under civilian control).Huge resources would be required to recruit and Train
i) Detectives ii) Field operatives
who can run local intelligence network and can successfully intercept terrorist attacks locally.
3: What kind of media censor policy are we ready to tolerate ( Skin exposure is something which can never ever be justified on Islamic grounds and which can easily stimulate anti state/anti-social sentiment of the religious militants so stricter and clearer censor policy is required Unless society collectively decides and announces that it does not want entertainment media to have too much religious influence.
4: What kind of Public accountability is required for holy Cows?(What kind/degree of criticism on National Institutions like Intelligence Agencies and Judiciary etc would go against national interest and to what level it would ensure that there is no misuse of power for personal gains? Should institutional Heads be answerable to Parliamentary committees the way it happens for Congress in USA? )
5: What kind of legislation is needed to facilitate speedy and secure trials of Terrorists and what will ensure that such provisioning in Law is used against enemies of the State rather than against personal enemies?
6: How can we arrange and use resources to develop physical infrastructure in KPK,FATA and also in Baluchistan so that employment rate in such areas improves through higher economic activity and youth does not find pay cheques coming from employers of private Militias.
7:Are “V” ready to spend on development of Sports/Performing Arts industries which actually provide avenues to youth for expressing themselves and which also generate lot of activity in modern economies.
I think once we answer these fundamental questions than it would be easy to keep everyone along and focused on National Interest(and most members of society would define National Interest in the same way!).
