Daily Times

This war could be lost, not because territory was ceded, but because the Taliban would have taken over Pakistan’s airwaves. A country of 180 million, many of whom are in the rural and under-served areas, are accessing unregulated, illegal radio stations run by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which broadcast routinely the ‘sharia or else’ narrative. The methods they employ are crude but they work by forcing people into deifying them. A gullible populace, conservative for generations, gets enamoured by the Arabic, the references to hellfire and, by the sheer force of the gun, get conquered by the thousands.

No one has chronicled these systematic methods of inducing wrath more aptly than Malala Yousufzai, in her book, I am Malala. The takeover of Swat was done with control over the radio waves yet the state has put no lessons learned into action. The fact that the radio was used to openly flout the absent writ of the state has disastrous connotations — for one, that if this was done once it can be done again.

The propaganda that gave them wings was orchestrated by Mullah Fazlullah, also known as Mullah Radio. It is therefore a cause of serious concern that he now heads the TTP — the same man, whose forte is to communicate audacity. Not only does he know to perfection the strategy of indiscriminate terror and ultimate destruction, he also knows how to take those incidents and, by broadcasting them, appear larger than life. Historically, this was done well by the Nazis; we all know how that turned out for the Jews. The minorities in Pakistan may as well pack up and leave: the threats against the Ismailis in Gilgit and the Kalash tribes have been articulated on these very unregulated airwaves.

With the recent Pakistan attack that killed 35 TTP terrorists in North Waziristan, the government needs to get the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to target their communication hubs with equal vengeance. There is so little of it, vengeance that is, for the TTP. We disproportionally harbour it for the US, blocking NATO supplies for months when our soldiers were shot at yet holding still any response for months when the Taliban behead our forces. We are mellowing in a culture of looking away in the face of aggression against our weakest.

In such trying times only agents of change can shift the axis from an overtly moralising hegemony to that of plurality and inclusiveness. It can be argued that the stage that Bilawal Bhutto set for the Sindh Festival was one that covered the very floor it was meant to protect, or even that it was limited, but it was still nothing short of pivotal. In a fiery speech, this young 20-something man went ahead to drive a few essential points home.

First, that this, our home, is a place that was the seed of civilisation some 5,000 years ago, and it was a civilisation that was plural above all else. To an extent, the values and culture, the advancement that Mohenjo Daro’s architecture depicts is still years ahead of where we are even today. Second, that by honouring art through music and lyrics, we can reclaim as ours, those very symbols that are beaten down by the opposition. At the very least, we can be less boring. Third, we must reclaim those glorious heroes that have been cut down. Bringing up Pakistan’s first and the Muslim world’s first Nobel laureate, Abdus Salam, Bilawal squarely put him where he belonged regardless of the faith he professed. As an Ahmedi, all attempts have been made to make Abdus Salam a forgotten memory.

However, more than anything else, Bilawal’s speech altered the axis because it dared the Taliban. Consider this: in all likelihood, Bilawal’s mother, the first woman prime minster of Pakistan, was assassinated by the Taliban, and for her son to tell her killers that the message he sends and the promise he holds is grander, is of tremendous value. Consider also that he has used his words defiantly at a time where leaders are choosing their words cautiously, walking on egg shells trying to ensure they do not become the next target of the Taliban’s venom. Bilawal’s speech was momentous, especially for the youth who need to hear alternate voices to the rhetoric of surrender.

A push back needs to happen, with mainstream media taking the lead. We need more control over the airwaves. The Taliban’s propaganda war needs to be crushed. To find the justifying philosophy, we must return to our civilisation, our roots.

Aisha Sarwari is a freelance writer based in Islamabad. She blogs at www.aishasarwari.wordpress.com and tweets @AishaFsarwari. She can be reached at aishafsarwari@gmail.com