Daily Times

Sense has to do with the capacity to feel and sensitivity is its prime mover. It is a superior virtue, standing next to compassion among nobler human virtues, and it stems directly from empathy, care and common sense. It entails a committed deference to the other’s sentiments related to matters held either dear, delicate or sacred. In our daily life, our working sensitivity sensor shifts continuously from one situation to the other on occurrence, mostly on issues of the passage. On any working day, one is sensitive to punctuality as the dawn appears. There is a focus for being on time to the work place, office or school. Once on the road, the pointer shifts to road manners, obeying traffic signals, safe driving and overtaking from the right side, and so on. Then, throughout the day, it remains on the hop. This may be called transactional sensitivity and is essentially a personal affair. However, it tests ones temperament relentlessly, day after day. We rarely ever notice that these are not reflex reactions but are actually rooted in a system of values that we have imbibed over the years and, more so, over the generations. That should simply mean our reactions and responses are mainly a function of our character and, in that the rational, thinking and sensitive part.

Friction is likely to occur in a situation where either each other’s sensitivities are on a tangent, different wavelength, of unequal voltage or set in dissimilar planes. Rising tempers and receding patience result in full or partial loss of self-control. In other words, one’s customary composure erodes letting the animal ascend over the sensible being within. A commuter in the car behind insists on the right of passage despite a nearly bumper-to-bumper traffic jam. He may be trying to be outright difficult so deserves no attention. He may also be in a real emergency and, therefore, must be helped. These are two very different reactions to the same trying situation, that too without the benefit of ever talking to the restless fellow in the car behind. Why this variation in reactions? That simply is the cumulative effect of the way one’s personality has been shaped. A bruised, neglected and mishandled soul is likely to be bitter and impatient. A carefully nurtured, well-groomed person is likely to be understanding and helpful.

It can be concluded that there is possibly a common plinth upon which all human beings start off their perceptive lives. Later, everyone’s very personal environments shape individual preferences and, for that, matter prejudices. However, sensitivity alone is not enough. There is a need to develop a skill called alternative sensitivity to correctly gauge how really the other fellow feels. In this regard, our sages, saints and sufis perfected the art of self-abnegation to make space for others’ sentiments so as to be able to fully empathise with and console brutalised souls around them. This analogy applies equally to communities, countries and nations but is normally overlooked in pursuit of national interests and objects of successful diplomacy. Something close to what our ancestors practiced needs to be adopted by nations too, to create room for the stressed and vulnerable nations to survive and progress.

Pakistan finds itself in a geo-political minefield today not entirely of a foreign making. Much of the mess that we are in is homegrown. We were reckless enough to let power parasites like Jamaat-e-Islami and opportunists like JUI take precedence over purely political forces like the Awami League and National Awami Party early on in our country’s life. That showed our ill-considered deference or subservience to a narrow and archaic religious agenda over inclusive political evolution. These men caused our first draft constitution to be recalled from the floor of the assembly through street agitation just because it was not ‘Islamic’ enough. That was the first blow to our competitive and progressive statehood. From then on we have gone on cascading down the drainpipe till we hit the bottom of the pit, and find them there too.

These men went on to monopolise our religious discourse, set up radicalising nurseries in their seminaries, the largest in Akora, Khattak and the next in Binoria Karachi, which have the dubious distinction of hosting men like Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden and some of their detestable litter. They now proudly flaunt influence over their foot soldiers, the TTP, and have the audacity to offer services for a patch up between the government and the FATA monsters. That should tell us how our whole state system has not only been thoroughly wrecked by them but also is being held hostage. Look at the terribly scorched spectacle and horrible spread of militancy of all conceivable variety not only in lawless FATA but also in the heart of the country and other major cities. Mullah Haqqani’s son was killed in broad daylight in the nation’s capital. What justifies al Qaeda terrorists and facilitators turning up in posh localities in Rawalpindi, Punjab University hostels in Lahore, expensive private hospitals and high-end residential areas in the provincial capitals? How did Muridke become what it became and how come Jaish-e-Mohammad was set up by a jailed maulana (cleric) freed on demand by plane hijackers in Qandahar? Quite clearly, the state has lost its sense of responsibility, control and direction, leaving the field open to all sorts of rogues, ruffians and assassins from all over the world in the name of so-called jihad.

Despite this virtual mea culpa, to claim innocence does not make sense and will not sell. We have deep wounds inflicted by these vicious bands of jihadi wolves and are bleeding profusely. Our losses are mounting both in men and material, and sadly no one is listening. Instead, we are being pulled up for complicity, facilitation and destructive designs against neighbours. On the other side of the fence, neighbouring countries have been holding their breath for a long time, bracing for one kind of terror attack or the other that these pests might let loose. It has been reasonably established that the Saudi al Qaeda men who destroyed the twin towers in New York were inspired from here. Afghanistan’s destruction was mainly the outcome of the al Qaeda-Taliban combine, which brought that particularly unfortunate country under their evil spell using our soil. Grievances of the affected countries sound real and hurt them badly. Both sides are hurt and then there are reprisals and counter reprisals full of amazing cruelty.

Where then is the meeting ground? A state of denial and persistence with accusations will only raise the level of the imposed deafness further. One of the ways to break this logjam is to practice the art of sensitivity and alternative sensitivity genuinely. In order to really know how the other country feels, develop the faculty of alternative sensitivity to their pain and difficulties. Your voice will be heard, you will be believed and life for multitudes of ordinary people would become more livable and peaceful. If we have suffered staggering losses fighting terrorism and want that to be recognised, then we must also be able to nearly as intensely feel the pain and anguish of those who were burnt to death within the collapsing twin towers or gunned down in The Taj Hotel Mumbai; not on the scales of our sorrows but on the measures of their miseries. This is called alternative sensitivity of a more sublime kind and is a medicine that will surely work. Let us start with the incontrovertible premise that there are human beings on both sides.

The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army and can be reached at clay.potter@hotmail.com