Daily Times

Very seldom are the people of this country blessed with the honour of hearing their leaders say something that can be viewed as the ‘honest confession’ of what they really believe in. The month of June was such a fortunate month for our unwitting and innocent masses when they witnessed a number of such incidents occur one after the other. First, the honourable General Secretary of Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party justified the terrorist attack on the Ziarat Residency by declaring it a symbol of slavery. What he said was absolutely true except that he forgot to include in his condemnation the institution of the British parliamentary system, thanks to which his party is now a part of local governance.

A few days went by and another honourable political leader, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) MNA from Mardan, Mujahid Ali, demanded immediate release of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the convicted murderer of former governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer.

While the whole nation was still puzzled at these honest confessions of their leaders, another politician, PTI’s MPA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP’s) Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai emerged with his sensational but honest revelation that the day when the terrorist attack in Shergarh killed 37 Pakistani citizens including a KP MPA Imran Khan Mohmand, it was, in fact, not a doomsday. Since doomsday has yet to come, there was no need to accuse the perpetrators for something they had not committed. Nothing could be more in line with the PTI policy on the rule of law but it did not go well with the people of Mardan and they went out and showed their anger by shouting against Yousafzai and burning his effigy.

For the people who live on false promises and unattainable tall claims, these confessions were new and unbelievable. All they have seen are leaders visiting the crime scene, showing their outrage, condemning the incident (not the perpetrators) and making pledges that the criminals will be brought to justice soon. Obediently and silently people listened to them, keeping their faith high that these promises would come true one day, although, somewhere in their minds, they knew it would not be true. Their memories remained fresh of all previous acts of terrorism where death tolls were far higher than the unfortunate 37 victims of Shergarh, whose culprits remain at large to this day. Twin blasts in Quetta of January 11, 2013 consumed 105 human lives followed by another one on February 16 that devoured 84 persons in Quetta again. And within the next two weeks a third act of terrorism occurred in Karachi on March 3 killing 48 persons.

The Hazara community staged a sit-in protest braving the freezing cold winter of Quetta and hopelessly demanding arrest of the culprits who had killed their loved ones. All they got was nothing but promises and assurances that never materialised. People living in tribal areas formed tribal peace lashkars (militias) to help the government eradicate the menace of terrorism from the face of this country and ended up finding their own members being annihilated one after the other by the very same threat they wanted to save this country from. The criminals continued having their big laugh as and when the leaders of the country set the stage of replaying their one and the same popular show of making hollow promises and pledges to the people.

It was the first time that some of our legislators, defying all previous norms and traditions, came out with such strength and courage to tell people the truth instead of giving them false hopes. On July 2, another honourable PTI member and minister of KP, Shah Farman, standing tall and high against all odds in parliament, holistically and unarguably justified the suicide attack that had killed 50 persons and injured 100 in Peshawar and Quetta on June 30. Shrugging off a move by a female MP to condemn the perpetrators of those attacks, he said, “Mr Speaker, suppose if a drone hits the residence of an MPA in this House then what will be his reaction?” The message was so loud and clear that its echo was heard right up to the far distant valleys of North Waziristan where the militants sitting in their hideouts nodded their heads in recognising a sound that was no different from their own. All aggrieved persons, law-abiding and criminals both, felt pleased for gaining a right that had legitimised taking the law into their own hands and taking revenge from the culprits who had caused them harm and distress. Grateful to the minister were the bereaved families of 49,000 victims of terrorism, target killings, sectarianism and drone attacks for showing them the right path. The criminals languishing in jails throughout the country were jubilant too for a new ray of hope that was rekindled in their dark prison cells assuring them of a freedom that was soon to welcome them. After all, they too, at some stage in their lives, were victims of some kind of atrocities that had led them to commit the crime they were imprisoned for.

We, the onlookers, are also going through a new sense of awe and inspiration from these great events of our history when enlightenment and wisdom are unravelling themselves with every passing day. An eye for an eye and blood for blood are gaining new meanings under the leadership of our new lawmakers. Honesty and rule of law are gaining new grounds in the country and the change we all have been waiting for long is now knocking on the door. God bless this country and its great leaders who are bringing new hopes and aspirations to the lives of the people!

The writer is a freelance journalist and researcher. He can be reached at mohammad.nafees@yahoo.com