Daily Times

En vogue are Mohammad Ali
Jinnah and the ‘Poet of the East’ again. After all, it is the election season. Though it is still really unclear what Jinnah wanted or what he had envisioned, but it sure is a good boost to act patriotic and high with his portrait in the backdrop. With utmost respect to the founder who was a superb and an extraordinary advocate at law, but perhaps not so farsighted of a politician. He tried to win a case that he built, on let us just say, on a questionable argument, and succeeded nevertheless. It was a short term gain, but again with utmost respect to him, let us admit, a long term disaster. The so-called ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’ is a term that we use to comfort ourselves, perhaps trying to mimic what was left behind on the other side in the aftermath of that bloody partition. I will park my thoughts on this subject for another day. But if you were to ask someone about what this Jinnah’s Pakistan really means to them, you will perhaps get a confused response. But for right now the narrative of Jinnah’s Pakistan will be sold and oversold.

The hoardings will continue to show him in his signature cap, and as always, it is an extremely clever marketing gimmick. In the world of marketing, they say it is not the product but the perception that really sells. The banners and billboards of ‘Saving Pakistan’ are in high demand. Each party is trying very hard to save the Promised Land. You often wonder save from whom. The answer is relatively simple. As I said earlier, perhaps trying to save it from one another. The promises and pitches will be way too many and spins after spins of saving Jinnah’s Pakistan will be regurgitated. Never mind that this so-called Jinnah’s Pakistan is withering every day with a never ending string of bomb attacks. This particular election season has been quite fatal for some of its citizens.

To the leftist Jinnah was the perfect model of a freedom loving secular Muslim and to the rightist he was nothing but a reformed Muslim leading the otherwise downtrodden and discriminated Muslims to the Promised Land. This begs the most important question; does the hollow slogan of Jinnah’s Pakistan really matter? Downtrodden and discriminated Muslims, victims of their own so-called self-inflicted wounds still exist within the Promised Land. Again with utmost respect to the dear departed and overly revered leader, whose August 11, 1947 speech is played and replayed ad nauseam by the leftists, if all the non-Muslims were free to practise their respective faiths in Pakistan, then weren’t the Muslims able to do the same in the United India? Why so that India is partitioned on the basis of the inability of the Muslims to retain the identity in a United India, but Jinnah was so adamant that all minorities would be on an equal footing in the unprecedented Pakistan. But as they say, reality only hits when rubber really hits the road, and it is only then that a sales pitch goes down the ditch.

As an ordinary observer, I am of the opinion that we will see the campaign promises of the revival of ‘Jinnah’s vision’ and Jinnah’s Pakistan, but, honestly, no one knows, what that really means. Hence, it is subject to personal interpretation and, needless to say, a lot of exploitation. So with that being said, the ‘real power centre’ has been trying to ‘save’ it for the last 65 plus years with utmost patriotic fervor. One often wonders, when there is so much sincerity, love, dedication, affection and sacrifice, why is it that Jinnah’s Pakistan is always ablaze? Again when reality overshadows the myth, and when dreams are broken, one really comes to grips the truth.

So to the ones who will argue and peddle the sweet lullaby of Jinnah’s Pakistan to the average voter, it is no longer Jinnah’s Pakistan, no matter which side of ideological spectrum you tend to reside. Now it has become the ‘Taliban’s Pakistan’. How strange it is that a certain group has so much influence that existing edifice of the so-called state is literally begging for its mercy. The political parties, who often defy their brutality or raise a voice of sanity are being constantly targeted with ruthless and merciless bombs and bullets. The ‘saviours’ who are towing the line or exhibiting a reconciliatory ‘soft corner’ for the so ‘self-righteous’ Taliban are being spared with a tacit nod of approval. The ‘real power centre’ is sitting in the ‘control tower’ just playing with the knobs here and there to alter the trajectory of the foreseeable crash.

Amidst all this chaos there is a tiny ray of hope that a miracle will happen, things will change for the better, perhaps on their own. The upcoming polls will bring the ‘honest’, ‘righteous’ and ‘patriotic’ to lead and take the destitute, deprived and downtrodden to their rightly deserved status. Call me whatever, but it is a very good pipe dream. It is another one, just waiting for the rubber to hit the road, another cleverly crafted sales pitch desperately waiting for the proverbial ditch.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar