Daily Times

An impoverished, nuclear-armed, madrassas-ridden country with an army trying to destabilise the neighbourhood for strategic depth and territorial ambitions, bequeathed by a string of dictators. A country’s description that could make one go potentially ballistic, indignant, or simply shrug one’s shoulders, but would be rarely reflective. The response would depend upon how much one has been bitten by the free-floating malice in the country and how strong is the remaining commitment. One could rubbish the label offhand under a fit of patriotic frenzy but that would not erase the smudge. Therefore let’s examine the indictment with a view to undertake repair work, and my guess is, much would be needed. It might sound like an uncharitable perception but how did it come about we will see in a moment.

We will first take up the bogeyman of ‘strategic depth’ that has become an ever available basket of rotten eggs that is hurled at us every time Pakistan takes a genuine initiative towards Afghanistan, our past misadventures notwithstanding. This utterly ill considered, single notion has hamstrung Pakistan and the people of Pakistan at just the juncture when we could contribute substantially towards peace in that stricken, godforsaken country, and by analogy, in the region. It gave a form to the fear of our territorial ambitions in the eyes of the world. It was April 1985 when Pakistan’s VCOAS-designate floated this harebrained idea in a formal forum. There were no buyers of this expansionist merchandise then and never after that. The author was patently not equipped for and had no business floating a dumb sea-mine like that, which has nearly sunk us regionally. It should be an adverse reflection on his grasp of the history of the region. It has always been Afghanistan and Central Asia that have historically considered the Indian subcontinent and specifically, the region now comprising Pakistan, invariably as their ‘fallback position’, if one may say so. Therefore the claim and the underlying considerations were completely out of historical context — unsupported and, at best, illusive. That is why there has hardly been any scholarly discussion in the country in any think tank, policy forum, informed press or gatherings of knowledgeable men on the malevolent notion of strategic depth. That is also why none in his right mind in Pakistan is ever looking for one. However, it has stuck to Pakistan just like Bush’s ‘crusade’ bluster to the US. While Bush probably did not mean what he said, ours did not know what he meant. Arrogance of privilege and the consuming urge for a legacy can blind men to the vicious effects of their words and actions upon others.

Pakistan can only be governed through the power of the ballot and the voter’s belief in his power to elect and hold his representative responsible. However, the field for democracy has been thoroughly ravaged and pitted by a wave of successive dictators. In order to be able to push up reasonably genuine democratic leadership, we may have to go through at least four more elections without interruption. That means 20 more years of chaos is the minimum price of our timid complacency towards autocrats in the past. Whether so much time is there or not is a big question, but we have to take this route without option.

A madrassa-infested country is more a media-coloured optic rather than an entirely factual view. The whole of Pakistan is not teeming with militant madrassa graduates. The violent ones are a small, over-projected fringe that is carried because they are newsworthy, feed the fear, and sell. There is a mounting resistance to this horde and an increasing popular rejection of their archaic argument. There are a large number of technical and other universities, hundreds of thousands of schools, colleges, technical institutions and skill-training centres. We have modern and forward looking newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, think tanks, energetic fora and TV channels. There is a whole ambience of defiance against regression, perseverance and hope surging up in a small but vibrant middle class and more encouragingly, among women. These sentiments are contagious and spread exponentially. Unfortunately, this remarkable potential has not been raised to the level in the leadership’s eyes that it deserves. But it is not lost. It is fair to expect that while we are busy redefining our internal social contract, the rest of the world could show understanding, patience and sensitivity, rather than sweeping condemnation and segregating a whole nation.

One understands the power of the media in shaping listener’s ideas, perceptions and responses. However, when their themes persistently churn out a certain tainted point of view, then regrettably 24 Pakistani officers and soldiers butchered by NATO in cold blood at Salala check post are made to look like a non-event. National sentiments of shock and indignation considered immaterial by the perpetrators and unworthy of an apology, at the very least .Children, women and unconcerned neighbours killed in a drone attack against a wanted terrorist become expendable as collateral damage. Let us not encourage the hardline Panettas, let us applaud the suave, sensible Hillaries.

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