Daily Times

Akko, my long-time friend is the only one who remained unperturbed over the Marriott tragedy in Islamabad, calling it “dramatic”. I was surprised.
He is an articulate, sensitive and compassionate person, a humanist and a tree-hugger. He regularly contributes to the Edhi Foundation and other such organisations and in the past would get hysterical over such incidents.
Shocked over his indifference I could not resist asking him “Dramatic? Is that all you have to say about it?” Keeping his tone below normal, as if talking to himself, he uttered: “Yes, dramatic! All the elements of a drama were present; the suicide bomber as the villain, a hotel where upper-class victims pay $300 a night, the international press etc. What else you need in a good drama?”
It was my turn to get hysteric “Have you lost your mind or doing drugs these days. Such a disastrous event taking so many innocent lives and you see it as a well-played drama!” He raised his eyes but still staring in the air speaking in a bit more passionate voice “Don’t take me wrong. You know I can’t bear death. How can I be indifferent to loss of so many innocent people? But…” and he stopped at that.
“What is your ‘but’ by the way? It is a good English technique to say that the other person is lying or wrong,” I yelled. I was really fuming at him.
He suddenly stood up and shouted “You know the problem of people who fill the pages of newspapers? You guys just don’t read your own papers, otherwise you could have figured out why I call it a tragic drama.”
He was quite right in pointing out the chronic deficiency of journalists of all colours and stripes. He successfully put me on defensive but I still wanted to know his argument, so I asked him “Are these terrorist attacks taking place because the journalists do not read the newspapers? What is your logic after all?”
“Just read any day’s newspaper and calculate the number of people who commit suicide due to poverty, honour killing, fake encounters and traffic accidents. I am sure the daily number will be many times more than the total number of people who died in the Marriot tragedy. No one talks about them, no one comments about them. They are just routine numbers to be ignored. And, if one tragedy killing people is splashed all over the media then what should I call it other than drama” he was fuming too.
“But you are comparing apples and oranges. The deaths you have mentioned are common in every society but terrorist attacks are not. This is a specific Pak-Afghan disease,” I replied.
“You mean women are buried alive in every country and the legislators defend such heinous acts shamelessly? You mean in every country hundreds of women are killed for honour, people commit suicide because of poverty, and unsafe roads and sub-standard public transportation vehicles kill score of people daily? Is it the way the other countries are conducting their business?” he went on.
I did not know what to say to such logic and just repeated: “But you are again comparing apples and oranges.”
“No, this is not that. The extremist attacks happen because the state or government cannot secure location and were complicit in creating this threat. We all assume that it is the failure of the state. In other words state could have done it but it was not done, right?” he questioned me and I could only nod in response.
“Now you tell me which segment of the deaths I have alluded to could not have been pre-empted by the state? You mean the state cannot control honour killings, burying women alive, creating economic equity so people do not despair to commit suicide or provide better roads and monitor public transportation vehicles to minimise fatal accidents but it can stop the proliferation of extremists. You guys are deluding yourselves. If this state cannot do easy things how can it do bigger things like fighting motivated organised zealots? No way!” he continued with high-pitched sermon.
“But you are not making a difference between areas where the government has its writ and where it has lost it” I pointed out.
Full of fury, he started jumping all around “Where is this state’s writ? You mean people killing and burying women accept the writ? People committing suicide and dying on the roads are honouring the state’s writ? Have you ever seen Miss Writ on any road of Lahore or other cities where every day thousands of people are mugged, looted and killed by professional thugs in broad daylight? Just because the people of Punjab are not fighting an armed war against the state does not mean they are respecting the writ of the state. But you guys don’t get it.”
He rushed towards the door in disgust. Then turned around and staring me in the eyes said in a flat tone: “But don’t worry, if the conditions continue on their current path, there will be armed insurgencies all around the country.”

The writer can be reached at manzurejaz@yahoo.com