Daily Times

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As if the nauseating horrors of 1971, etched in the memory of every Pakistani as a dark and dreary chapter, were not enough, the APS tragedy added to the scars of our collective consciousness, reminding us of the need to acknowledge these devastating blows and work towards a better future.

Every year, we come across a new spectrum of hollow lip service from our politicians, bemoaning vulnerabilities and renewing pledges to unite against those who seek to harm Pakistan. However, whether on the security front or within the societal fabric, their attempts to create a lasting change remain nothing short of a tragicomedy.

Comic, because at times their earnestness in believing that words alone can work wonders makes one gasp at the political wisdom; and outright tragic, because this tunnel vision continues to cause catastrophic damage, blow by blow, bit by bit.

The war keeps going on, with new players but the same old deadly cocktail of petty ambitions and greed for power. Has any party in the last five decades managed to address the complex and confused Pakistani character, daring to rise above ethnicity and sub-nationalism with no concern whatsoever for the dent in their electoral mandate?

The diminished national identity and deeply polarised society serve as a pervasive reminder of how we let the very forces capable of uniting us under a common flag of an all-embracing agenda divide us into smaller and smaller groups. Meanwhile, this neverending tryst with fanaticism, where individuals rising from among us seem determined to taint the streets with our blood for the unpardonable crime of adhering to a slightly different ideology, speaks to the same paradox.

No qualms about the need for the state to show an iron-clad resolve to put an end to radicalisation, but any and all effective efforts to achieve this can only flourish if the democratic actors show a willingness to support them, rather than throw nonsensical spanners in their way. *