Daily Times

The time for hesitation is through. For Pakistan is well and truly wallowing in a mire of its own making.

The time has come to stop bleating on about how western media is only interested in tarnishing Pakistan’s image to fuel their agenda, especially when minority lives are at stake. The time has come to stop repeating the mantra that everything is fine and dandy in Pakistan. The time has come to listen to the Sat Nav and reset our direction. The time has come to put an end to the illusion that it is business as usual.

The time has come to just stop. The time has come for our intellectual liberal elites, the political chattering class, to take a firm stand for Pakistan’s most vulnerable. The time has come for more than mere talk. The time has come for digital rights warriors to call for blanket bans of social media to show the Pakistani sate that we can hit them where it hurts – in terms of lost advertising revenue for as long as it continues to sanction the murderous exploitation of posts and tweets.

The time has come for Pakistan to stand as one. The time has come for Pakistanis to say no more Mashal Khans. The time has come for Pakistanis to do more than say, “Not in our name”. The time has come for Pakistanis to recognise that real and meaningful activism is not found in the hash tag key alone. The time has come for Pakistanis to truly mobilise and see this as not just in terms of photo ops. The time has come for Pakistanis to confront the immense challenges before us in overthrowing certain man-made laws that are, in effect, tantamount to the institutionalised persecution of minorities by the state itself and be ready to be in it for the long haul. The time has come for Pakistanis to not forget as new headlines take the place of yesterday’s. The time has come for Pakistanis to make the political apparatus accountable to us, the people.

The time has come for us to say never again will the lynching of a young man by a frenzied mob be acceptable. The time has come for us not to just say it but to make it so.

The time has come for Pakistan to preach love and not to set the night on fire on the ashes of someone else’s funeral pyre. That time is now. *