Daily Times

Projecting a soft image of Pakistan has almost become a mantra with the Pakistani right wing and the security state. The political left has consistently pointed to the futility of projecting such an image without the ‘soft’ substance to back it up. The security state nevertheless, has taken it on as a project in itself, reality or actions be damned. The state seems to have learned the not so unreasonable lesson of the 21st century, that one can spin one’s way out of anything. They argue, and with some truth, that we do live in a post-truth world. Just look at Trump and the alt-right in the U.S., or the Islamophobic nonsense being spewed by the political right in the West. So, if the West can hide its imperialists wars of aggression, racism, economic exploitation behind the spin of human rights and freedom, why can’t we? Surely, we too could project an image of a tolerant, inclusive, peaceful, dynamic society, without bothering with, e.g., changing discriminatory laws against, women and minorities; or ending patronage of the religious right; or denying basic rights to life and liberty to our own citizens.

Without getting into the debate about the futility of projecting an image, with or without the substance to back it up, I would like to talk about image making on its own merits. Two images that go with this article are illustrative. The first one, is perhaps one of the most beautiful pictures I have seen from Pakistan in a long time, published in a local Urdu daily. The joy and laughter of the girls playing on the creepy looking horses, makes one forget that they are there. Minus the caption, anyone would have been forgiven to think, that here is the victory of the human spirit over the vapidity of the state’s masculine display through the horses. Young women having fun with reckless abandon in Pakistan!? Wow! Now there’s an image. Except that the caption restates all the classist, sexist, racist and authoritarian bile that our elite and middle class are known for. The caption reads, ‘Because of authorities’ negligence, gipsy girls are playing on the models of horses installed on Mall Road Rawalpindi’. I will leave the readers to contemplate the meaning of this caption beyond what I have said above.

Militaries are designed for a limited mission and a proscribed institutional context within which to operate. When they try to expand beyond that mandate, disaster follows-it has everywhere

Across the road from the models of these horses is the state’s attempt at projecting a soft image of Pakistan on Pakistan day. The gigantic banner features young men in the uniform of the three services, with the army man in battle fatigues, carrying an AK47-possibly to further stress the message of peace. One doesn’t have to be an art critic to see the morbid incongruity of the message, and the image. Could one take this image as representative of the caliber of spin doctors at the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR)? Never mind ISPR, the image more than anything illustrates why the world doesn’t believe us even when we are telling the truth. Who could believe absurdities of the kind represented by this image? Even most Pakistanis don’t believe the stories that the state tells, even when, on the odd occasion it does tell the truth. The state can try and intimidate the leaders of the Pashtun Long March and Tahafuz Movement into silence. But, when thousands chant, ‘there is uniform behind terrorism’ some serious soul searching should happen. Why do millions, of Pakistanis believe that their own state will be behind elements that kill them and their children? Why do the ones’ chanting ‘deshshat gardi ke peche vardi’ believe that the military will be behind the elements that killed its own children in Army Public School (APS) Peshawar, for example? This image might be part of the answer.

The image of the soldiers more than anything to me illustrates how divorced the Pakistani security state is from its own society and the world. Being a military brat myself, growing up in the cantonments of Bannu, Kharian and Abbottabad, I too used to think that the military was the real universe and the rest of Pakistan was an anomaly, and the outside world an enemy. Militaries are designed for a limited mission and a proscribed institutional context within which, they operate. When they try to expand beyond that mandate, disaster follows-it has everywhere. This image could be a wake up call in that, if the military can make a hash of a simple public relations exercise, perhaps it is time to refocus on what it can do well, i.e. protecting the geographical frontiers of the state. As an institution, it can spare the country its insights on social, financial and constitutional matters.

As for the soft image, how about switching the captions of the two images here?

The writer is a reader in Politics and Environment at the Department of Geography, King’s College, London. His research includes water resources, hazards and development geography. He also publishes and teaches on critical geographies of violence and terror

Published in Daily Times, March 24^th 2018.