Daily Times

Rightists and leftists are interchanging misnomers in Pakistan’s historiography; condensed into one another on different occasions in different circumstances with similarly different ends. With such a scenario, sometimes, the leftists are our staunch adversaries, whereas at times, we more than just glorify the extreme rightists. This continues even unto this date and the state of impermanent friends and ephemeral enemies continues. The state should never be any one of them and must never allow anything to trespass its red lines: State’s Restrain. When the right and left wings inundate the state’s machinery and their influence is predominant in shaping the state’s personality, character and outlook, this is the time we must all worry.

The right-left thaw began with the demise of the father of the nation. This continued with creating political uncertainty and ideological inconformity. Soon, the longing for a true democracy was completely given up for power politics dominated by tribes, castes, colours and creeds along with the essential element of the economic might. This further scaled-down the political stature to fixed individuals’ glory; shutting down the dreams for a free, fair and transparent democracy.

Democracy is, thus, a zero-sum game for us. We are caught within the lowly clutches of right or left, which is giving us a lot of social, political and economic divisiveness. We are only left to recall the sob tale of right and left and are in the dire need to separate our state from being sandwiched between these two counterparts.

The dawn of the Enlightenment Era was the one that witnessed the rise of the leftists

The Taliban fraternity-era was an age of excessive glorification of the rightists. The leftists were searched for and hunted down. Religion was both used and misused for all the political and strategic gains we thought we had been achieving in the strategic depths of then friendly Afghanistan. The infusion of extremism was clandestinely filling in our society. Being a nation with memory issues, we remained incognizant of the same. The leftist portion of the society was counting their worst days. They were the state adversaries and the rightists were the state functionaries back then.

What came forth was even more dangerous than what had just elapsed. The dawn of the Enlightenment Era was the one that witnessed the rise of the leftists. The flushing in of free media and the increase in women participation in the state affairs were the good things happening but simultaneously, the rise of information warfare and social changes begetting of social media came along. The social testament was re-authored, and the social media propped up a youth delusion of its identity; questioning the very reasons, this country was created of and for. This, along with the rise of individual liberty and freedom of expression, were the tools coming off the leftists’ camp and enveloping the entire personality of the state. The society went back to nullify its earlier stance advocated towards justifying the rightists. The retraction was fair but whether it was just a u-turn or a whole change in the state’s mind and personality are still left unanswered questions. We were wrong when we thought we were “right” and we are wrong even now when we think we are “left.”

With the interchange being so busy and hasty, presently, our state is caught up in a time paradox, where, sometimes, it is Habib Jalib who we love to glorify. On other occasions, we wish to follow some radical theologians. This so happens because of the state’s heavy sidedness on either extreme in different times. Indisputable is the fact that national interests are always supreme. To meet those ends, all is fair in war and love. A tragedy happens and is soared up when the state camps out in either of the wings personally.

State’s restraint is essential and ensured through its pillars. This is the reason that politics, no matter how so ever buoyant or lively or free it be, can never cross certain lines or interfere in the state’s elemental characteristic of restraint. This restraint helps in keeping the state off all petty affiliations and gratifies it as a place well honoured and respected in the nations of the world. Our state has to show its potential in exercising the power of restraint, which will help a great deal in never getting caught in blind alleys.

The writer is a civil servant based in Quetta