The air seems to be charged with violence and bloodshed. The smell of death and fear hangs like a cloud, raw and bleeding, adding weight to the already laden chilling atmosphere that has settled around us in the form of smog, thus increasing our myopia. We can hardly see past the end of our noses to decipher what is happening, which disables us to develop an appropriate response.
It must be realised that despite a protracted era of 11 years of counterinsurgency we still lack the fundamentals of war preparedness. Responsibility for us is like a scalding issue that must be passed on to the next person unthinkingly, lest it burns us. And the best reason we can give ourselves for living a life of sheer self-contrived oblivion is the lack of literacy, lack of resources and so on. Nothing is more pathetic than the collective self-pity we exude. Lack of conventional education does not necessarily translate as a lack of wisdom and intellectual activity. What we face is a shortage of courage, will power and a passionate spirit.
Well, a splendid display of spirit was seen as Dr Tahirul Qadri came back to Pakistan amidst prayers and blessings of millions with a bang, exclaiming that enough was enough! And that it was high time that the state must take precedence over democracy. Considering all previous happenings, one does become wary of such sudden bouts of goodness that start shining upon our otherwise bleak lives. Many had smelt something foul behind the curtain. Well, whatever it was, it is over and as they say, the hottest love has the coldest end and so this one had too. The heated declarations were quite literally and figuratively frozen, first by the weather and then by the isolation he suffered by the lack of response exhibited by the political parties. The best thing about the march, however, was that it was and remained peaceful until the very end. It came as a great blessing that no terror incident happened or things would have been quite different.
But this blessing does not extend to the rest of the country where the security issue spirals out of hand as one after another episode of terrorism hits us with enhanced force. On December 27, a Levies check post was attacked in the frontier region near Peshawar by hundreds of militants with sophisticated weapons, killing two while kidnapping the rest of the 22 soldiers. The grotesque manner in which the kidnapped Pakistani soldiers were all killed and their bullet-riddled bodies thrown away and desecrated reveals the venomous militant agenda. The fact that one of them escaped to narrate the tale of torture provides ample insight into the impact that the militants had aimed to achieve.
Firstly, militant networks are highly potent and effective and they still have the extended reach that threatens our internal peace. Secondly, both the Pakistani authorities and security establishment stand defeated by them. From this vantage point, their demands for peace deals clearly aim to further their interests. Although terror incidents may recur with an alarming intensity, but what they are taking advantage of is the internally chaotic and politically unstable situation. This, however, does not mean that they are in a position of strength or that they pose any degree of existential threat to Pakistan. Threaten us they may, but only temporarily for as long as we allow them space and opportunity while we avoid bringing our own house in order.
Lack of political will is so apparent that it hangs around us like air that we breath in whether we like it or not. Even my 11-year-old who is a regular TV viewer expresses exasperation and amazement at the style of governance that our politicians adopt so brazenly. At least the armed forces, while realising that the awareness of this threat needs to dominate our national narrative, have published their green book that many are terming as a paradigm shift in war doctrine. Coming a year and a decade too late, it still is a welcome step as an enhanced need to address Pakistan’s most pressing problem of sub-conventional warfare. Not that there was any doubt in our minds that it is anything but a significant issue, considering the fact that this war has dominated not only our social and cultural being, but has greatly invaded our orature and literature, thus influencing our worldview. As an internalised theme, we think and work accordingly, but have done precious little to formulate a joint strategy in which all segments of society need to operate to bring it towards its decisive phase.
Classed as the greatest risk to Pakistan’s health, the internal threat has been brought to the fore with the aid of the green book. It must be noted, however, by all the interested audience of the war on terror, especially the efforts put in by the Pakistani armed forces, that it does not come as any change other than that it merely puts into textual form what has already been operationalised for a long time now. It does go a long way to inform the audience and to highlight the fact that the Pakistani armed forces have been absolutely serious in tackling this menace. Killings of soldiers and civilians clearly show how we suffer, and that the sooner we converge on an enhanced plan to fight against it the better.
Slogans we have heard for far too long now without anyone delving on the ‘action’ phase of the plan that needs to take off after vocalising exalted thoughts of saving the Pakistani state. Once this realisation dawns upon us that we in our very small capacity can play a significant role in correcting our collective wrongs, things may start improving.
The writer is a lecturer in the Linguistics Department of Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, and presently working on her PhD thesis in discourse analysis. She can be reached at [email protected]