Daily Times

In Freudian psychology, displacement can be roughly defined as a defence mechanism in which you find the easiest target to express your anger. Notwithstanding the fact that Freudian psychoanalysis is not very popular in Pakistan for obvious reasons yet, displacement has almost become our official business. It reads as: if you are upset with the judiciary being a retired army officer, you should start hurling abuses at television journalists, threaten them, throw their equipment away and warn them about a wishful and imaginary martial law.

These are the ground realities of an emerging Pakistan, a country that is rapidly getting democratic and chaotic at the same time. As a result, our new image includes the possibility of justice for everyone, concerns for accountability and, obviously, a CCTV footage that can promote a general as the most discussed celebrity in a short period. Who could imagine just a few years ago that an untouchable three-star general would himself be chased and harassed by a television journalist as if the former Corps Commander was just a regular politician? Could anyone contemplate a decade ago that a powerful general would not be able to ‘take care’ of a journalist except to yell at him helplessly, and then be mocked on television for weeks, regretting the time when he lost his patience? Are the good old days really over? Unbelievable.

Talking about the general’s personal endeavours, it is true that he does not like to beg ordinary people for their votes or get his hands dirty in active politics but he loves to enjoy the perks of the power corridors. That being the case, he probably twists some arms and gets nominated to serve in parliament for six years. Easy, isn’t it, when compared to canvassing for months and months in the dirty streets of the rural areas, talking to ordinary civilians and requesting them to vote for him. Recall: he was one of the first retired army generals who rushed to support General Musharraf in 1999 over democracy and became the railways and information minister during military rule; but don’t get me wrong, his intention was only to serve the nation’s best interests rather than any personal gains. It is also true that he then joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid — the actual Muslim League that created Pakistan and was once led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah — to be ‘(s)elected’ as a Senator. But that too was a self-sacrifice for the ‘defence’ of the country, in conformance with the golden rules laid down by the ex-patron-in-chief of the party: Pakistan first, which should be translated as, “The Constitution is just a piece of paper.”

As for the incidence, the general was under tremendous pressure coming out of the battleground (the Supreme Court of Pakistan). After hours of boldly facing the false allegations of war crimes (financial corruption) in the Pakistan Railways, he was followed by a television journalist (‘RAW agent’) — an ordinary, powerless, poor citizen of Pakistan — who kept on pushing the general to the fence, asking him about his involvement in the border (real estate) dispute of the institutional property. The commander kept quiet for a very long time, ignoring the ignorant man, but in the end, he was completely humbled by the audacity of the journalist, and said scornfully, “Shut up, idiot.”

Now everybody is lambasting the Corps Commander while in my opinion he displayed a lot of character by calling a spade a spade in front of the camera without hiding his identity and compromising his ‘dignity’ like a real officer of the Pakistan artillery. Even the ‘brave’ and martyrdom-seeking Taliban cannot muster up enough courage on camera to reveal their identities. Ironically, they cover their faces to protect themselves from being caught and killed by the agencies and help them fulfil their wish of an eternal life in paradise. However, the General was no coward like them; he was a real hero, a straight shooter. He expressed himself clearly and set an example for others about how to handle the media thugs ‘nicely’.

I hear the ‘historic’ words of General Qazi being echoed all over Pakistan, where everyone seems to be mad at everyone else — the ‘law-breaking’ politicians at the ‘law-abiding’ generals; the ‘sleeping’ judges (deciding the matter after 16 years) at the ‘fully awake’ journalists after winning their independence in 2003/04 or vice versa.

All of them feel exposed, embarrassed and angry. The generals promise to uphold the constitution in future and downplay their roles in the past, not wanting to have retribution for their actions of any one of them: 1977, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2007. They do not even confess and apologise directly or take personal responsibility, admit their faults and rest their case to the people of Pakistan, which in fact could be the real virtue. In their opinion, an indirect reference of some mistake by an unknown group of people in the remote past is enough for a new beginning. Well, it is not, and telling us to “shut up” would not work either because we are not “idiots”. We are just stupid Pakistanis who trusted you to lead our soldiers.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com