Thursday, January 06, 2011

From Failed State to Failed Society

Which comes before which? I mean to say whether our state failed us first and then society as a whole degenerated or vice versa. But then I think we are at such brink where this distinction does not make any difference. People say that Pakistani society has split in the middle into two mutually exclusive groups after the cold blooded murder of Mr Taseer, but I refute this argument no sirs there is no division an over whelming majority of ‘ordinary’ Pakistanis are supporting Mr Qadri’s violent act and they either consider Mr Taseer as ‘Wajbul qatl’ or blame Mr Taseer for his own murder. So allow me to say there is no split in the society only few ‘miss fits’ are trying to raise their genuine concerns and by and large everyone has endorse this violent act. What I see in tomorrow’s Pakistan, Mr Taseer’s murderer will become a hero and most likely he will walk free with his ‘head held high’.
Honestly speaking I never thought there would such a day in my life where I would see people would refuse to condemn a cold blooded criminal. If a society refuses to honour sanctity of human life, fair play and helping the weak amongst itself for the sake whatever, it does not deserve to exist. Those who are showering flowers on Mr Qadri will soon be at the receiving end of another Qadri’s bullets.
Today I feel ashamed to be associated with such a society and lost all hopes that there could be improvement. With such heavy heart I salute the courage shown by Mr Taseer Shaheed as he was a ray of hope in total and pitch darkness. I also advice all other ‘miss fits’ to be very careful if you have to live in this land of extremism because forces you are voicing against are cannibals. When they will have no one else to kill they will start killing one another. They kill their own children and siblings and call it ‘honour’. So they would stop at nothing because they do not believe in dialogue or mutual co-existence on the basis of self respect and freedom. This is a hypocritical gathering that hates and hurls abuses on the USA and early in the every morning form queues at the US Embassy Islamabad to leave Pakistan for good.
A word of extreme care for ‘miss fits’, you should refrain from pinning any hopes on glitz and glitter of media that feed only few urban centres of right wing middle class in Pakistan. This mushrooming growth of irresponsible TV anchorpersons provide majority of their air time to right wing hate mongers with highly retrogressive and crude views. That is why when you ‘miss fit’ lot came out of your homes disregarding all threats to your lives and livings in solidarity with Mr Taseer in Karachi they completely blacked you out.
Today with exception of very minute few ‘miss fits’, Pakistan is a failed society because there is no sanctity of human life. People have been taught on distorted histories and false pride with absolutely no sense of fair play. A society that has failed criminally to protect its weaks in fact it allows them to be cleansed ‘legally’. A hypocritical society where Mr Taseer’s murder is termed as an act of God and his murderer has a right of fair trial.
I am hoping against hope that this time around Mr Taseer Shaheed’s murder might start a social evolution in Pakistan and left this society from sub-human level to human society.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

No Country for Sane Men

One by one, extremists are silencing every sane voice in Pakistani society. The cold blooded murder of Salman Taseer is another warning for people who are harbingers of sanity and tolerance and crude reminders for them that they are not welcome in this land of fundamentalists and extremists. I was astonished at the hypocrisy of people when after witnessing harrowing violence at the hands extremists to their fellow countrymen, women and children they still have galls to say that it is not Islam. When a lady anchor person on Geo TV asked a religious leader whether he would condemn Mr Taseer’s murder he blatantly said “No”. And this religious leader happens to be the leader of movement for the protection of current blasphemy laws in Pakistan. He further commented that murder of Mr Taseer was an act of God but fate of his murderer should be decided by courts. I am sure he was a true representative of Islam yet lady anchor person finished her programme by saying Islam is religion of peace nothing else. I do not know who she was trying to fool herself or people listening to her hypocritical remarks. Anything that discourages sense of fair play and helping the weak should be vigorously discouraged.
Watching various Pakistan TV channels one cannot help feeling that everyone was trying to be apologetic for Mr Taseer’s murderer by giving qualifying statements about what Mr Taseer said on blasphemy laws and motives behind such a violent act. As if Mr Taseer was himself to blame for his murder. When extremists killed innocent people of Pakistan in mosques, in market places or even in hospitals everyone proclaimed they were not Muslims and foreign hands were involved because a Muslim could not kill a fellow Muslim. I am still waiting for what would they say about Malik Mumtaz Qadiri. He is surely an ordinary Muslim. I am sure now everyone in unison would proclaim that Malik Mumtaz Qadiri is not true representative of ordinary Muslims. Ordinary Muslim is tolerant and peace loving.
This is a murder most foul. It brought forward the nakedness and emptiness of Pakistani society. A society bent on killing every sane element amongst itself. A totally deranged and dysfunctional society where only those people holding guns in their hands have monopoly over everything from political discourse to basic human rights. I hope Mr Taseer’s murder would not go in vain and the debate he started should be brought into its rightful conclusion. But I have a very little hope and I am also concerned about the safety of all those people who are trying their best to break the status quo in whichever field they work because it seems Pakistan is a country where there is no place for sane people.