Karachi, Navy, Terror, Dharna

Waking up once again to the news of a terrible blast– the third in 48 hours in Karachi, all three on Naval buses! Two things make these blasts distinct from the others that make the daily news in Pakistan: one, the death toll (that is different for every blast of course) and two, this time around our law enforcing agencies already had information of the attacks on Naval cadre. Of course, the attackers did not specify the time, venue and nature of attacks, neither did they send our agencies the ID’s of the attackers, nor did the attackers presented themselves to the law enforcers so our law enforcing agencies and government are certainly not to be blamed for their criminal negligence!

This reminds me, last night a friend told me I should be thankful I live in a peaceful and safe area of Karachi; their area (Gulistan-e-Johar) is Afghanistan, with Baghdad starting from right around the Johar Mor! We are so immune to bloodshed that we practically laugh upon heaps of mutilated dead bodies!

No, we don’t stop at just that, this ridiculous behavior is only limited to the average of the masses. The more literate, the wiser ones do it in a different way. They baselessly criticize, call naïve and morally corrupt fame-seeker any leader who in these most horrendous of circumstances has the courage to give a two-full-days successful dharna against killing of our innocent Pakistanis, in the most targeted city of Peshawar, staying up in the midst of his supporters all night, sleeping on the floor of the stage and wearing a simple latha shalwar kameez (as opposed to the million dollar ‘cheap’ suits other leaders wear!).

That is quite a load pile of throwing trash on Khan, in contrast to the ‘seasoned politicians’. I understand Rehman Malik’s statement on Khan, calling him a ‘mulk dushman’ coming in retaliation to Khan’s remark when Malik pointed a finger at Shahid Afridi an evening before the semi-final, because Khan spoke (once again) what the nation wanted- that the nation is keeping an eye on Rehman Malik and not the team for gambling on the game! While most of the ‘seasoned journalists and analysts’ have actually lauded the rally in Peshawar and Khan’s vision, not because of the numbers he gathered but because of the venue he chose and the success it was, some 3,4 journalists have taken care of throwing dirt and ridiculing the only voice that is giving any hope to Pakistanis!

For one claim, this was not a five thousand gathering, it was nothing less than double that!
Second, Khan is the only person who has always been emphasizing on negotiations with Taliban instead of war. Isn’t that what the world Super Power is now up to after having caused thousands of innocent lives and years of war only to be brought down on the knees across the border?

Third, Khan is so not a one-man show person in the sense some like to present it, but in the sense that Jaswant Singh writes about Quaid-e-Azam in his book “Jinnah India-Partition Independence” : “With the kind of views he then held, the great distance he had travlled, in experience, in growth as a civic being, in evolution as an independent-minded and a thinking Indian; his success after the initial years of struggle, as a reformist with Islam sitting lightly on him, Jinnah could hardly follow any other politics than that which he did!”

Just replace ‘India’ with ‘Pakistan’ here and ‘Jinnah’ with ‘Imran’.

As for the ones who humiliate the idea of Khan’s revolution- I do believe that societies need evolution rather than revolution, but for a society to startevolving there has to be a single point when the movement starts. This single point is when things are at their worse, as is now in the state of Pakistan.

Even though Quaid-e-Azam believed in total negotiations for a way towards building Pakistan, he did at the end call for mass agitation! History has not seen a more learned and judicial person than him, yet for such evolutions there needs to be a point of revolution, that one turning point where you just cannot, not bring people out on the streets to revolt!

Our governments are so shameful, that if even today for issues like Raymond Davis and drones, people do not speak out loud, we will stay forever in the perpetual whims of rigged elections! It is this popular support that, once evident, will make it increasingly difficult to massively rig elections, and once the electoral process is cleaner, democracy will strengthen, so will the country and every aspect of its economy and life.

Coming back to the blasts, while talking to a relative (in Navy) on phone asking his safety after the blast this morning, on his exclaiming “Allah rehem kare beta, Allah muaf kare!”, I remarked, God certainly neither should nor will forgive us for all this is a consequence of what we have been doing with our country, our future- electing the kind of people we elect (or do not bother voting at all!) and with our governance and agencies so shamelessly impotent!

“In these are signs for those who believe” : Al-Quran