Little Rascals

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State... We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State... I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in due course Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.” Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on August, 11 1947

I was listening to his speech yesterday and it sent me into an abyss of thoughts, about my nation. I felt as if we are just a bunch of spoiled kids who will do anything except for respecting their father’s advice. Even though Equality, justice and democracy were supposed to be the principles of this newly founded state of Pakistan, yet it took us 9 years to form our 1st constitution (though I am ashamed to call it a constitution). Furthermore, the people of Pakistan had to wait for another 15 years after that, to cast their first votes. While waiting for the fulfillment of this particular desire, many enthusiasts like me would have departed forever. A few might have gone a step further, declaring the vote in their will. But the truth is that none of the circumstances ever bothered any of the “presidents” to hold a “real” election.

Another very important principle of this sate’s policy, in the eyes of Quaid, was equality among all the Pakistanis, without any discrimination of religion, sect, caste or ethnicity. But, being the little rascals that we are, nothing positive should have been expected from us and we proved it. Soon after our dad departed to heavens, we turned this country upside down, like that notorious kid in home alone. It Started with Punjab disturbances in 1953 during our persecution movement against Ahmadis, and since then, we have never looked back. Of note is the fact that we didn't stop fighting, even after losing half of the country. There has always been some feeling of indifference among us. I want to present the trend of these clashes during different decades.

50s’ was the era of reawakening of Islam, so we found Ahmadis to be our targets, and started propagating hate against them. It’s Result being the loss of many valuable lives. 60s was the period when we rediscovered our culture. As a consequence Pakistan faced the disputes among Pathans and Mohajirs in Karachi, as well as among Punjabis and Bengalis in Dhaka. This led to the unfortunate separation of our Eastern half and it looked for a moment as if we might learn something. 70s remained comparatively stable except for the persecution of local nationalist parties by “The Nationalist party”, alongwith some more persecution of Ahmadis by the preachers of brotherhood. 80s was the time for retribution and rewriting history. So, Pathan-Mohajir killings got converted into Mohajir-Pathan killings. Another important factor was the rise of extremism and fanaticism. This new ideology directed us to the Sunni-Shia disturbances of 90s. However, since 9/11 the main dispute has been between Islamic radicals and not so Islamic moderates. Although, there are many instances of religious persecution and ethnic killings, but even these examples revolve around the same idea of religious fanaticism.

The deeper motives in all these cases were solely political but, unfortunately, the victims and the assailants have always been The Common Pakistanis. We ignored our father’s advice on several occasions and, knowingly, let our leaders manipulate us. What Quaid said on that day, is usually taken in the sense of religious freedom but I believe it is much more than that. I think that he was delivering a message of tolerance. As a matter of fact, Pakistan was founded on a religious identity and he knew that if we can tolerate an entirely different ideology in our country, then resolving our own disputes would be a minor concern.

If we analyze the losses that these home grown tensions have caused us, we would forget about considering India, West or Taliban as our prime enemies. We’ll realize that the enemy is within us. He might be a dishonest politician, a crooked Mullah, a corrupt bureaucrat, an avaricious journalist or a controversial conspiracy theorist. Whoever he is, his aim would be to propagate hatred through his oratory or scripts. However, unfortunate is the fact that we frequently fail to recognize such people. And it is only because of own moral corruption and prejudice towards others. When we will start looking at the minorities as Human-beings and Pakistanis instead of Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis, Ismailis, Shiites or Pathans, Mohajirs, Sindhis and Baluchis etc, only then will we make any real progress. I, intentionally, left the religion out of this discussion because it is one area that has been exploited most. And I may be wrong, but I would dare to say that until the appearance of Mahdi R.A, we should atleast consider each other humans if not Muslims. So, let everyone follow his/her own faith and let God decide who’s the righteous.

I would request you readers to start looking at everyone as the sons of Adam, for just a couple of days. I am sure, you would feel the difference. You would be able to isolate the hate expressions of some cleric in a mosque, a journalist in newspaper or a politician on TV. You would be able to identify it, if someone tries to invoke your chauvinistic beliefs.

The inspiration for this article was, my inability to work for flood relief, due to the situation in karachi. Our whole city got paralyzed for a week, when fellow Pakistanis needed us desperately. For that reason, it is imperative that if, God forbade, Pakistan faces a natural disaster again, we need to see these little rascals, of our most populated city, doing some relief work instead of protecting themselves from rampant gunfire. And to do that, they have to find a permanent solution to their mutual differences.