Casting a Cold Eye
The risk of being misunderstood is great in times of grief but the risk of chasing after miracles is even greater. Turning on our television sets is not without its risk, we all know that but not turning them on is rarely an option exercised by most. I do not think it is possible to recover from the news of Peshawar school massacre especially for the parents and relatives of those who died or were injured in this unprecedented act of barbarity by the TTP. I am painfully aware that TTP are not known for their tolerance of human plurality or for throwing flowers at those they consider infidels but systematically executing children in a school was something not even an insane mind could contemplate. Dreams often die with a whimper but not in Peshawar, it is impossible to escape the thought-flight of imagination; what amazing things would these children have done as adults?
Politically correctness is not a luxury I will afford myself today; I will just say what I need to say. Barely had the screams and streams of blood died down in Peshawar, we began to hear demands for reinstating the death penalty for terrorists. A fellow blogger asked, why only for terrorists? I had no answer for that so I ignored the question. Leadership failures of the past 65 years made the provision of justice extinct in Pakistan and in its place we have acts of personal or judicial vengeance.
I have no doubt that the perpetrators of Peshawar massacre belong in the hot valleys of hell but not as act of vengeance but through the delivery of justice. With enough people demanding death penalty; Nawaz Sharif gave the orders lifting the moratorium on capital punishment. This decision was not based on strategic thinking with a cold head but in the wake of emotional tidal wave of anger and grief. You might be forgiven given for thinking that Parliament to meet and discuss this before coming to a majority decision but then this is not a matter of saving Nawaz Sharif and his lovely Government.
Here is my point; if we are going to reinstated capital punishment, then we must begin by hanging all those political and religious leaders whose incompetence, corruption and intolerances necessitates the lawful taking of lives. When I see people like Fazlu, Siraj ul Haq and Abdul Aziz on TV, I realise we do not have the stomach or the will to deliver ‘capital’ solutions to our problems. So the bla, bla, bla goes on.
A committee formed, cobwebs removed from gallows, religious bigots preaching and morning show anchors milking every drop of emotional response from viewing public. Our TV anchors take no prisoners in the ratings war; so the distressed-looking faces, the tears, the quivering voices, the dark poetry and the scrapping of wounds repeatedly to make sure that our national grief is profitable. The one thing grieving families need is dignity and privacy to mourn their unbearable loss and these are the exact things that do not make money and hence the frenzy on our screens.
Anwar Maqsood is the only person I saw on TV making a sensible and humane plea to TV channels; please stop repeatedly showing images of dead and injured children, how would we feel if they were our children? So called religious ‘scholars’ are all over our channels like an acute viral rash, trying their best to sell their outrage and surprise – still believing that better preaching will deliver us from this evil. Then when we thought we had seen it all, Javed Chaudry invited Abdul Aziz for an interview – of course he was made to take off his burka before his appearance. The fact that Abdul Aziz is not rotting in solitary confinement, living a slow death, is clear proof of our not-so-latent tendency towards extreme hypocrisy. We want to have our cake and eat it too – good luck with that, I say.
Musharraf had made many poor decisions during his tenure but one of the worse one was to fornicate with political popularity by prolonging the Lal Masjid siege to the point of bloody crisis. Abdul Aziz and Musharraf are reminders of our inherent dishonesty when it comes to letting the axe fall where the fault lies. Do we think we should not hang the man whose direct orders made an aircraft full of people nearly run out of fuel and crash? Now I am scrapping flesh off our complacency, am I not?
Pakistan military has a lot to be proud of; there is no two ways about it. Our soldiers have delivered unparalleled service in times of disaster and I witnessed this in person during the 2005 earthquake. As an organised, resourceful and disciplined institution, it moves quickly and effectively whilst our political leadership is contemplating whether a shalwars can be hung on the Supreme Court fence. The sacrifices our soldiers make in defending the people and territory of Pakistan can only be commended. Whilst Nawaz Sharif’s Govt is trying to untangle its knickers from its knees, it is Pakistan’s armed forces that are fighting TTP in the North of Pakistan and along the Afghan border.
Like all things human, Pakistan’s military must face much justified criticism. Pakistan’s military enjoys unwarranted exclusivity and a highly subsidised life style. They have their own banks, airlines, grocery stores, schools, shops, residential societies and even their own funeral services. It makes perfect sense for the military of any country to ring fence its military offices and assets but it is nothing short gross arrogance for it to ring fence all the non-professional needs of its members. Pakistan’s military needs to reconnect with the people it is meant to defend and the only way to do that is by desegregating its civil life from that of ‘bloody civilians.’
The murdered children Peshawar were the all the children of Pakistan, irrespective of what their parents do for a living and that is the way we should look at all the people of Pakistan. I hope we can cast a cold eye on our lives and find the courage to say and do what is right and not fall for just those things that placate us.