Just Pakistan | What can change Pakistan, is Pakistan

Between angels and devils, there are People. Pakistan is allabout this people. Like the rest of the world, it’s a mix of good and bad,weird and wonderful, ugly and beautiful. Of sanities and stupidities, ofingenuities and inanities, of refined and rude. But the country is torn betweenthose who discover sacred in each particle of dust in Pakistan, and those whofind savage in even the stars that shine over the skies of Pakistan. As humanswe must search for the Pakistan that is, and not the one that is projected bysuperimposing an imaginary sacred, or wilfully devilish, image on it.

Is Pakistan an abnormal state, or a state braving abnormallydifficult conditions? All propaganda, for and against Pakistan, aside, thetruth is distributed over the entire spectrum. Pakistan is not an abnormalstate as Indian media trumpets all along, and Indian politicians stuff it intothe minds of a billion people. Pakistan certainly is not what its ownpropagandists would have us believe. For a mind fed on ignorance about Muslims,about Kashmir, and about Pakistan, and now spilling over with hate, Pakistan,by its very being, is an embodiment of evil. As if, not people, some devilishspirits inhabit that country. To them one can very respectfully say thatPakistan is a normal country, of a normal people, with normal dreams. Buttoday’s India suffers from an abnormal habit of not listening to anythingnormal. Where does one go from here. Fall in line, fall apart, or fall silent.Or gather the sounds, may be tomorrow India craves for a normal listening.

   

Now the second part. Pakistan is not what the ideologydriven minds in that country, and in Kashmir, would always propagate it is. Tothem Pakistan is a special country, entrusted with a special mission. Inanything Pakistan, they spot some divine scheme. To these people one alwayswanted to respectfully say that there are some anomalies in the very womb thatdelivered Pakistan. But like their Indian counterparts these campaigners haveperfected the art of not listening.

Those who preach an ideology through the very idea ofPakistan, and think of Pakistan as the centre of some millennial prophecies,suffer the same degree of mental deformity as those who consider Pakistan asthe epicentre of all evil.       In a dualbetween bashers and campaigners  we skipthe normal range of looking at Pakistan.

Pakistan carries abnormalities within, and is burdened withan unimaginably abnormal situation to face without. Pakistan’s creation, itsemphasis on a particular ideology, and the behaviour of its warrior class;these are the major abnormal spots on the vitals within its body

Imran Kahn’s visit to the US brought Pakistan to discussionworld over. Manoj Joshi’s comment in Times of India, trys to put togetherdifferent pieces into a perspective to explain the strategic shift in Pakistan.The question Joshi puts is very interesting: “Could Pakistan be on the cusp ofdeciding to become a normal state?” Imran Khan’s one year in the chair showsthat Pakistan is trying desperately to throw the crises of last 30 yearsbehind, and move ahead. But what needs to be keenly watched is whether Pakistandoes it all as a tactic to be changed at the earliest signs of a shift in theglobal atmosphere. The quantum of damage suffered by Pakistan, as a state andas a society, tells us that this time it’s more than a tactic. In many of hisinterviews, in fact Imran Khan spoke of it in the US as well, it is clearlyreflected that change is not just guided by the outside pressure but also by anurge within.

The imperatives of the economic condition, the pressure ofFATF, the dismal image of Pakistan as a haven for non-state armed groups, andthe overall deterioration of its institutions are enough to make the thepresent leadership of Pakistan – civil and military – to change in asignificant way. But this change can not come about only through a shift inmilitary strategy and foreign policy. The real battleground is the society ofPakistan. The real battleground is the mind of Pakistan. And this is a longbattle ahead. The only man in Pakistan who is actually fighting this battle isJaved Ahmed Ghamidi. Surprisingly,  theworld knows very little about it.

The irony is that when the global powers bring pressure toPakistan, or when India tries every to jump the bandwagon of that internationalpressure, it is only done through the realm of strategy, and foreign policy.There is no change of mind on this side as well. This makes the task forPakistan doubly difficult. When some of the intellectuals in India discussPakistan in this context, I wonder how they ignore the contributions the newIndia is making to give the society of Pakistan a reason to relapse into itsabnormalities. The treatment meted out to the Muslims in India, and the wayKashmir is approached now,  make itdifficult for anyone in Pakistan to work on the course of change.

The present day Pakistan is an outcome of two things. One, athinking that shapes up its streets and goes right up to the senate. Two, theevents that besieged it all along its journey as an an independent sovereignstate. On the western borders Afghanistan is troubling it for last 30 years. Onthe eastern side, Kashmir is a festering wound. Those who try to squeezePakistan between the two – Afghanistan and Kashmir –  are actually creating hurdles for Pakistan toundertake the journey towards a change for good.

So the question that “could Pakistan be on the cusp ofdeciding to become a normal state?”, is incomplete. A similar question needs tobe put to India: When would India decide to be a normal state? Living inKashmir, one can only wish that the two states become normal. That would be thebeginning for us to live a normal life.

For now Imran Khan and his Pakistan is a lone journeyer onthe path of change. Change for your own reason, and then create a compellingatmosphere for other to follow that change.  What can bring about a change in Pakistan is finally Pakistan.

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