STRAIGHT TALK by Hafeez Khan
Announcement was made over the intercom that the plane was about to land. Despite nearly four decades of international travel, landing in Lahore gives a flutter of excitement unmatched anywhere else. There is a feeling of belonging, a sense of owner ship. Too many memories and associations. However the Lahore we grew up in is no more.
It is a sprawling metropolis with no municipal boundaries. Travelling from Defense to PCSIR 11 to Hassan Nisar’s residence with Afzal Ghauri is like visiting another city. In fact Lahore is no longer one city. It is a collection of many cities and should be bifurcated as such. The people, the lifestyles, the economic standing varies drastically between the congested old Lahore and it sprawling suburbs.
But when was the last time that a master plan for the city was developed? I heard the good news that the Government of Punjab has put a restriction on development of new colonies. They are encouraging a vertical growth. It is a sensible path adopted around the globe to increase density per square kilometer.
My last column was titled “Demise of Morality”. I am encouraged by the positive response of my readers for having traced the roots of this debacle. However on reaching home I turned on the TV and saw black coated hoodlums destroying a hospital. The news is a couple of days old however the impact has left me reeling. As a lawyer I hung my head in shame.
There is something unique about our psyche. Pakistanis have thus far never emerged as one nation. A couple of decades ago affiliations were based on castes (baradaris) connected linguistically. Now it has moved to an assembly of mafias organized by professions or mutual financial interests.
There is a very interesting dichotomy in our society. We are individually subservient but collectively aggressive to a point of being lethal. Lawyers are supposed to be upholding the law but since the Chaudhry Iftikhar movement their aggression knows no bounds. A minor skirmish between some doctors and lawyers turned into major battle destroying a specialist hospital and beating up a provincial minister. Just because of a silly post by a stupid doctor on social media! Like a heap of dry leaves, it takes very little to spark a conflict. Our social fiber is falling apart. We are living on the edge.
Historians have to analyze where is all this aggression coming from? Some voices are laying the blame on PML(N) carrying out a proxy war because their political workers have lost the will to come out in droves upon the London leadership’s call. Whatever the reality, it is a sad state of affairs.
We have to recognize that this is fast becoming the true face of our society. Civility is only skin deep. A minor scratch unleashes the demon within. If we trace the history of the subcontinent it was for centuries overrun by invaders coming from the north. Most of these attacks were timed around the harvesting season.
The Mughals, the Arabs, the Persians, the Pathans after a few centuries of raids, decided that taking over as rulers was a better option and more rewarding. The locals were mainly working class Hindus suffering subjugation in a rigid caste system. With the arrival of Muslim rulers there was a great temptation to the teeming millions to adopt this religion that removed their shackles and gave them freedom.
This laid the base of a society so aptly described by ruler Sher Shah Suri. While sitting with courtiers someone asked him to describe the people of the subcontinent. He responded “they bow to the invaders when facing them and abuse the one who is leaving”.
That has become our national temperament. Individually we are subservient to those in power and there is a strong urge to crush whoever is weaker. This duality may find its origin in a mix up of DNA where identities are lost and only greed remains the motivation. The nation has become numb to all kind of abuse meted out to them.
The incident like the ransacking of a hospital in a nation that is already running short on medical facilities is sheer madness. This happens when the writ of the government has weakened. Presently the ruler’s immediate response to such a situation is to try and diffuse it rather than uphold the rule of law. This is a huge encouragement to those harboring ill intent. I recollect a similar event of the riots in UK many years ago. The courts stayed open over night to hold trials and convict the guilty.
But what will over run all efforts at improving the conditions is our population explosion that is running wild. Wherever the resources become scarce and the demand is ever increasing because there are more mouths to feed, social conflicts are bound to increase exponentially.
At this point in Pakistan’s history Prime Minister Imran Khan has been elected to power. The humungous problem facing IK requires a herculean task to overcome these challenges. Starting with a bankrupt economy and broken system of governance, IK is inching his way out of the abyss.
However it is unreal to expect a single person to overcome all the challenges facing the nation. Thinking minds have to wake up and join this task of nation building. They have to inculcate a value system that separates right from wrong, calling out the corrupt and the deviants. We have to rise to this challenge if we want to survive and prosper as a nation.
