Attacking Pakistan�s nationhood

CURRENTLY, Pakistan�s detractors and enemies are spinning webs of conspiracy, trying to present Pakistan as a failed state or attacking its nationhood. Coming from external sources, the onslaught can be ignored, but it becomes painful when bonafide Pakistanis fall into the trap of taking up the cudgels on behalf of Pakistan�s foes and criticizing their own country and homeland with impunity. Take the example of Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy�s latest Op-Ed �Why Pakistan is not a nation�. The erudite scholar is a member of the teaching faculty at the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad and is a strong critic of national policy and the raison d��tre for the creation of Pakistan. The �learned scholar� laments that Pakistan has been a state since 1947, but is still not a nation. He observes that more precisely, Pakistan is the name of a land and a people inside a certain geographical boundary that is still lacking the crucial components needed for nationhood: a strong common identity, mental make-up, a shared sense of history and common goals. The failure so far to create a cohesive national entity flows from inequalities of wealth and opportunity, absence of effective democracy and a dysfunctional legal system. The Daily Mail takes strong exception to such pseudo intellectuals, who under the garb of secularism, attack the state of Pakistan and its religious elements. Indian and other anti-Pakistan elements gleefully gobble up such harsh criticism of Pakistan and reproduce them with gusto and praise for the �enlightened� critic and claim that when Pakistanis themselves are such rabid detractors, there must be an element of truth in the accusations.
If Dr. Hoodbhoy were not enough, a second group of critics of Pakistan and its nationhood has sprung up, claiming veracity under the garb of Baluchi sympathizers. True that Baluchistan is facing insurgency and the insurgents are being trained, equipped and abetted from outside. A number of pro-independent Baluchistan websites have mushroomed in the near past, which are illegal; but have made inroads in the minds of the youth through their prevarication, insinuations and seditions based on half truths or mere propaganda. Take the example of �The Baluchistan Hul� in which, a �literary piece� by Urooj Zia, has taken the liberty of presenting �The question of Baluchistan�, in which she surmises: �If you see the flag of Pakistan in Baluchistan, you are either on the Baluchistan University campus in Quetta or at the provincial assembly � or, more alarmingly, within meters of a checkpost manned by the Frontier Corps (FC), the paramilitary force that controls the province. Nowhere else in this, the country�s largest province by area, will you see the national flag. Urooj Zia adds that �On the contrary, flags of Azad Baluchistan are a dime a dozen, adorning shops, houses, streetlights and random poles. Schools in the province � even those administered by the government � start their day not with �Pak ser zameen� (the national anthem), but with �Ma chukki Balochani�, the anthem of Azad Baluchistan. Here, the Pakistani state, army and paramilitary forces are figures of hate, while the sarmachar (Baloch �freedom fighters�) are considered heroes.� Another case in point is Archen Baloch, writing in Gwank News, in his piece titled: �Massive Military Operation in Gawadar District� referring to the province as �Occupied Baluchistan�, maliciously reports quoting unnamed sources from district Gawadar and Dasht areas that Pakistan has launched a massive military operation with the hardcore conventional forces, backed by Jet fighters, helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles. Forces from Turbat, Mand and Gawadar Camps have been dispatched to carry out the gory operation in Seyaji Mountains. New check posts have been set up on all outlet passage ways to strangle the local population, for not co operating with forces in Derwaar, Katrenz, Sunt-Ser, Metsing and TeranDisk. He concludes that apparently, this operation seems to have been launched to plush out the Baloch Resistance forces in the surrounding Gawadar district area, where Baloch resistance forces have increased the frequency of their attacks on Pakistani occupying forces. Indian security agency RAW has been operative in Baluchistan from Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan. It is pumping in material, funds and training to the Baluch insurgents to fuel the fire. The Daily Mail recommends that Pakistanis should take cognizance of such crass propaganda and not make the work of the enemy easier by echoing its nefarious slogans and machination.