Another week, another tide of the most tragically perverse news updates. Men and gentlewomen, after the loudspeaker, VPNs have now been declared un-Islamic. The Council of Islamic Ideology has however, thankfully, distanced itself from the statement, saying it was a personal opinion of the statement maker and had nothing to do with CII. Maybe they realised how satirical a ruling on a VPN sounded.
But in essence, why is the state so worried about my morality and my moral-compass? I thought moral-policing was my supervisor’s job, not my government’s?
It evades me as to how and why the government is so worried about what I watch and how I watch it. I could be watching Edmund Kemper slitting throats on Netflix and no one would bat an eye but all of a sudden jumping on Twitter is immoral? How do I congratulate people on Twitter? Do I use the same VPN route that the government officials and state institutions are using to post regularly on Twitter? Peak hypocrisy.
Again, I fail to understand the unhealthy obsession with regulating the internet. Let me repeat something I’ve already stated before. You cannot regulate the internet. If you do, you run the of risk depriving the economy of big money and foreign currency that comes in through the work done by local companies working for international firms. If you don’t care about that, do what you have to.
Optics look vile when those, who shoot guns for a living, start showing an interest in keyboards and mouses.
Also, our unhealthy obsession with switching off mobile network services continues to be on display despite it lacking all sorts of evidentiary backing and sense. The ‘experts’ have decided to suspend mobile services in Balochistan to mitigate terror attacks.
Sounds like a solid move. No way will the terrorists now be able to coordinate attacks via social media messaging apps and SMS. I guess they’ll be bummed to learn that they’ll have to invest in hand held radios and satellite phones to coordinate. Like they don’t already have those. Mind boggling approach by us.
Sir, they would’ve been traced and arrested by now had they been using mobile phones. Seems as though the suspension of mobile services didn’t do much either (spoiler alert) because seven security personnel embraced martyrdom when terrorists attacked their check post in Kalat. It’s always the men on the ground that face the repercussions while the men in suits and ties sulk in their lavish offices.
Mind you, not very long ago was there a blast at Quetta Railway Station where dozens of people died and all that was done was ‘tighten’ security around the railway station. We can now safely assume that those measures were futile, to say the least.
In my limited criminological knowledge, all these examples represent a lack of sound counterterrorism policies. But then, who do we have as an expert to work on and formulate counterterrorism policies? My answer and your answer are probably the same. It is unfortunate that we as a country do not value expertise and skill as a pre-requisite. No wonder the brightest minds of the country are actively moving abroad because they feel as if their talent is being wasted here. We have all witnessed and experienced brain drain here, a phenomenon which isn’t new. Skills, knowledge and expertise don’t matter here. Knowing the right people does. The more people in higher places you know, the further you’ll go here. That is the sad reality of our country.
As citizens, the noose is getting tighter around our necks each passing day. I predict an even more tyrannical form of governance in the upcoming years. Personal liberties will be restricted to the whims of those who run the show and our only use will be to pay taxes and keep our heads down so that our money can be used for cosmetic surgeries of the rich.
Just let go. Nothing is changing anytime soon.
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The writer is a lawyer with a Master’s degree from Northeastern University. Email him at nizamani.z@northeastern.edu
