A deliberately provocative statement and I hope everyone is suitably incensed. If you’re not, then perhaps the question is answered for you. Of course, it’s a generalisation and there are many individual exceptions. But the question remains – are we, as a whole, an uncivilised people?
For the separatists out there, for ease of writing, I write Pakistanis but I include the Azad Kashmiris, the Sindhis, the Balochs and not simply the Punjabis who dominate the political landscape.
I never thought we were uncivilised before but I am re-thinking many things since my brother Farooq’s assassination in March 2022. Before this, I used to come to Pakistan to visit my brother “on a high”. I loved it here – and was always disheartened that I was returning to the UK. If bad things happened, they would be dismissed out of what seems now a false sense of “patriotism” and I would look for the good in everyone. But by looking at Pakistan through those “rose tinted glasses”, I paid the heaviest price of all – I lost my brother. Would I have been so relaxed about Farooq being “home” in Pakistan had I not been so blinkered?
There is a common expression that friendship is only tested in bad times – but surely we can say the same for kinship? And Pakistanis in my book fail miserably. I should have taken more note when I was studying Medicine at Cambridge University and I attended the Pakistani society on a few occasions – rich kids from families with deep pockets who were largely obsessed with their “clan” and finding a suitable marriage partner. I didn’t see any Pakistani “kinship” then either.
But what has irked me the most in Pakistan is the disregard for life and specifically for Pakistani life. Should a white person have been killed in Pakistan the journalists would have been abuzz and the “leaders” would have made urgent pronouncements to assuage any negative publicity but Pakistanis can be killed or assaulted with barely a murmur. Just last week, several Kashmiris were shot and killed by the Rangers in what had been intended to be a peaceful protest against the electricity bills and broken agreements over the Mangla Dam. Hundreds of civilians – possibly thousands – were killed in the illegal drone strikes in NWFP. Those drones were even permitted to operate from within Pakistan at the behest of Western powers to which this supposedly sovereign country submits.
My brother Farooq, a Patriotic Pakistani-Kashmiri – was assassinated on Pakistani soil and it’s the latter fact that causes me deep unabating anger. As previously pointed out in an article on TLTP (‘One Step Forward’), only when western governments raise extrajudicial killings, does Pakistan even raise the murder of some citizens by foreign agencies but as yet has lacked the courage on this particular case. The vast majority of Pakistanis are criminally silent on the incarceration of Dr Aafia Siddique who has been subject to unimaginable torture at FMC Carswell in the United States. She’s our Pakistani sister. It was Aafia herself who revealed the best of Pakistani spirit when she asked her sister “Has Pakistan been Occupied?” Within that one laden question it is easy to imagine her integrity, sense of self-respect and expectation of the same from her fellow citizens.
I am frequently reminded of this lack of respect for (Pakistani) life as I pursue this elusive “justice”. It bothered not one single police officer I have met that a Pakistani brother of theirs had been assassinated by enemy forces. I recounted their attempts of corruption in ‘Rishwat Police’ but it’s far from the only rotten institution. I recall the many opportunists I’ve met (for now, we will spare their blushes) taking advantage of a sister’s grief from “officials”, private investigators, journalists promising publicity to generate pressure on authorities, social media activists and lawyers – a fellow Kashmiri sagely reminded me that this was par for the course in a “survival” society but I’ve never been convinced that circumstances should strip you of humanity or “civilised” behaviour. The initial doctors I met when I went for my brother’s postmortem shook me with their inhumanity – I can only express gratitude to others who restored some faith.
As I watch the 15 Accused in court, I am reminded of savages without a shred of remorse for taking the proverbial thirty pieces of silver to take another’s life. In fact, soon after I arrived, I began to hear unbelievable expressions of “Well, Pakistanis would sell their mother for ten rupees” and the idea that people would take a pathetic bribe to kill another being didn’t faze those whom I spoke to – but it should faze and embarrass us. Then there are the jokes and mockery of process allowed in court which is offensive in the extreme – I am well aware of western barbarism not least in their illegal wars of terror but at least for purposes of public facade, they uphold a modicum of decorum in official settings.
So what is the root cause of our present state? Is it simply that colonisation for almost 200 years has damaged something within the people of these lands? The “colonised mindset” continues to exist but how do we regain our former glory? Pakistan was the site of one of three earliest civilisations. The Indus cities were renowned for their urban planning and elaborate drainage systems – some of which are claimed to be better than a number today. We should also do well to recall our illustrious Moghul ancestors. Farooq believed this country could – and should – be great again. And perhaps it is only with remembering our rich heritage and applying Islamic beliefs that we can learn to value Pakistani life.
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Dr Rehiana Ali is a Cambridge-educated Consultant Neurologist and has a PhD from Imperial College London. Her beloved brother Farooq, a Biochemistry postgraduate of Imperial College London, was a Patriotic Pakistani-Kashmiri and a freelance journalist and political intellectual. He was allegedly assassinated at Ramada by Wyndham on 11 – 12th March 2022 – the case is currently at the Sessions Court in West Islamabad. The social media campaign led by her sister Yasmin can be followed @Justice4Farooq
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Views expressed in this Op-ed and following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the TLTP.
