For the past few days I am thinking about this topic. With the passage of time the gulf is increasing between the thinking of overseas Pakistanis, affluent resident Pakistanis and the middle/lower middle class people. For matter of simplicity I’ll take this topic further by considering those who live in the country as they have to face the problems day in day out.
I have personally seen the whole period of 2007 to 2010, when terrorism was rampaging Punjab. Every other day there was a bomb blast somewhere, the attack on FIA building and Model Town which were 15 kms away from me and still I heard a huge thud, the attack on Srilankan team only after 10 minutes of me passing through the area, or the attack on ISI building on Queens Road (only about 500 m from my office). I also remember the time when the schools of Punjab were shut down for a few weeks due to threats from militants. You can imagine the effect the images of suicide attacks were having on the minds of the kids. To be very frank, I (and the majority of the people) wanted the issue to be sorted out. People did not care when Shahbaz Sharif begged the taleban to cease attacks as they were fed up with violence wrecking their lives on a daily basis.
At the moment people of KPK and FATA are going through this. I can only sympathize with them, and am sure they also long for peace. The way how it is achieved would be the least of their concerns. Another fact is that most of the population reads Urdu newspapers which is mostly right leaning. The right and left look at the solution of terrorism through different angles. The narrative that reverberates among the majority of the people is the one propagated by the right. You can observe this from your interaction with people on the social media and other platforms.
Keeping all this in view it becomes really difficult to market a war, which has already taken the lives of more than 50000 people.
There is nothing inherently wrong with people having diverse, conflicting points of view.
I am rather encouraged when there is a ‘debate’ between people holding different views on a topic. One thing that PTI has done is to bring those ‘mummy-daddy’ types who never had any interest in politics into the political discourse.
The problem arises when people start getting ‘angry’ while talking to people holding opposing views. We need to cooooooool down.
Here’s the thing; Both points of view have strong points and bad ideas:
– ‘Right’ leaning people saying that US should not interfere in our matters. That is a valid point. But they fail to take into account terrorists ‘interfering’ into our lives. They also need to understand that without help of our own Mir Jaffars (many of whom are apparently ‘right leaning’), US cannot do anything at all.
– ‘Left’ leaning people saying that we need to eradicate terrorism as soon as possible. But they include any and every religious issue into the debate and degrade ‘maulvis’, religion, symbols of religion as much as possible to make a point. That is unreasonable.
The problem only arises when people start advocating hugely problematic either with us or against us ideas or take the good old view that two wrongs makes a right. Need to get rid of this confusion.
Pakistan does not have a narrative. Srilankans fought a war against the LTTE, they were clear about their enemy. We are fighting a war for the past 10 years (thousands dead), but we still dont know our enemy. Without knowing the enemy how can we proceed to tackle it?
I don't blame the people, the state has brainwashed the people during the past 40 years. Its very difficult to convince people now that those people could be villains who used to be heroes not very long ago.
^ First of all we need to find out who the enemy is. Blackwater/RAW/Mosad/CIA or Taleban? Who is supporting TTP (India/Afghanistan) or people within the country? Are they our people or foreign agents? Are drones the reason for the terrorist activities or the militants have some predefined objectives?Can Muslims commit heinous crimes or non Muslims are involved in terrorism within the country?
We need to figure this out, then we can chalk out strategies of tackling the issue which could involve a combination of negotiations, force, development, improvement of law enforcement and bringing the disenfranchised people in the mainstream.
For the past few days I am thinking about this topic. With the passage of time the gulf is increasing between the thinking of overseas Pakistanis, affluent resident Pakistanis and the middle/lower middle class people. For matter of simplicity I'll take this topic further by considering those who live in the country as they have to face the problems day in day out.
We living in the west has full information about the most current situation. In Pakistan rulers, newpspers, so called thinkers, historians have always lied to public. I give you one example. Yesterday when I was going for work, I normally listen to NPR which said that "Taliban were very angry at the death of Mehsud and blamed Paki leaders and intelligence agencies for providing 100% accurate coordinates of whereabouts of this "maut ka saudagar, Paki leaders had betrayed them in past and they have betrayed them now." This news you do not find in Paki media. In view of this situation tell me how these peace talks would be successful? Leaders of Pakistan are again lying to public.
All the narratives should have been put to death the moment the last APC decided about the mode of resolving this conflict. Yesterday I was watching Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Saath. It was apparent that the anchor worked all day to make a case against sitting with the TTP for resolving the issue. He tried to bulldoze Asad Umar on PTI's stand but he chose wrong person to do that.
It is quite strange that when it comes to resolving the issue through dialogue, PTI is singled out for having soft corner for militants whereas Punjab is totally ignored for providing safe haven to militants.
The anchor was suggesting that the collective decision of the elected leadership of the country is a nonsense and only Kamran Khan's own narrative is logical. He conveniently forgets that the war he wants to initiate, is already in action fro almost a decade now.
As Asad Umar correctly pointed out, the decision of the APC — wrong or right — cannot be vetoed by the US because Pakistan is not a district governed by the White House.
We should understand that protest against drones is not against killing of militants, it's against US hegemony over Pakistan.
No one can deny that stability and peace are the immediate need of the people of the region. It can only come in ways when the terrorists stop their attacks and join the peace building effort in the region. Their resource and energies are going towards a cause that only brings miseries to the common folks of the region. Recently our State Department’s spokesperson Jen Psaki, said , “the United States and Pakistan continue to have a vital, shared strategic interest in ending extremist violence so as to build a more prosperous, stable, and peaceful region. Psaki said, “We have an ongoing dialogue with Pakistan regarding all aspects of the relationship and our shared interests, including security and counterterrorism cooperation, and we work together to address each others’ concerns.”
There is no doubt that together we can overcome the security concerns of the region. Terrorism has already lost its support and it is time for concern parties to realize that and start working for peace, the region so deserves.
There are two narratives in Pakistani Press & Social Media at present both with glaring inherent contradictions.
The Left Narrative: PML-N and PTI are supporters of Taliban, and responsible for lack of army action against them. Contradiction, a paragraph down this, Army establishment is protecting Taliban. Prototype of this narrative on GS ; Shamraz Khan. The question is if Army establishment is really protecting Taliban then why blame N & PTI, if there is no one to fight the war, whom should the political parties be asking to conduct operation.
The Right Narrative: Taliban are fighting against US forces. Any loss of innocent lives is work of blackwater or India to blemish the image of righteous bearded men. Pakistan shud join Taliban to fight US and live happily ever after (in afterlife). Contradiction, the Taliban claim responsibility of suicide attacks and they say no its not their work. Prototype of narrative on GS: Janjua
There are two narratives in Pakistani Press & Social Media at present both with glaring inherent contradictions.
The Left Narrative: PML-N and PTI are supporters of Taliban, and responsible for lack of army action against them. Contradiction, a paragraph down this, Army establishment is protecting Taliban. Prototype of this narrative on GS ; Shamraz Khan. The question is if Army establishment is really protecting Taliban then why blame N & PTI, if there is no one to fight the war, whom should the political parties be asking to conduct operation.
The Right Narrative: Taliban are fighting against US forces. Any loss of innocent lives is work of blackwater or India to blemish the image of righteous bearded men. Pakistan shud join Taliban to fight US and live happily ever after (in afterlife). Contradiction, the Taliban claim responsibility of suicide attacks and they say no its not their work. Prototype of narrative on GS: Janjua
hey buddy let's not get carried away. if you can prove your last statement (you've mentioned me) then i'll issue you an apology, if you can't well you be your own judge.
Something quite new and bizarre I picked up from my recent encounter with certain posters.
Army is our only hope against Taliban, only institution capable of getting rid of those monsters but but but army will hand over Pakistan to Taliban in a jiffy on negotiations table. Errr what? Make your mind up about your own army.
hey buddy let's not get carried away. if you can prove your last statement (you've mentioned me) then i'll issue you an apology, if you can't well you be your own judge.
I pologise if you are not like that, but I got that impression from some of ur posts, ofcourse I haven't read all the forum.
There are two narratives in Pakistani Press & Social Media at present both with glaring inherent contradictions.
The Left Narrative: PML-N and PTI are supporters of Taliban, and responsible for lack of army action against them. Contradiction, a paragraph down this, Army establishment is protecting Taliban. Prototype of this narrative on GS ; Shamraz Khan. The question is if Army establishment is really protecting Taliban then why blame N & PTI, if there is no one to fight the war, whom should the political parties be asking to conduct operation.
The Right Narrative: Taliban are fighting against US forces. Any loss of innocent lives is work of blackwater or India to blemish the image of righteous bearded men. Pakistan shud join Taliban to fight US and live happily ever after (in afterlife). Contradiction, the Taliban claim responsibility of suicide attacks and they say no its not their work. Prototype of narrative on GS: Janjua
I fail to understand if this is a COUNTRY..and it is RUN by a GOVERNMENT why we need a telephone call from the TALIBAN to confirm if it was they or not. Where is the intelligence? taliban get support from other countries? do these other countries drop weapons from sky? or have dug underground tunnels? where are border security forces? and then its the PA claiming to be champions of the country. just get ur house in order and these things should fall in place..
who is actually benefiting from this 'beating about the bush'? our enemies...
Due to large numbers of queries and responses, it is sometimes not possible to get involved in very discussion, but we do our best to engage whenever we can.
-- 'Left' leaning people saying that we need to eradicate terrorism as soon as possible. But they include any and every religious issue into the debate and** degrade 'maulvis', religion, symbols of religion** as much as possible to make a point. That is unreasonable.
It is not just the "left leaning" people wanting to eradicate terrorism. **EVERY Muslim, leftist or rightist, wants to do that. **A 'left leaning' person does not 'degrade maulvis' or religion or symbols of religion. Because he may be a Muslim himself. Only an atheist would do that.
BTW, Right leaning does not necessarily mean a religious person who tolerates killing of innocent people in the name of religion. A left leaning person could be a strict religious person as well.
An atheist who wants smaller government, less taxes will be called right leaning.