Pakistan’s slow and steady failure

By Dr Muhammad Iqbal

I was shocked that there are people who were ‘shocked’ to learn about the assassination of Governor Salman Taseer.

I mean, what were we so shocked at? What did we expect, to be honest? What could possibly be expected in our land of ‘the pure’?

A ‘governor’ means nothing in a land where people are really governed by the ideas of distant past and don’t care about the future.

I would’ve been genuinely shocked if there were instant rallies condemning the killer instead of venerating him. But of course, that is idiotic thinking from a keyboard warrior like myself! Afterall, the real warriors are busy killing!

It would be naive to think that things ‘can only get better’ as we’ve heard for over 50 years now. That we can carve a civilized ‘society’ out of this ethno- sectarian- nationalistic- tribal- hodgepodge of people who are forced to live with people that they hate and cannot tolerate to live with.

When intolerance rises to such levels that there is no option but to kill, there’s no ‘nation’ left, only warring tribes determined to mark their respective territories and ideologies. Academics have nicer terms like civil war and anarchy and what not. But we are ‘too pure’ for all that complicated stuff.

The ones I really feel sorry for are those who make a comfortable living in this country and are too detached to care or choose sides.

Because for the first time, ‘real pure’ brethren are determined to do something at last: Determined to make this experiment of country into a failure that they think it deserves to be, no matter what.

And the comfortably living among us will have to choose sides sooner than later.