Perhaps what Cyril Almeida reported was right is the question which bothers me today. What bothers me more is that what if it is really right and we are facing a coercion of such forces which want a radicalized Pakistan ? What if all happening today as I write this piece is all connected to cover up the tracks ? My heart indicates to me that any sincere Pakistani would not do so. But my mind tells me otherwise. It tells me that the Pakistanis with vested interests would not stop short of putting Pakistan at a stake to achieve their ambitions. Which side would I want to be ? Simple! The side which progresses Pakistan not embolden it as a Terrorist State . Reason is simple that my forefathers did not fight the Raj in the past in battle or otherwise to put us in a state of chaos in the name of religion. They fought for freedom not for enslavement. They fought for Muslim glory not otherwise. 

The nation is in a chaos . But we celebrate glory today. Ironic isn’t it that our establishment announces victory with a stick in hand looking stiff and arrogant in media hyped events. I really respect those young Jawaans both civilian and military who give up their lives for defending my freedom from both foreign and domestic enemies. I really cherish those young officers who have earned glory by reddening the motherland with their sacred blood. I salute those mothers and sisters who have sent their future to fight for us. But I do not salute or respect those who without any fear those who misuse this sacrifice for their own good and glory. I despise those as I keep the image of the dead soldiers and civilians in my mind. If speaking truth makes me a traitor I don’t care. I can be a traitor to those who rip the soul of this great nation but can’t be a traitor to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. No I won’t be one. 

The question the nation needs to ask of itself. Is all ok ? There is chaos in now almost whole of the country and at its borders. We celebrate what ? Is the civilian government only responsible for all of this? Or all those who in actual run this nation’s security policy. They must be credited where they deserve but must be pointed when they deserve too. It’s a responsibility of all Pakistanis. The trait of branding anyone who challenges this sacrosanct belief that a few is above the law and are traitors for raising their voice is blasphemous in my view. Its contrary to the nucleus of a democratic state . Its contrary to the state that Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah envisaged. 

Today, one journalist is abroad as he brought to the notice of the nation and the world a story which many feared and chanted for some time that there is a coercion of a few in the state with those radical elements who have let us down again and again and instead of we becoming a backbone of the international community due to its vast resources , our strategic location and our excellent manpower. We have become a rogue state or becoming one gradually due to these policies. 

You don’t need to be a genius to decipher what Cyril reported. The imprint of which was all over. Since APS where almost 121 children sacrificed their lives for this country and to save some from losing their power and for some to gain it to the Quetta Police Training Center Massacre . You would see the print of our lecherous self centered policy to keep on appeasing the first line of defence of our establishment that is the religious radicals . 

So once APS happened. I expected that our Armed forces would root out this nation from the radicals and their allies who bled this nation. I was told as a Pakistani that it can’t be singular . It has to be across the board where political miscreants need to be neutralized as well. As a Pakistani along with me many political partners agreed in the interest of Pakistan that yes we need an across the board cleanup. We looked up to the same General who promised us to avenge the deaths of these 121 children. We Pakistanis believed that we would now see a clean Pakistan of this treachery irrespective of the fact that how big the danger may be domestically. If our foreign enemies would try to stand up against us ; we would crush them together. We had hopes to see a deradicalized Pakistan at any cost. At the sacrifice of the 121 children who gave up their lives. 

But what we saw was otherwise. Especially in Karachi where the operation started in the name to avenge the 121 children turned political where Muhajir community bore the brunt of it as it was given as an impression that this community and its leadership is the backbone of all the woes the nation faces. The spirit with which this operation ensued in Karachi may have brought immediate results of an uneasy calm but a polarized Karachi. The Muhajir community feels bruised and stabbed in the back as they are forced into proving their patriotism to Pakistan after their forefathers strived for this nation almost 70 years ago. Their leadership in jails, branded as traitors or playing to the tune of the establishment saw many of the Muhajirs going quiet and disenchanted. The city which bore the brunt of both political as well as religious factionalism for many years has not seen any sincere effort to get rid of the largest city of Pakistan of the real deal that is the Religious Fundamentalism. 

We are being told by some senior police officers as citizens in utmost confidentiality that our Police is incapable of handling the real danger of Talibanization in the city of some in the establishment as the threat grows. Why not ? When I see that in Ramadan the Islamic Fundamentalists openly collecting Zakat and Fitra in the city of Karachi with the presence of Law Enforcement Agencies. Where the political forces who spend on the cities needs are hamstringed as being branded as Traitors as the state fails to address the needs of the city. The same forces allowed to reinforce themselves financially during Eid ul Adha too. It had written all over it that something major is coming up which needs all these finances. Some major long drawn operation where the tap of the generosity would be needed to finance an operation which of course can’t be financed with official money. 

They say that when the operation was planned across in the name of Operation Zarb e Azb. The fear was that radicalization is not restricted to KPK but has taken strong presence in South Punjab as well as Sindh and Karachi. The establishment started chanting Good and Bad Taliban. The reason for which was to identify their blue eyed and give them an opportunity to survive as the nation was angry . Very angry as it saw 121 of its kids massacred shamelessly. 

Coordination teams formed in tandem. The biggest of the claims consisted were that Pakistan has dumped its Kashmir Policy which has irked the radicals a lot. Looked so as these freed up radicals towards Pakistan and Pakistanis as the funding and support stopped. Also, they complained of being side lined by secular Pakistanis and their biggest pain was being edged out of Karachi and the bane of that problem was MQM and its leadership. Karachi in the past was a good hiding place for radicals and time and again it has been proved as many prominent Who and who’s or Al Qaeda, Jamaat e Islami and Talibans have been caught in Karachi. The funding was another ingredient . This reduced these radicals to collecting ransoms and conducting bank robberies. This had to stop. A clean auditable funding and support was required. What better than to handover the financial capital of Pakistan to radicals? Save Punjab and save their domestic adventurism. It was agreed upon as per my humble analysis as been highlighted in the past blogs and proven by recent spate of events and emboldened by Cyril’s article in Dawn. 

Now we make as much noise as possible. The fact remains that have we traded our soul as Pakistan with radicals to buy a short term peace at the cost of the blood and loyalty of those who built Pakistan, at the cost of the blood of the martyred soldiers , the 121 children at APS and recently 62 martyred in Quetta. 

Last night four Shia Pakistanis lost their lives in Karachi ; as we ponder on National Action Plan. As our interior Minister is seen facilitating the perpetrators and we saw a gathering in Islamabad where anti Shia slogans were heard without any intervention by the state in the name of peace . Shamelessy we have wooed these radicals without abetting and are time again giving the sacrifice of our young soldiers and thousands of Pakistanis. 

Our border simmer with our foreign enemies breathing at our necks. Instead of having peaceful relationships with our borders to have a stronger South Asia and to utilize the opportunity to make our economies progressive. These radicals ensure that every now and then they deliver incidents where both the nations i.e. India and Pakistan at loggerheads now and then to keep the tensions rife and the resources flowing in financially or otherwise . Ironically some in our establishment think it is wise. Some of them are thinking this is the Ghazwa e Hind . Personally, I don’t think that any such conquest would be justified as the future of Muslims defined on the grounds of bloodletting of innocents as well as Muslims. If they think so they are being misled into it. The cost is Pakistan’s integrity.

The Dharnas and the frustration of the republic with its elusive leadership , a non committal armed forces and a nonexistent under threat civil society is just augmenting the sentiments negatively in Pakistanis . Can we blame them ? We are hearing anti Pakistan slogans sadly by all Nationalist leaders let them be of KPK, Sindh , Baluchistan and Karachi. Whilst we fight for Kashmir our own are getting disenchanted. These slogans are not in my view against the state but those running this state in this sad manner. The Dharna by Imran Khan & co says the same thing without saying it. Time to ponder as a state. 

We should call a spade a spade and there should be no holy cows in this nation. Those entrenched to run affairs of this nation has lost us half of it in 1971 in the name of their loyalty towards their own well being not for Pakistan and has created fissures in the one which is left. I am sure we would come out of this . I am sure there are those in the establishment loves and wants the same Pakistan as Quaid e Azam envisaged. I am sure these few would become an Army and rescue us all . I am sure we would become a glorious state after accepting our faults and mending them. I am sure we would rise. Pakistan Zindabad!