The Spectacle of Devolution

The creature let out a piercing shriek, as the ‘Intolerant’ struck it again with its whip, lacerating the creature’s flesh. The atrocious pounding was a punishment, a rational one in Intolerant’s opinion, as the creature had tried to defile the ‘White Light’ with its blackened and impious hands. The White Light was all-encompassing, outreaching to the furthest crevices and extending as far as the vision prevailed. Its intense glowing warmth seemed to envelope the essence of all beings in its enclosure. However, this majestic entity was not bound by the dimension of time, its uniqueness espoused by the concurrent opacity and transparency of its existence. The creature was piqued by the riveting attributes of the White Light and consequently raised its hesitant hands to feel its manifestation.

The creature lay on the ground, squirming helplessly due to the torment inflicted by Intolerant. The whip descended on the creature, almost in a rhythmic fashion with the creature’s hellish roars, begging for mercy, booming with every strike. Creature’s woeful suffering had two other spectators; ‘Oblivious’ and ‘Lost’, equidistant from Intolerant and each other, with bizarrely dissimilar reactions to the creature’s agony. Intolerant continued its zealous lashing unabatedly; however, Oblivious was unconditionally abstracted by the wailing of the creature. Oblivious was seemingly traversing while clutching something in its hands, utterly absorbed in its detailing. Whereas, every shriek of the creature sent shivers down Lost’s spine and it’s palpable screaming had hypnotized Lost undisputedly. Lost wanted to lunge at the Intolerant and deaden its torment upon the creature. Lost wanted to save the creature and yet it felt paralyzed; it was transfixed at one spot, its feet immovable. All the words resonating with its insides, escaped articulation, and Lost was left waving its arms in protest, outstretched towards the Intolerant to cease. Unhindered in its resolve, Lost beseeched Oblivious to intercede, however Oblivious remained heedless, regardless of being mobile. Lost observed that a certain darkness had started to unfold and envelope the staging, although the White Light was unaltered. The creature’s cries were fading; its predestined fate was fast becoming an actuality. Lost begged the White Light to reorient the consciousness of the Intolerant and Oblivious, it pleaded for the showering of benevolence.

It stopped. The creature had given up, and the solitude of nonexistence had taken the creature away, away from the Intolerant. However, the Intolerant continued to punish the creature, lashing its lifeless body, chanting its own pledges of adherence towards the White Light. When the creature was mutilated beyond recognition, the Intolerant began to justify its rationality, its steadfast allegiance to safeguard the sanctitude of the White Light. Lost was overcome by a whirlwind of emotions and the mushrooming darkness surrounding it was indistinguishably emulating its insides. It felt it had disappointed the White Light; it had not succeeded to persuade Intolerant and Oblivious to terminate the inhumane treatment of the creature. But, most crucially, Lost could not fathom the gripping rationale of such immeasurable hate, especially since Lost noticed that the White Light was timelessly pristine.

The stratification of society in Pakistan is perceived along socioeconomic, ethnic or linguistic lines, highlighting the entrenched diversities in our nation. However, an escalating phenomenon has ultimately surfaced, resonating with every citizen and unambiguously binding us all; an overarching trend of receding humanity in the Pakistani nation. Undeniably, Pakistan has its woeful tale of suffering and misfortune, be it natural calamities, the ruination by terrorism or the catastrophes brought on by power grudges. Consequently, stark consciousness has been given to all elements of the state while disregarding the human life. It may not have been a deliberate policy or a desired outcome, but this phenomenon has become a reality. It can be contended that the Pakistani nation has taken attempts to immunize itself against surreal realities, for instance, the 16^th December, 2014 Peshawar school attack. But these insulation measures have de-humanized the society, in the nation’s attempt to emerge uninfluenced; it has lost capacities of human compassion.

Similar to the above narrative, the ’humanity scale’ of Pakistani nation reads intolerant, oblivious and lost. The country is overrun by the intolerant narrative, not only opposing the anti-Islam chronicles, but convinced vehemently by its rationale as a solution to the problems of the nation, it only understands the language of force. Surprisingly, vast majority of the nation has sought oblivion as a coping mechanism while also becoming border-line irreligious. Their lives are unconditionally detached from the suffering of others, unless some misfortune befalls them directly. However, the smallest portion of the society contains the losts, their consciousness and enlightenment becoming a living death with every passing day. Their internal battle of not responding to the intolerants with hate or anguish, but rather to establish an understanding towards their actions has collapsed the resilience of the losts, as intolerance is infiltrating the society like a disease. 

Arguably, the receding humanity in our nation can be labeled as a fictitious tale, but should this reality be ignored when mob lynching is a common occurrence in our society? Even more so, when it takes place in an educational institute and by educated people? Furthermore, when it is perpetrated in the name of a set of beliefs that only propagate boundless tolerance and love for humanity? Pakistanis may blame the draconian laws of our state, or the miscarriage of justice, or even the ‘divide and school’ policies of the ruthless fanatics. But coming in terms with our receding humanity, as a nation, should be vehemently contested; we are all humans, before we are Muslims or Pakistanis.



Contributor Faryal Khan is MS student of Peace & Conflict Studies at the Centre for International Peace & Stability (CIPS) - National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). This article is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of any particular institution or organization.

2nd Annual National Harmony Workshop: Celebrating Diversity

National Defense University (NDU), Islamabad organized 2nd Annual Workshop on Cultural Harmony” which lasted for four days i.e., from 22nd to 26th May 2017. The workshop was organized with the aim of enhancing integration among the Pakistani youth by increasing awareness on matters that pose serious challenges to the state at present. The core focus of the workshop remained enlightening the students and members from the academia to realize their role in bringing about national harmony by celebrating the diversity that the country has. Another focus area of the workshop was to celebrate the success of Manzil-e-Murad project, which was launched by the varsity in 2015, as a mission to provide a facilitating forum to various universities in the country to indulge in integrative engagement. In order to ensure such coalescing harmony, the audience of the workshop comprised of students and academics from all four provinces of Pakistan including Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. From the four days of activity, two were dedicated to academic/intellectual lectures by esteemed professors, scholars, serving and retired armed personals and analysts on various issues of national concern and the last two days were dedicated to touring significant institutions.

An enriching learning experience as it was, numerous intriguing things came to surface. Patriotism seemed to flash from every drape of the green colored curtains that hung in the sitting area. Glorification of national prestige and honor scented the air, evident in the music played, the content spoken, in the choice of verses to begin the day and in the message from the President NDU. Before the commencement of the academic sessions, Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, President NDU, warmly welcomed the guests and expressed his gratitude to them for their presence. As he spoke highly of the Manzal-e-Murad project, Gen. Rizwan introduced the participants of the workshop to their responsibility as students and academics to celebrate the cultural and linguistic diversity in the country. Every word that the President NDU spoke in his brief welcome address was very well articulated with facets of nationalism, patriotism and a much needed sense of harmony.

 The first speaker for the academic session happened to be renowned Sufi Scholar Professor Ahmed Rafique Akhter. He shed light on how the idea of internal security had evolved over the years. In his talk, one could clearly notice the pride that he meant to induce in the audience regarding the glorious Muslim history. Professor Akhter embarked upon several factors in his session that he believed had led to a disintegration of the Pakistani society from within and thus has posed a challenge to its internal security. A major cause of this, the professor held, lied in the prevalence of ‘ammoralism’ in the society. In his view, the society had divided itself along religious lines with religious schizophrenics on one hand and ammoralists on the other. Ammoral in contrast with an immoral identified a society that suffered from ‘non-existence’ of values, ethics and moralities; an existence beyond right and wrong. It was through the mention of instances from all periods of history, that the Professor sang to the audience the tale of Muslim predominant distinctiveness. His idea of ammoralism and religious schizophrenia were looked upon with much intrigue by the audience.

 Other lectures by esteemed guests including Dr. Moeed Pirzada and Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik further discussed the challenges to Pakistan’s national security spectrum and the significance of information handling and mishandling in the context. In the sessions that followed, a series of retired and serving military generals spoke of the present and emergent threats to national security and the operations carried out in troubled areas like Karachi and Baluchistan.  An interesting question and answer session followed each discussion.

The touring sessions that comprised the last two days of the workshop carried along an engaging learning experience coupled with entertaining visits to major institutions of national importance such as the Joint Staff Headquarters (JSHQ), the 10^th Corps Head Quarters, Heavy Industrial Complex, Taxila and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Kamra. The lectures delivered by the authorities in these institutes evidently meant to propagate among the audience a view that the defense of Pakistan is sufficiently guarded and lies in very safe hands.

The event altogether was an immensely amazing learning experience in all terms. The integrative collaboration among Pashtuns, Balochis, Kashmiris and people from other parts of Pakistan largely defied the existing perceptions about each other. On a forum with military and civil representatives, many critical questions were addressed, clearing the long held fog in the minds of the people. The interactive sessions between the participants over tea and lunches further made the workshop interesting. However, a broader media presence could have added to effectively propagate the message for a much needed drive for national harmony.

 It is certain from such an informative and exhilarating experience, that the next round for National Harmony Workshop will be looked forward to by all participants.    

Contributor Aizah Azam is MS student of Peace & Conflict Studies at the Centre for International Peace & Stability (CIPS) - National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). This article is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of any particular institution or organization.

 

Hijrah and Refugees: The Basics

The unfortunate series of events, spread over years in Middle East has led million to abandon their homes and make efforts to move to safer place for their families. UNO has almost 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees alone, the number of refugees around the globe is almost three times this figure. This massive human flow has overwhelmed international aid agencies and neighboring countries.

As a misnomer, ironically multiple bloggers, websites and online newspapers are using migrants and refugees as synonyms. Some have gone a step farther and linked it with the Islamic concept of Hijrah. In this blog I will segregate these terms to be followed on discussion on allied aspects in subsequent blogs.

Migration is a deliberate and well planned movement of individuals to a place of better economic opportunity. Defining Laws of Migration, Ravenstein has highlighted the rules governing general migration within and across state boundaries. In this case the ‘pull factor’ or the attraction as defined by E. F. Kunz is much stronger.  Migrants have sufficient time to think, decide, plan and move. Absorption rate of such individuals is directly proportional to volume of economic opportunity at the destination. These migrants can go back to their places of origins if they so desire.

Refugees, on the other hand have been defined as individuals displaced outside the border of their native country under duress. The 1951 Refugee Convention, defines refugee as a person who,

[....] owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Therefore, refugees are people who have no choice but to abandon their abodes in a short span of time usually due to conflict. Natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes etc. might force people to become refugees but such a phenomenon are rare. Most of the times people displaced though natural disasters return to their homes as the living conditions improve. In most cases such individuals are not declared as refugees and might only be internally displaced. Right from the outset, refugees are deprived of the luxuries of ‘time’ and ‘decision’. They will almost never find time to decide where and when they might go. Their immediate worry is to abandon their home and save their own and their family’s lives. The ‘pull factor’ as mentioned in case of migrants is almost invisible and rarely in equation. The ‘push factor’ is however the greatest. This serious imbalance between the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors forces international community to initiate action under The 1951 Refugee Convention. Once a wave has been declared as refugee (such as in case of Syrians and Iraqis) it is obligatory on international community to render all possible help.

Finally a few words about the Islamic concept of Hijrah. The word Hijrah is derived from the Arabic word Hajarah which means to part ways, abandon, to break ties with someone, to leave or to migrate. The discussion on the contentious concept of Hijrah is exhaustive in scholarly treatise and is spread over almost one and half thousand years of Islamic history. In subsequent blogs, I will be talking more extensively about these bones of contention and reasons for ongoing debate. The concept is not only misunderstood by many Muslims, but is also misconstrued by many western writers. With the massive flow of Middle Eastern refugees into Europe, the concept of Hijrah has again come up in debates. The real essence of the concept of Hijrah and arguably, how and why it is better than the modern day refugee law needs to be explicated. For now, it would suffice to say that the all the refugees pouring into Europe are not from Middle East (especially Iraq and Syria) nor all of them are Muslims. Therefore calling this massive dislocation as Hijrah is not only inaccurate but is adversely affecting the genuine refugee cause and the process of their rehabilitation.

Note: This article is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy of any particular institution or organization. 

Contributor Waseem Iftikhar is a PhD researcher at Centre for International Peace and Stability (CIPS), at National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.