Looking beyond Peshawar

Emotionally overwhelming it had to be. Wednesday’s commemoration of the first anniversary of the massacre of our schoolchildren in Peshawar awakened the pain and the incomprehensibility of the bloodiest terror attack in our history. The entire nation had come together to remember and to pay tributes to the martyrs of December 16, 2014.

There is general agreement that the attack on the Army Public School by the Taliban terrorists changed Pakistan. And it should be possible to spare some thoughts for a serious review of how Pakistan has changed during the past one year. Or has it remained the same in some crucial and relevant areas?

Operation Zarb-e-Azb had already been launched when the Peshawar tragedy left us traumatised. In its immediate aftermath, a wide-ranging 20-point National Action Plan was put in place. A constitutional amendment allowed the establishment of military courts, for a period of two years, to expeditiously try terrorists. A moratorium on executions was lifted. There was, in that sense, a surge of action on various fronts.

We now have some statistical proof about how many terrorists were killed and arrested. The number of terrorist attacks is drastically reduced. A number of prominent leaders of sectarian outfits were killed in encounters. Some hate material was seized and clerics were arrested for hate speech. The Karachi operation, launched in September 2013, gained momentum to strengthen the impression that the campaign against terrorist and extremist forces has scored victories.

But there are still some questions about how the promises of a new Pakistan have been kept. There is no evidence that the spread of religious extremism and intolerance across our society is beginning to be checked. Our ideological stances, as reflected in the behaviour and the statements of our rulers, have remained the same.

Yes, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did invoke the idea of a liberal Pakistan while addressing an investors’ conference. It amounted to saying that this would be good for business. However, he did not confront the critics who felt outraged by that innocuous use of the word liberal. In any case, it would be hard to create a new Pakistan without provoking a change of heart on the part of leaders who are proclaimed conservatives. That transformation is not very likely. Nor is there any prospect of the induction of new faces in positions of power.

True, the task of exorcising the demons of intolerance and extremism from the dark recesses of Pakistan’s social structure, partly because these demons have been nurtured by our past policies, is very challenging. In its latest issue, The Economist has said that the horrifying Peshawar attack “brought about something many thought could never happen: it forced Pakistan at last to confront the Islamist militancy tearing at the country’s vitals”.

Under the title of ‘Job half-done’, the respected magazine has also noted that “drawing the poison from decades of state-sanctioned Islamisation will prove far harder than picking off militant leaders”. While reporting actions against extremists, it said in parenthesis: “Though the head of a notorious place of worship, the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the capital, has become active again”.

Incidentally, Lal Masjid is the focus of a report published in The New York Times with the heading: “Pakistan deals blow to jihadists, but their ideology stays rooted”. This really sums up the present predicament of Pakistan. In his dispatch from Islamabad, Rod Nordland has referred to the “relative untouchability” of Maulana Abdul Aziz. It was after the publication of this report that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan explained on Friday that the radical preacher of Lal Masjid had not been arrested because there was no case against him. However, for the NYT correspondent, this “is a measure of how enduring the power of militant Islamist ideology has remained in Pakistan”.

I am not sure if the messages and impressions that have emerged from the first anniversary of the Peshawar carnage are encouraging in the context of the change that is being inducted in Pakistan, specifically at the social level. It was really disconcerting to see how traders in a Lahore market staged a protest this week when a shopkeeper was arrested for his hate message against the Ahmadi community. At least 24 persons were killed in a bomb blast in Parachinar last Sunday; it was a sectarian attack but it did not attract much attention.

It made ample sense to put specific emphasis on education in Wednesday’s anniversary. In his address, Nawaz Sharif announced that December 16 would be observed every year as the national education day. He said that it was time to eradicate from the country the “darkness of ignorance” which had led to a rise of extremism. This is an obvious connection. Then, what revolutionary steps have been taken on this front during the past year?

What the people would most directly associate with the anniversary is that gripping chorus sung by the students of the Army Public School and released by ISPR. Its catchphrase lingers in your mind because it portrays the philosophy that should underline the idea of a new Pakistan – to educate the children of the enemy – that is, the terrorists. But it was this song that made me think about a particular individual who, I think, should have been conspicuous by her absence.

Hope you have guessed it. I am talking about Malala. We have every reason to be proud of her though it is a manifestation of the state of Pakistan’s mind that a very large number of people have malicious misgivings about her. Perhaps it is their cloaked affinity with the Taliban mindset that is at the heart of this feeling. Be that as it may, Malala’s story has a profound relationship with the Peshawar tragedy. She was sentenced to death, in a way, by the Taliban but she survived.

Here is one Malala quote: “I don’t want revenge on the Taliban; I want education for [the] sons and daughters of [the]Taliban”. I wonder if those who had designed and organised Wednesday’s events had thought about Malala and her relevance to the occasion. For that matter, the government has not formally honoured the gifted teenager who happens to be the most distinguished Pakistani in the world.

It may be an idle thought but it would have added to the significance of the anniversary of the Peshawar massacre if Malala were there. It could also serve as a statement in deference to the national sense of direction. That is, if the rulers are certain about how they want Pakistan to change.

The writer is a staff member.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com