Megalomaniac

“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds” ― Laurell K. Hamilton This quote reminded me of what a Hazara man told someone after the recent Shia carnage in Mastung, Balochistan. The man, who lost his wife and daughters in a suicide attack on Shia pilgrims, said: “ Yeh jo mai aap ko dikh raha hoon na, yeh mai nahi hoon. Andar se mai khaali hoon abb ” [What you see is not what I am. I am completely empty from inside now]. After every attack on the Shias, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claims responsibility but the state does not budge. A crackdown against the LeJ was announced after the Mastung attack but, as expected, it was only a sham exercise. Shia Muslims are being killed across the country while their killers roam our streets with impunity. When one condemns these attacks, nay genocide, one is asked why just condemn Shia killings and why not other attacks. The answer is simple: while one does indeed condemn all murders,...

“…And Man saw that all is passing in this mad, monstrous world, that all is struggling to snatch, at any cost, a few brief moments of life before Death’s inexorable decree. And Man said: ‘There is a hidden purpose, could we but fathom it, and the purpose is good; for we must reverence something, and in the visible world there is nothing worthy of reverence.’ And Man stood aside from the struggle, resolving that God intended harmony to come out of chaos by human efforts.” These lines from Christopher Marlowe’s famous play ‘Doctor Faustus’ have a different context yet they remind me of a brave Pakistani teenager, Aitzaz Hasan – a 15-year-old boy who embraced martyrdom when he confronted a suicide bomber who wanted to bomb his school in Ibrahimzai, Hangu. The list of brave people in Pakistan is long: brave teenagers (be it Shaheed Aitzaz or the living legend Malala), brave leaders (Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, Shaheed Salmaan Taseer, Shaheed Bashir Bilour), brave cops, brave soldiers… and i...

Six years ago, Pakistan lost a brave – if not the bravest – leader, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Six years is a long time but every year on December 27, we mourn her martyrdom; we cry for a leader loved by millions of Pakistanis. In an interview with the Herald in 2000, BB said: “Either the democratic forces win or the establishment wins. If the establishment wins, the past will be repeated and that is what has happened for 50 years. If the democratic forces win, maybe the 21st century will be different for Pakistan. It is a fight and we are unable to say who will be the winner. But then, democracy is also about evolution. And democracy is also about fighting for what you believe is right and not giving up.” Benazir Bhutto did not give up on her country, she did not give up on the people of Pakistan, she did not give up on democracy; she knew she could be, nay would be, killed but she came back to fight for a democratic and pluralistic Pakistan. “2018 belongs to Bilawal,” said...