Pakistanis under rubble: here and there |
Pakistan, born against many odds, has survived despite incomprehensible antagonisms over seventy-eight years of independence — no trifling triumph. Those who enabled this survival were mostly gumnam sipahi (unsung soldiers) or people who faced frightful fates. Although the country has changed, with East Pakistan no longer hers and Karachi no longer her capital, Pakistan continues to make strides in many fields, from fashion and entertainment to nuclear capability.
Marka-e-Haq (battle of truth) heightens the joy of this year's 14th August. Pakistanis' ability to create memes in the middle of a war is admirable, but as a medical doctor I get concerned too. TV channels have convinced us that all of us are equal, and even the masses who continue to suffer (perhaps without realisation) from the impact of social injustices, erased histories and moral bankruptcy, celebrate jashn. Sadly, Nature has its own laws. The criminal silence of the elite segment of civil society, who cannot go beyond fancy titles and slogans and apple-polishing those in power to secure a slot in foreign trips, and the criminal negligence of successive governments in responding to the impact of climate change, are taking their toll.
While I write these lines, Buner is facing catastrophe, and so are many other areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while the flood affectees of Sindh have been reduced to passive recipients of a housing scheme that should have been their right in the first place. I am deliberately avoiding statistics related to........