When Pakistan started dying...

People gather at the site of the Quetta blast - AFP photo

My heart cries tears of blood for the Hazaras... #ShiaGenocide, when will we wake up?... What has Pakistan come to?! Oh God!!... This country does not deserve to be called ‘PAK-istan’...

These statements, are cliches. They mean nothing. They have no purpose. They’re just uttered to make ourselves feel good about atrocities which we mostly can’t, and usually won’t do anything about. 40 Hazara Shias died yesterday. How many of us cared? 18 people died in Peshawer yesterday. How many of us bothered to find out 3 kids died in that attack? How many of us had the apathy to find out that the doctors and rescue teams ran in terror as the terrorists from LeJ told them they would be murdered if they tried to treat the “kafir” Shias who needed treatment?

I’m going to launch a protest movement on Facebook! Enough is enough!... I’m live tweeting the #HazaraGenocide... This madness needs to stop!...

Yesterday when David Cameron was standing under the open skies of Islamabad, people were dying in Peshawer. While Nawaz Sharif was saying we’re going to fight terrorism, and eradicate the electricity menace, kids were burning, screaming, dying. Did a single hair on his shiny head ruffle? Did he shudder? Did he feel a cold settling in his gut? Did he care enough to go to Peshawer and look the mother of the 6 year old girl in the eye and tell her “I’ve failed... Forgive me? We’ve all failed, forgive us all...?”

I used to think Pakistan belonged to us. It’s only recently I’ve realized Karachi belongs to A, Quetta belongs to B, and Lahore belongs to C. FATA belongs to the foreigners, and Islamabad is home to ostriches. Pakistan is not mine. Even my home is not mine. I am not a Pakistani. None of us are. Or ever were. It was a delusion that took 65 years to wear off. Abul Kalam Azad, a fierce opponent of the Pakistan movement had predicted in 1946 what would happen to us. East Pakistan would break, and the west wing of Pakistan which was to be ruled by feudal lords, and uneducated loafers would self destruct. Abul Kalam Azad said in 1946 this delusional idea of “we’re all Muslims and hence one nation” is false. We are not one nation. We are Sunni, Shia, Ahmedi, Barelvi, Wahabi, Sufi, Salafi, Hanbali, Ismaili, Alawi, Naqshbani, Uwaiysi, Qadri, Zikri and so on and so forth. And amongst these we are Takfiris, incapable of accepting the faith of another, or living by it.

Shias are kafirs, they deserve what they’re getting... Our movement is to get Shias declared as non Muslims under the constitution of Pakistan... Killing Shias is tantamount to killing the enemies of Islam, and that is what Islam tells us....

It seems such a long time ago when I was apologizing to the Shias, but even that apology sounds fake, and hollow, and distraught. Last time the Hazaras took 86 dead bodies and waited in the open cold under the star less night waiting for deliverance which never came. How many more dead bodies must they put under the open skies for us to realize what monstrosity has just ripped through us?

They say after every fall, there is a rise.... But the bottom feels like an endless pit of sweltering tar that’s pulling us deeper inside....

Pakistan started dying the day it was born. Our “Islam”, our “Musalmaniyat” was the cancer that started feeding the hate and disgust that we feel toward one another. Once upon a time it was the Christians and Hindus and Parsis who felt scared. Now we Muslims feel scared...of other Muslims. Islam’s neck was held by the throat and squeezed till its eyes popped. As a result Islam was replaced by a vicious form of barbarianism.

When Pakistan started dying, we held candlelit vigils. We made Facebook pages dedicated to the cause of defending our fallen brothers. We promised we’re all Pakistanis. But one by one we kept falling. When Pakistan started dying we tweeted non stop. We shouted, fought, lost. When it was our turn to be slaughtered like animals, we cried and we begged for mercy that was never forthcoming. They came for the Hindus. We didn’t care. They came for the Christians. We didn’t care. They came for the Ahmedis. We said Ahmedis deserve this! They slaughtered Salman Taseer. We garlanded his murderer. They came for the Shias. We turned a blind eye. They’re coming for us. And pretty soon our eyes will be popping out of our heads too.

Dhaka's fall 1971 - The forgotten stranded Pakistanis

By Sahar Farrukh

They say nations which do not learn from their history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. The 40th anniversary of separation of Pakistan just passed away, the Quaid’s Pakistan divided into two on 16th December 1971. The heart of a true Pakistani still breaks at the thought of it.  Regardless of what the reasons were, behind the unfortunate event, it is now an indispensable reality. After four decades we do accept our mistakes verbally but the need of time is to learn from these mistakes. As the result of this war the Bengalis got a separate country; West Pakistan changed into the Islamic republic of Pakistan, and among all these frenzied developments we ignored the third group, the most affected one. Those identity less, homeless people who were looking around on the hopes to be accepted — talking about more than 250,000 Biharis or stranded Pakistanis trapped in camps in Bangladesh, which are still hanging in the balance.

These people are paying the price for the love they had for their country. They supported the Pakistani army but were not given enough importance to think about their evacuation. They were deprived of their properties and are third grade people because they were the supporters of their enemies. Very little attention has been paid up till now over such people. In 1972 when Bangladesh announced nationality for the Biharis more than 60,000 voted in favour of Pakistan. General Zia ul Haq deprived all such people of their nationality and identity in an ordinance in 1978. Later on a few pacts were signed and were tried for implementation too by other governments, but following the tradition it also fell prey to our politics. The fear of racial, cultural, linguistic, ethnic issues and problems that would have risen from accepting the Biharis as Pakistanis was the major propaganda by political parties. In 1993 even these efforts stopped and in 1998 the commission dissolved in mid air too. UNHCR and other organizations refused to consider them as displaced people and from then on these identity-less people had very little attention paid towards them.

After more than four decades and three generations later these camps give a surreal sight of humans living in conditions worse than animal shelters. The later generations though bestowed with the generosity of being called Bangladesh nationals in 2008 are confused, on a crossroad having no past and a dead end to their future. Without any education (illiteracy rate for this group of people is 94%) and healthy environment they are considered a burden on the earth. 70 to 80 percent of Urdu speaking have registered themselves as Bangladeshis but it DOES NOT include those who still want to come back to Pakistan. These true patriots who deserve a high status are living in unexplainable miserable conditions trapped between the conflicting histories and selfishness of governments. These stranded Pakistanis will remain Pakistani till death whether anybody acknowledges them or not. The land mafia vultures are eyeing these camps after the 2008 Supreme Court decision of Bangladesh, stripping them off with their only so called shelters. Will the time ever come that government will realize its responsibility towards them? The life moved on for us and for the Bengalis too but not for them who are living a stagnant life for four decades.

Since that time, no efforts have been made and neither the people nor the media tried to catch up on facts or the presumed efforts form the government which were only directed towards further lies, including the inquiry report --- the Hamood ur Rehman commission report. Further facts were hidden and an altered history was presented to the new generation. The distorted facts were included in Pakistan studies syllabus.

Every year this day comes and passes away, and documentaries about this day are played by a few television channels (always ignoring the plight of Biharis); columns by writers seldom throw light on this issue, and the government at the height of its tepidness, is always silent as if it has simply given up. Sadly the new generation knows nothing about it. If they did or tried to, they would have never forgiven their elders. We have to bear what they sowed for us. We have to pay for their mistakes. They made our past but now we are responsible for the future. As the future of Pakistan, lets join hands and spread it towards our less fortunate, stranded brothers who are hoping against hope that they will be rescued by their dear homeland for which they have rendered relentless sacrifices.

About the author: Sahar is a graduate of MBA from Islamabad.