Zardari khappay! – by Suleman Akhtar

 

Such media frenzy over the departure of President Asif Ali Zardari to Dubai owing to medical reasons. Such are the hate speeches and death wishes for the person who, against all odds, has been serving as president of an almost ungovernable state for last three years and has proved successful in cohering the country together on the verge of falling apart for all the wrong reasons. The man who may not be liked, esteemed and recognized by most of us, but the worst of his enemies are of the view that his reconciliation policies have become bases of taking all the stake holders on board leading to the strengthening of federation despite grave ethnic issues and mutual grievances.

There may or may not be political differences but the core question that need to be answered amidst this all the hate delirium against one man is associated with morality. The very morality question that has been orchestrated during his whole term as the president to inflict all the curse upon him. Leaving aside the credibility of corruption charges thrown to him, let’s be little introspective here and dare to ask ourselves, “Is this morally correct to invite death on a person under medical treatment”? Isn’t it morally and ethically improper to exhibit one’s prejudices for someone in need of prayers? Is looking trough blue glasses the only way left to show your differences?

Such is the fury that one is compelled to recall lynch mob mentality that came to fore when lynching of two brothers in Sialkot. Such is the outburst that one recollects brutality of the mob setting ablaze the homes of poor Christians in Gojra. Such is the hysteria that come in mind bloodstained faces of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti. Such is the madness that one, under stream of consciousness, is coerced to recollect the panorama of last days of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Such is the lunacy that one can smell blood – the blood that has become the integral part of our collective consciousness as a nation.

Honorable and highly educated self-assigned-jack-of-all-trades Junta of Pakistan has come down to the level of beasts losing all sense and sensibility that are emblem of humans. While exhibiting sheer hypocrisy, the self-righteous proponents of religion and morality forget to mention in their discourse sixty of their fellow Shia Muslims who were killed just a day ago in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. There has not been any kind of debate today on electronic and social media that why on earth the innocent were slain brutally. More crucial issue to them has been to play upon the ailment of Zardari. Morals to them are what best suitable to them and religion to them is what in their best interests – everything else comes under the label of heresy and unrighteousness and thus calls for blood.

Many distant observers out there blame the tribal customs of the villages of being violent and unrelenting. Those who have ever been in villages of Pakistan or have some connection with the villages for that matter know that even the worst of foes pay a visit to each other while during distress or calamity. Mian Muhammad Buksh, a Punjabi Sufi poet from Potohar region, has beautifully described it in immortal Saif-ul-Malook: “Dushman Maray te Khushi na kariye, Sajnaa vee mar jana” (We must shy away from celebrating death of our enemies as our own kin is not immortal). Comparing this courteous tradition with blood-thirsty lynch mob mentality widely prevailed among urban middle-class, it’s not difficult to comprehend that our social fabric is on the way of declining in terms of tolerance and acceptance – a deleterious phenomenon that has all the shades of ruining the nations.

If Zardari-bashing is the only criteria of venting your anger for your shortcomings and prove you more patriotic than the millions out there who voted for him, then with all due respect sires, some of us wouldn’t buy that logic. Some of us wouldn’t become a part of spate of hatred for a man who has been portrayed as devil by you. Some of us, who still believe in a tolerant, democratic and multicultural Pakistan, would stand by our president flying in the face of loathsome ad-hominem and conspiracies. Hereby, some of us would show our allegiance to our president by chanting what once he chanted for us.

Zardari Khappay!

 

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