My dear friends, brothers and sisters of Pakistan, I am an ordinary citizen of India. I just wanted to share some of my perceptions and feelings with you, and will consider myself to be genuinely honoured if I get your feedback.
Please tell me, with an open mind and honesty, do you people really believe that your government is behaving with due responsibility? Don’t you people feel that the government is constantly displaying flip flops that are making it so difficult for the Indian government to have any faith on its Pakistani counterpart?
Let us start from the very beginning. The Pakistani government readily accepted India’s request for sending the honourable chief of ISI to India to facilitate the Mumbai terror investigation. Ironically, within days it went back on its words, claiming that it never made any such promise in the first place.
Then came the infamous statement about putting Masood Azhar under house arrest. One day the Pakistani government informed the media about the house arrest put on the Indian fugitive. Within days the Pakistani foreign minister came up with a completely different statement saying that Masood Azhar is not under house arrest, rather, the Pakistani government is not even aware of his whereabouts. And again the Pakistani government denied this fact that it had previously claimed to have put Masood Azhar under house arrest.
The worst example of Pakistan government’s amateurish (and somewhat childish) behaviour is the denying of this fact that Ajmal Kasav is a Pakistani citizen. While two most respectable organizations (DAWN and GEO TV) of Pakistan’s own media have provided irrefutable evidence of Kasav’s Pakistani nationality, it is extremely disheartening to see how the Pakistani government is desperately trying to deny this established fact. In fact, it is actually creating suspicion about Pakistan government’s role in the Mumbai terror attack.
If the Pakistani government was innocent, it could have easily said “Yes, he belongs to our country. But how does that prove that our government itself is associated with the Mumbai terror?” After all, we all understand that the government of a country cannot necessarily be linked with a heinous act done by one of its citizens abroad. In that case it needs to be categorically proved that the person concerned was acting under instructions from his country’s government.
However, that the Pakistani government is constantly denying Kasav’s Pakistani nationality has generated suspicion. Because now this question is sure to strike our mind is that why the Pakistani government is even denying this fact. Does that mean that it has actually something to hide?
My dear Pakistani friends, tell us, is it now really possible for us to have faith on your government even after all these? Can you now really blame us if we show lack of confidence and faith on the Pakistani government?
Actually, you know something, friends? We understand that the Pakistani government itself is innocent. President Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Gillani are, for all their drawbacks, not war mongers. In fact they actually want to cooperate with our government. This explains Zardari’s initial acceptance of the Indian offer to send the ISI chief, and some other statements that he has made in the context of the Mumbai terror (like accepting responsibility for the acts conducted by even the non state actors).
Actually, it is the Pakistani army (and the ISI) which is the main culprit. It is simply unable to tolerate any environment of peace and harmony between these two great countries. Because an environment of peace means irrelevance of the Army. And that is completely unacceptable for those uniformed rogues, who have had the pleasure of enjoying ruling powers for so many years.
This explains the Pakistani Army’s effort to derail the peace process, eventually replacing the same with a war like situation, ultimately creating a war psychosis among the common Pakistanis. It knows that such a situation will bring it back to prominence, thus paving the way for its revival to power.
It is the Pakistani army officials (or at least some of them) who have orchestrated the Mumbai terror, and not the civilian government of Pakistan. And now it is they who are preventing the civilian government from trying to mend the damage by cooperating with the Indian government to bring the culprits to book. The flip flops of the Pakistani government clearly prove that it actually wants to help India, but is constantly going back on its words due to some pressure. And everybody knows who are there behind the pressure.
My dear friends, now it is you, the civil society of Pakistan, who is our only refuge. Please help your civilian government to come out of the influence of the Army, so that it can work independently. The Army is purposely spreading war hysteria among you people, so that the popular mood forces the Pakistan government to maintain a belligerent demeanor. And who is the ultimate gainer? Yes, it is the Pakistani Army.
So please do not let the Army take you for a ride. You people are really lucky to have a popularly elected government after a long time, which is the product of a long fight put up so bravely by the stalwarts of the Pakistani civil society. Please do not let these two nice gentlemen – Mr Zardari and Mr Raja Gillani – being dictated by some cunning officers of the Army, for whom their personal interest matters more than the national interest of Pakistan. This is certainly not the Pakistan that Quaid-e-Azam dreamt for.
We, the common people of India and Pakistan today share a wonderful relation. Let us not bring back the old days of acute hostility, hatred and mistrust.
N.B. - I welcome the feedback of any Pakistani friend who comes across this blog posting. There is just one condition. First he (or she) must accept my love, wishes and regards.
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3 comments:
Thanks for your suggestions. For Pakistanis our national pride, integrity and soveriegnity is foremost. We can take our decisions by ourselves (civil and military combine) in our greater national interest. I wish you had similar passion and respect for Kurkury and his investigating teams' brutal killings by extremist Hindus in the garb of Bombay drama. What a pity when your Minority Affairs Minister AR Antulay makes appeal for investigation in their killings, you become irrational and seek his resignation. Please put your house right than offering suggestions. India is already bleeding in Naxal, Occupied Kashmir and Seven Sisters areas. Address their grievences in your own interest.
Dear Every Pakistani,
First, thanks for your feedback. It was very necessary, as such feedbacks help us understand the roots of misunderstanding.
We respect our Pakistani friends' ability to mind their domestic issues themselves, and do not have the audacity to interfere. However, if we feel that a particular domestic problem of Pakistan (or for that matter any country) is creating any problem for us, we will certainly get bothered about it. That is out of compulsion, and not out of any audacity.
We Indians do not need to learn how to take pride in our brave security personnel, and we know pretty well how to honour our martyrs like Karkare (not Kurkure). However, I fail to understand why should our respect force us to accept the absurd theory that they were killed by Hindu extremists. While I will never deny that he was disliked by Hindu extremists, it has been proved beyond doubt that he and his team were killed by the Pakistani terrorists who massacred Mumbai. There was strong objection to Mr Antulay's remarks as he forcibly tried to distort facts, trying to raise doubts about an established fact. When the nation protested his remarks, it was not irrationality, but impatience with a deliberate attempt to score political points from an unfortunate development. And it would have ben a huge disrespect for Karkare and his team members if we accepted Antulay's remarks.
I accept that India is bleeding in various parts, including the state of Jammu and Kashmir (Occupied Kashmir in your language), thanks to constant support provided by the Pakistani army and ISI. Every country has such problems, like Pakistan has in Sindh, FATA, Baluchistan, etc. And yes, we will definitely love to focus on our own problems than getting bothered about Pakistan's problems. And it is actually our domestic problem that is forcing us to take interest in certain developments in Pakistan (like semi independence of Army), to which we trace some of our domestic problems.
I reiterate that we have no problem with the civil government of Pakistan. Mr Zardari and Gillani initially showed sings of cooperation. There are numerous examples, like Mr Zardari's initial acceptance of India's demand to send the ISI chief. Another example is when Mr Zardari called a press conference to tell the media that no Indian Air Force plane had entered Pakistan's air space, when such a baseless allegation was made from some quarters. However, Zardari went back on his words on both the occasions, which clearly showed that he was under pressure from Army.
Today the Pakistani govt is denying this fact that Kasav is a Pakistani, whereas it was established by GEO TV and Dawn. Do GEO TV and Dawn belong to India or Pakistan? Do you have any anything to say regarding it, my dear friend?
You have accused us of irrationality when we objected to what Mr Antulay said. Can you please explain what made Mr Nawaz Sharif go back on his initial acceptance of the fact that Kasav is a Pakistani national?
India has made nothing wrong by accusing Pakistanis elements of orchestrating the Mumbai massacre. Please do no forget it has been accepted by even Gordon Brown of UK. India does not have the bad habit of fabricating false charges against anybody. This bad habit is found in your government, which has detained an innocent Indian in charge of Lahore blast, while a Pro Taliban group has claimed responsibility for it.
We really pity your government, which cannot help being just a mere puppet in the hands of Kayani and his aides.
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