PAKISTAN IS STILL A NATION IN THE MAKING

Pakistani Flag. Source - Wikipedia

Mukesh Devrari

Pakistan has been carved out in 1947. It was an artificial nation. Islam was used as a tool to create a nation by encouraging separatism in Muslim majority areas. Violence was used as a tool to pressurize British government and Congress party. Finally, they gave in to the demands of Muslim separatists who claimed that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together in one nation.

Pakistan has seven provinces – Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Occupied Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan. Out of those 7 provinces, four are completely under the control of Punjabi Muslims. Many Indian Muslims believe that Pakistan was created and imagined as a home for all South Asian Muslims. Only after partition, they realized that it was not the case. It provided a home to the Muslim elite who were not satisfied with the democratic turn India was about to take after the end of the British rule.

Out of the seven provinces of Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas have been kept under the control of Pakistan through the use of guns and military might. People in those areas are struggling against the onslaught of Pakistan state. The Pakistani military has brutally suppressed the separatist movement. 

Pakistani armed forces ruthlessly eliminate all dissenting voices in those areas. Pro Pakistan Islamic terror groups have been given free hand in these areas. They function with complete impunity. Hundreds of young men have disappeared from those areas. If people of these conflict zones will be given an opportunity, they will prefer the path of liberty and independence.

No religious minorities believe in the idea of Pakistan. Hindus, Christians and Sikhs were already suffocating. The rise in extreme Wahabi Islam cornered the Islamic sects as well. Genocide of Hazara and Ahmadiya community is on a full swing. Power and influence of Islamic fundamentalists are growing significantly, left-leaning liberal intellectuals have been cornered. Many of them are being described as Indian agents and traitors.  

When Pakistan was created, it was not very different from India. It had considerable minorities and people in that part of India were also highly diverse. Now Punjabis own Pakistan. They represent the mullah military nexus. It is unimaginable in any democratic nation, Punjab opposes the census to hide the true character of diversity in Pakistan, as a change in demographics will lead the demand for change in resource allocation and seats in the national legislature. Pakistani Punjab has ensured that the census is not conducted since 1998. In 2017, finally census was conducted, but with a lot of questions on its validity and authenticity.

The whole approach towards existence and identity in both nations are very different from each other. Pakistan sees the justification for its creation in the failures of the Indian state. Whenever news related to beef lynching, riots reach Pakistan, people rejoice and celebrate that Pakistan was created to stop the same fate for all Indian Muslims. However, Pakistan is rarely discussed in any depth manner in India. Most of the mainstream discourse about Pakistan revolves around bilateral conflicts and export of terrorism to India and other parts of the world. There is a lot more to that nation, which is still in making.

Still, Pakistan has not reached the point of no return. Democratic leadership willing to bring change by discarding the excessive influence of military and Mosque can transform Pakistan into a modern state. Although it is unlikely to happen if Pakistan will insist on the assimilation of Kashmir, feed disproportionate amount of money to the military at the cost of its development. 

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