COMMENT: Aimless wanderings —Mujahid Eshai

In today’s world, driven by information technology, the burqa, loud claims, empty filibustering and slogan mongering cannot hide anything. Only deeds and actions are noticed and matter. Only civilised, rational and well-directed actions make a nation

The last few days can be termed the games (khel) period. This is notwithstanding the ephemeral trouncing of our self-proclaimed world-class cricketers by Australia in the T20 games and the finish of a test match in which we succumbed to our inane capacity to chase everything outside the proverbial off-stick, getting rid of yet another captain for personal gains. But this is serious stuff, so we move on to more earthly matters.

We heard and saw the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan trying to work towards what they both like to call a better understanding towards peace. What we do know is that both first refused to sit together for a joint press conference and they eventually did so without having to say anything worthwhile on anything except each trumpeting his own cause. The next day we saw both individuals addressing the press with explanations and justifications. They reminded me of very young children in the park trying to play cricket but failing as the bat and the wickets belong to one lot and the ball to the other, where the rules of play cannot be agreed upon.

We saw two religious sects, one that supports visiting graves and shrines, the other being against such behaviour, threatening each other with dire consequences, as if the issues raised by each were the only problems left to be resolved in Pakistan. Who is interested in them when most of us are trying desperately to earn a living and avoid becoming depressed?

We saw the Lahore district court lawyers going hammer and tongs at the sessions court judiciary. Perhaps, it was just the heat and a novel way of asking for early holidays from school. We also saw the honourable parliamentarians of the Punjab Assembly presenting and unanimously passing a ‘historic’ resolution condemning the press and electronic media for their transgressions against them, leading to fisticuffs and a countrywide series of protests and demonstrations by the fourth estate. We had the distinct pleasure of hearing and reading the statement of the head of a political party, from shores afar, demanding immediate ouster from his party of the mover of the unthinkable resolution, every other political party backtracking on the unanimously passed resolution the morning after and calling it an individual act. To add to such fun and games, we had the Punjab law minister acknowledging a tad too late that the mover of the resolution was not alone in the deed, he was ably supported by the said minister and that his advice to his party chief was that the latter had arrived at his conclusion hastily and must change it. We had hardly recovered from the tragic deaths of over 100 Pakistanis in a bomb blast in the tribal areas when we were told of the equally horrific target killing of Habib Jalib Baloch, a political leader from Balochistan. Another innocent slain, adding to the thousands of already buried similar victims, in the land of the pure by who knows whom.

One also read the news that the French legislature had almost unanimously voted to disallow the wearing of the burqa by Muslim women in public. Apart from some Pakistani mutterings, there was hardly a murmur heard from any other Islamic country. The situation reminded me of what happened years ago when both my maternal and paternal grandmothers decided to stop wearing the burqa after being convinced that they had now reached an age where it was quite unlikely that they would be ogled at by the public at large. One said to the other, “Why did I not get rid of the darned thing much earlier? It did nothing but stifle me.” The other retorted, “I totally agree, it did not help us with anything because the purdah has to be in one’s eyes and thought processes that we, as a people, totally lack.”

Then on July 14, 2010, I stumbled upon a news report published in The Australian titled, ‘Pakistan no 1 in the world in pornographic Internet searches’. It starts by saying: “The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material.” There is no need to quote the rest of the report based on empirical evidence. I was both amused and horrified. I was amused at the ignorance of all those users who go for a search without realising that software attached to the said engine records not only the subject or product being searched but also the name of the country from which the search has been requested. It is important data, particularly from marketing and social analysis perspectives. I was horrified to think that Pakistanis, who are overwhelmingly Muslim and ready to tear the world apart for blasphemy, are so sexually frustrated and perverted that they regularly search for ‘sex’, ‘camel sex’, ‘rape video’ and ‘child sex video’.

In today’s world, driven by information technology, the burqa, loud claims, empty filibustering and slogan mongering cannot hide anything. Only deeds and actions are noticed and matter. Only civilised, rational and well-directed actions make a nation. Every single citizen matters. The needs of the citizens to exist honourably are what matter and must be addressed. Those at the helm of affairs must be seen to lead from the front through their actions, not mere promises or threats or schemes to enhance personal privileges, wealth and power. What matters is how the Pakistani leaders achieve a resolution of law and order issues, the economic and financial crises, the electricity load shedding and creation of employment.

We think that we no longer live in a tribal, feudal or authoritarian society but in a free and democratic one and therefore must have the ability to tolerate criticism for lack of action and wrong deeds. But the problem is that we can convey to the world that we live in a dysfunctional state where the provincial and federal authorities, legislators and political and religious parties are all tripping over one another and fighting for their own agenda and not the national agenda. The question also arises: is there a national agenda? If not, then why not? If yes, who by and how has it been decided? Does anybody have a sane answer? Or are we to keep on drifting rudderless till we drown in our own misdeeds?

The writer is a fellow and former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan. He also served as a member of the Federal Ad Hoc Public Accounts Committee