Enlightened Moderation?

As we celebrated our 57th Independence Day with the usual "zeal and fervour", we are compelled to ask ourselves as to what have we achieved and where we are heading-"kia khoya-kia paia"?
After 9/11, Pakistan reversed its time old Jihadi foreign policy, decided in normalising its relationship with India and becoming a front line state against terrorism. Since then, President Musharraf and other liberal and "enlightened citizens" have been advocating an enlightened, tolerant and modern Pakistan, a vision shared with the Quaid.
Some months back the government had been running expensive, quarter page ads in the print media, proudly announcing its accomplishments in the last 4 years, a habit which our past governments with a "heavy mandate" use to indulge in to bolster up their failing popularity.
One such advertisement worth mentioning was a message from the President - "Lets Go Back To Basics - Unity - Faith - Discipline - Nearly 57 years ago, the Quaid gave us a country. In all these long years we have not really been able to weld our people together into a nation". Not a very positive and reassuring statement from a nuclear power, fermenting with extremists, radicals and ethnic strife.
Following these ads was President, General Musharraf's speech at the inauguration of the OIC seminar on "Enlightened Moderation" in Islamabad, where the President stated that "Suffering of innocent multitudes at the hands of militants, extremists and terrorists" has urged him to speak about enlightened moderation and that "the world has become an extremely dangerous place to live in".
I am sure that hapless citizens of Karachi could not agree more. This city has been racked by violence and carnage for the last 15 years. Leaders come and go and each 'vows' to curb extremism and control violence, but the mayhem goes on. Karachi has become the favourite city for religious and ethnic militants and has changed from a peaceful city of lights to a hotbed of conflict and chaos.
Unfortunately, the sad part is that this tragic drama has been playing on the streets of Karachi for the last 15 years, with the same directors, producers and choreographers, but with different casts and is being performed right before the eyes of those who took over power with a promise to bring an end to this chaos and mayhem.
And what is even more distressing is our general apathy and lack of outrage by concerned citizens at the violence being inflicted upon us by a handful of people, playing havoc with our lives. We are all worried and angry and voice our concern in debates, seminars and dinner parties, but there is no visible, sustained protest at what is happening around us. Those who have the most to lose, seem to be the least concerned and live in their own comfortable cocoons, unwilling to rock the boat.
One question that has been repeatedly raised, especially by visitors ands diplomats is, where is the law and order? A visiting Chinese businessman refused to stay for more then 2 days in Karachi and also refused to leave his hotel room because of security reasons. With such a perception of our country, how do we expect any long time and genuine investment?
Unfortunately, inspite of the President's assurances, Pakistan is still viewed by the outside world, including our Muslim brothers and our friends of South East Asia, as a non-democratic, violent, intolerant and bigoted country, in which the feudal system, honour killings and violence against non believers thrive and are part of the system.
And this has been highlighted by Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy, our young, but brilliant Professor of Nuclear Physics and High Energy, who teaches at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. In his various articles on the subject, Professor Hoobhoy has pointed out to the various contradictions in our "Ideology of Pakistan" and how the poisonous DNA gene, relating to the jihad and misguided Islamic values were injected into our education system, especially in the Madrassas, during General Zia's time.
The recent attack on Shaukat Aziz and the bomb explosions in Karachi have once again highlighted the failure of our law enforcing agencies and the government to crack down against extremists. Every week, commuters living in Clifton or near American, British and other foreign missions in Karachi, have to zigzag through the streets to reach home, as most of the roads around these missions are blocked due to terrorists' threats.
General Musharraf and his governors, CMs and ministers keep talking about "stern measures" to curb sectarian violence, but many such promises have been made in the past and nothing has changed and the senseless killings go on.
The law and order situation will not improve until inequalities and injustices are rooted out from society, an end of the VIP culture and the one law for you and one law for me syndrome, establishing good governance and the enforcement of the rule of law. And this can only happen if civic society, the pathetic silent majority, breaks the silence of the lambs and turns its rage and anger into a force that confronts the terrorists and bigots who kill and maim. As the good General has stated, "we have not been able to weld ourselves together into a nation".
Is this the legacy that we wish to leave to our next generation? The time has come for all of us to stand up and be counted and join hands and demand an end to this cycle of violence and demonstrate our rejection of bloodshed as a means of settling political, religious or sectarian differences.
Until Pakistan becomes an enlightened, tolerant and modern nation in letter and in spirit, our streets will continue to be unsafe and the citizens will continue to be expendable pawns in a deadly chess game and will be at the mercy of terrorists and extremists and their puppet masters.