Indomitable spirit

We the people of Pakistan are today witness to two battles furiously being waged on two battlefronts, set apart in totally contrasting ambiences. One is for political power, raging with fanatic fervour despite inclement weather and forbidding temperatures. This battle is intense as at contention is the so-called people's mandate to capture and govern Pakistan. The other war goes in sub-zero temperatures, at dizzying heights of Siachen at the site of what was once Battalion Headquarter of Six Northern Light Infantry in Gayari Sector.
Both the battles are of intense public interest; the first for it would let people know who is going to rule them for the next five years of 'mandated' tenure, and if there is a chance of ever getting out of the deep marsh the country finds itself in. The second puts on display the heroic struggle and indomitable spirit of our soldiers who are working day and night to locate and recover the bodies of their 139 colleagues who lie buried under tons of snow. No less riveting is this saga of will and determination to succeed in the face of most formidable challenges. After 50 days round-the-clock search, rescuers have now reached the site where most of the victims are believed to be buried. The first body was found on Saturday and two more on Sunday.
Never before in the military history perhaps was such a difficult challenge taken up. On April 7 last, some time before dawn when the inmates are believed to be still asleep, an avalanche of a massive size struck the Gayari military base, burying under it all of them which included some 127 troops and 12 civilians. Given the heavy odds in the shape of the location's high altitude, its inaccessibility and thickness of the stone-hard snow and its enormous size the challenge that the army high command took up was unprecedented.
The weather also remained unfavourable with occasional snowfall in the initial days and weeks of operations and then melting of the underneath snow that created ponds and lakes. But these some 450 men on the job, assisted by some foreign search and rescue experts, put up a highly impressive show by digging up six major points and a number of waterways to drain out the accumulated snow-melt. And now they have reached the area where most of the victims are believed to be. Of course, there is no hope of finding any survivor given the odds and none of these men is expected to go home walking. However, the fact that the bodies of their near and dear ones have been found and are being delivered to them is certainly comforting to them.
In a larger perspective, the amount of will and determination the military leadership has demonstrated by making possible which was impossible on the face of it brings under sharp focus the expectations the people of Pakistan have of their leaderships in other spheres of life. So the outcomes of these two battles have a direct bearing on people's mind. That the political leadership is profoundly insensitive to the people's lingering plight while the military leadership spared no effort to locate and recover bodies of their soldiers is a reality, which provokes people into raising some questions about these two strongly different realities. That said, it would be pertinent to remind the government to bring India back to the negotiating table for talks on Siachen. No doubt other items on the agenda of Pak-India bilateral talks are equally important, but the one that stands out high on humanitarian scale is the presence of their men on Siachen. Even if they don't fight with each other they face an even more powerful enemy - perpetually hostile and unforgiving elements of Nature.