Warning: Contains strong language
I once likened Karachi to a Faustian nightmare; it was a tongue-in-cheek statement at the time, but one that clearly is not that far from the objective reality of our times.
Love the country as I do (for no real reason, I sometimes feel; thanks to the amazing lack of governance that a succession of corrupt and mindless governments, both civilian and military, have exhibited since I have sambhaloed hosh), I have to admit that sometime you really hate the idiots who populate this nation. And last night, while being cut up on Khayaban e Shamsheer by a Hilux with no number plates full of Kalashnikov wielding thugs, I found the right words to articulate much of what is wrong with this nation.
Privilege.
The word has its origin in Latin, when it meant “private law” – and that is the malaise we suffer from, individually and collectively. The laws of the land, fucked up as they may be, are largely an irrelevance. Unlike what our study of history tells us, when this used to be true for the influential, in today’s Pakistan this seems to cut across all socio-economic boundaries. Perhaps there is no truer indicator of a state that is on the verge of failure.
I have to admit, I was not having a good day at the time of this epiphany. The lynching of a mentally disturbed person in Bahawalpur somehow got to me, the most cynical person that I know. Coming down Shamsheer is my normal commute home, and nearly being rammed into by a pickup truck full of people carrying weapons of questionable legality is bound to unnerve for at least a few seconds. And then came on the radio an ad for education and immigration to Malaysia. So sad is our state that we are happy to move to a fellow developing nation with problems of its own, and a patchy inclusiveness record to boot.
The law clearly does not apply to those in Mercedes and Land Cruisers. They travel about town with private armies, mush as one would in Mogadishu, and the rights of other road users melt away in front of them. The law also does not apply to those whose license plates are green in colour; their private armies are paid for by the taxpayers (like myself who, by virtue of being salaried, cannot indulge in our other privilege – income tax evasion as a matter of business as usual). For this lot, having all traffic move out of the lane that they currently occupy is not enough. Their trailing vehicles will have the other motorists off to a side, leaving an extra lane clear; after all, the “VIP” mustn’t breathe the same air as the people who pay his salary.
The law also doesn’t apply to you as long as you can play the religion card. Please note, though, that the religion in question needs to be a mainstream sect of Sunni Islam, or you are basically painting a big ass bullseye on your forehead. You can literally get away with murder as long as you claim that you committed it to protect the True Faith. You can build illegally on stolen land, cause a public nuisance, break noise pollution laws, park illegally in the middle of the road stopping all flow of traffic, as long as you are doing it in the alleged performance of what you consider to be your religious duties.
[Aside: The good news(!) is that ‘brothers’ from all parts of the world consider breaking the law justifiable, as compared to turning up early and finding a proper place to park:
Anyone ever heard of the Rights of the Neighbour?
At the lower end of the spectrum, things are no better. We steal electricity, jump traffic lights or simply pretend they don’t exist, litter, encroach, build illegally, and whatever else our mind leads us to do. Nor are the ‘middle classes’ free from blame. What is even better is the impunity with which we disregard the law. We will not pay our electricity bills, but if you dare to disconnect, we will come out onto the streets, burn tires, stop traffic, destroy public property and give TV channels breaking news fodder till you relent and let us continue to steal electricity.
And then we wonder why supply is so much less than demand when it comes to electricity.
This is building up to a common theme. There is a fundamental lack of civic sense among us Pakistanis. It wasn’t always like this; there was a time when there was a huge amount of inclusiveness, compassion and fellow feeling. Unfortunately, all this was before I was born. A lot of people blame Bhutto the First, followed up by Zia, for our many malaises. I don’t have enough knowledge to comment, so I will pull an Imran Khan and limit myself to listing out problems in this rant, rather than suggest solutions.
Our dearly departed Prime Minister was famously quoted as saying to a CNN journo “why don’t they, then?” when told that a survey showed that most Pakistanis would rather live in another country. The reason, you smug piece of shit, is that we love this country too fucking much. Those of us that actually have a means to an exit, anyway. Or those that aren’t busy beating schizophrenics to death and then setting fire to the remains, the better to show how well we are the guardians of a faith whose meaning, lest we forget, is “peace”.
Mr Gilani got one thing spot on, and that was the pulse of the nation. I don’t give a flying fuck about my fellow citizens, how they fell, and why. I am going to do whatever the fuck I want to do, and is somebody gives me a hard time about pesky things like the law, well, we have ways of dealing with those kinds of people.
It would ironic if it wasn’t so fucking sad. Islam is arguably the religion where the social contract is most central to being a good believer. And a nation formed in the name of that faith, which puts itself on a pedestal as the theykedaar of that faith, has a populace that is increasingly getting divorced from this fundamental tenet.
Love thy neighbour, and pray like you have never prayed before that it is not already too late.
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