Is it love of a political figure or a civil war? A crunch time alert for all of us.
The black smoke clouding the atmosphere of the country, the fires and flames rising up the sky, the buildings, stations set alight. Apart from the billows in the sky, the ground showed the similar surges of fire and blood. Several dead with many injured, and hundreds held in many bloody clashes between police and protestors. From pelting stones to hurling petrol bombs, from shouting slogans to setting public properties afire, from wafting teargas to shooting rubber bullets, from baton-charging to disrupting the miscreants, as a counteract, the last two days witnessed it all. The confrontations turned into a battle, and the frenzied mob deteriorated whatsoever came its way.
Following the arrest of ex-PM, the blue horizon of the country gradually turned red and black. As soon as he got arrested, the masses from all the strata of society including women and minors, took to streets. Chanting slogans, storming buildings, erupting riots, confronting the forces, giving in arrests, hurling stones, setting old tyres and mobiles afire; all of these efforts were made by the agitated protestors just for Mr. Khan.
All the dreary incidents which surfaced within three days let it be the arrest of the ex-PM, was this all flaming done in love of an old flame, or this warlike attitude was adopted to put up that how worse we could react to the situations? What would the very incidents of madness be called, love or war?
We as a nation are today standing on the verge of chaos. Any political issue, any controversy, any social or religious conflict is reacted in the same way: springing up in surd hype and ending in surly havoc. Whenever any case of religious sensitivity or blasphemy turns up, the citizenry becomes a frenzied mob taking law into hands and lynches the accused to death. The point to ponder is that ‘is vigilante, lawlessness, fuss and unrest only reflex left to all the surging challenges?’ Is this the right attitude of the public of the country which is politically unstable, economically jiggling, and socially agitated? Would this fury, rage and aggression to our people over petty matters be our only solution to crisis?
The seventy-five year history is replete with the examples that the deadly riots and bloody clashes did no good but simply proved a menace to the security and prosperity of the country. Today the nation is stranded among many challenges like inflation, unemployment, poverty, street crimes, political turmoil, social injustice, terrorism, and uncertainty. Among all these circumstances, the depressed nation finds the only outlet to emotions, ‘the rage’.
The right attitude is still hidden in Jinnah’s golden motto of ‘unity, faith and discipline’. Being united as a nation, having faith in the rule of law; and exhibiting discipline in all our social executions. Political civility and loyalty never lies in inflicting blows, setting fires or taking law into hands, but in respecting the mandate of others and being a true Pakistani first. The civility lies in thinking a thousand times ‘whatsoever takes place in love or war, must be fair’.
If the demeanor continues to prevail in society; setting home alight in the desperate efforts to beat the darkness, the day is not far when the ashed buildings would soon cry out ‘kuredte ho Jo ab raakh, justuju kia hai!’