Losing the Battle, Losing the Faith

Today was not an ordinary morning in Islamabad and not one of my ordinary drives to the office. With my usually snooze battles I left home late. A bright sunny day welcomes me when I approach the gate of my house. I start my drive on the usual route for the office. I am not surprised to see policemen wearing expensive and not much safe bullet proof vests. The vests are hanging on their chests as an apron hangs on a busty woman’s chest in her kitchen, wrinkled and in an abusive manner. The scene is the same.

While I cross Zero Point the feel changes, the air becomes apparently heavier – I see Rangers, dressed sharply, standing neatly and pointing their guns accurately. It doesn’t end here – I reach Margalla Road and I see Military Police, Rangers, Capital Police and some other God knows paramilitary troops crowded at check posts and standing firmly in the green belts after regular intervals. Margalla road leads to Constitution Avenue, the place where the important and chosen children of God are stored and safely kept.

The importance of our chosen men of God doesn’t die, neither do they. They have narrow escapes, fierce security circles while an ordinary man like me and millions other in the country are a victim of both their policies and them. We have gone a bit too far – isn’t it? The capital that once brought the tourists to places like Faisal Mosque, Daman-e-Koh and Rawal Dam today displays a much shrugged image from the last few days. The image and security which is only deserved by some posh and wealthier sectors of Islamabad. I am forced to rethink if my life living in an “I� sector is equally important to that of a man living in “E� or and “F� sector resident. Are our life’s of equal importance to the state? Are we not to deserve equal security as well?

We’re certainly not winning any battles. We’re making our own people lose faith in our own system, government and even themselves. They’re losing their faith in the last hopes that they had with this newly elected democratic government.

Every aspect of sound counterinsurgency strategy revolves around bolstering the government’s legitimacy. When ordinary people lose their faith in their government, then they also lose faith in the foreigners who prop it up, why to name them. The day that happens across Pakistan is the day we lose the war against terror. And we’re not far from there. Why have we forced to shift the battle in Afghanistan to Pakistan - “The lion of the people will turn on you,� warned Mullah Wakil Ahmed, a former Taliban foreign minister, as an American journalist sipped some green tea at his house in Kabul. He noted that while Americans had been shocked by a series of spectacular insurgent attacks over the summer, the United States-led coalition faced a far greater danger than the resurgent Taliban: growing despair among average coalition citizens.

Our government now accepts that the biggest stake holder in this war against terror is no other than Pakistan itself. While our government has started to take public ownership of this war, the US generals deny to our major commitment in this war on terror. According to them and their intelligence reports, we’ve sheltered the Bin Laden gang in our mineral rich province and the areas along the Durand line.

Reduced violence in Iraq will probably free up troops and materiel to do what US has aimed to do in Afghanistan and possibly in Pakistan, but governments viewed by its people as worth fighting for is at least as important as adequate numbers of troops, helicopters and reconnaissance drones.

The timing of a major upcoming event, gives me hope: the next months American election. Though my hope is equally shattered by listening to the presidential debate.

Is this really our War? A question we must ask ourselves after every meal of the day. Is this the civilian dictatorship we were long urging for? While our government repeatedly denies giving permission to any foreign force to conduct an operation on the Pakistani soil, right after the statement comes in a drone and bombs a few houses killing the “Insurgents�. My definition of a terrorist and insurgent is all badly shaped in the recent past.

A car stops next to me on the Margalla road traffic light which has been recently upgraded with remote traffic sensing, monitoring and controlling gadgets. The car is an old Toyota Mazda filled with two gentlemen with long beards. Few years back if I would have seen them I would have said deeply in my heart that how blessed are they for practicing the religion of peace. Today my heart said, Read your last verses as it may be the last red light you’ll see in life. For your life may not witness the charms of this automatic traffic controlling equipment anymore. The light turned green, I breathed normally then. I asked myself – who am I to even think about who they were? Were they even suicidal? Who gave me this right to even conclude about who they were – I thought repeatedly and then I thanked my governments of the past and the present. Few wrong decisions have changed the meaning of a beard that was and still is kept by people following the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet (PBUH).

Driving forward I am stopped by a police check post who saluted the white Parado in front of me, License plate of which arrogantly displayed ‘MNA’. I was asked where I’m headed – Office Sir - I was asked about my office and my duties respectfully by the officer and allowed to put my small car in the first gear. I scrolled before I was stopped by a major traffic Jam on the Margalla Road/Constitution Avenue intersection. Cars were being thoroughly check, hoods and trunks opened of every car before the police officer got tired when I reached his signaling to stop hand. Where are you going? He asked me. On my repetition that I’m headed to my office where my CEO was waiting for a morning meeting and me to step in he allowed me to go.

There was a major difference in what just went through. I drove and reached the office. My car was not searched on the constitution avenue check post. Did I qualify to not look like Taliban? Do I really need to have a long beard, a popping belling, fair skin and pink cheeks to explode?
My faith is lost in minutes now on our system – My faith in Allah is brought back to me in seconds now. Who am I to thank? Allah or Democracy?