The Japanese during their occupation of Chinese territories patronized opium trade in the occupied areas by legalizing and encouraging it; Germans did the same with vodka in occupied Poland and Machado’s dictatorship in Cuba arranged porn film exhibitions in Havana theatres to distract public attention from the real issues. These and other similar tactics have always been employed throughout the history to guard men from thinking about the problems and challenges they encounter. Dictatorship needs these tactics of thought control in order to prop up their dictatorial facades; otherwise their existence may be in jeopardy.

A momentary look at the history of Pakistan reveals the same phenomenon in every move and edict of our rulers--majority of them tyrants and despots. From the Ayub Khan’s “Decade of Development” celebrations in the last sixties to Zia’s Islamization and Musharraf’s “Enlightened Moderation” are the links of the same chain. Ayub Khan after the 1965 war and consequent diplomatic failure in Tashkent needed another pill to seduce the masses, who were gradually turning against his one-man show. In order to divert the public attention he went on pompous and extravagant display of his regime’s achievements.

Ironically, if at that instant instead of relying on that foolish and self-centered farce Ayub had given a thought to eastern Pakistan, then perhaps we may not have witnessed the breakup of the country in 1971. Or, right after the 1965 debacle he had stepped down, the situation would have been totally different. But our rulers take too long to learn and he kept waiting for the worst when he was forced to abdicate in favour of a drunkard and womanizing general, who presided the breakup of the country and drowning of the two-nation theory in the Bay of Bengal.

Similarly, Zia made a pledge to restore democracy and to return to barrack within 90 days, but those 90 days ended in 11 dark years that afflicted us with sectarianism and ethnic strife, heroine and Kalashnikov cultures. He employed the ruse of Islamization of laws and society to hoodwink our naive masses. The deep scars on the face of the nation left by despotic mischief of Zia’s are yet to heal.

Now comes our man on mission, Pervez Musharraf, to uproot corruption, eradicate poverty and reduce inter-provincial disharmony and much more. Later he added to his mission the preaching and spreading of ‘enlightened moderation’ across the Muslim world. After turning up all the graves for the benefit and welfare of 160 million poor and wretched souls of this land he set out on a mission to redeem the half a billion population of Muslims from the clutches of terrorism, obscurantism and other evils, and make them follow his dictum of ‘enlightened moderation’. After great many failures our able General set out on another very important mission: uprooting terrorism and restoring the writ of the state in the tribal areas of NWFP and in Balochistan. With Waziristan lying ravaged now Balochistan is in flames. Everyone is advising the General but who can make him drink it.

Certainly writ of the state is a must to be restored at any price, but what about the means? Bombing the whole swathes and target killings of political figures is no solution. Akbar Bugti was a ‘traitor’, but he also remained governor, chief minister and interior minister of the state.

Successive governements have employed these tools in East Pakistan, Balochistan, Waziristan, but what is the outcome. Are we better off than yesterday? The tanks and troops that crushed Bengalis in March 1971 were unable to uproot the germ of the Bengali nationalism. In Balochistan or some other part of the country this lesson from the past must be kept in view.

We seldom witness an atmosphere of harmony and cohesion as a nation. Whether an ounce of national harmony was there or not, right now prospects are gone once and for all. Old Punjab bashing, usurpation and anti-federation sloganeering is in vogue yet again.

Insurgency in Balochistan has a long history and centrifugal forces are quite strong over there. The center-nationalists relations’ history is marked by mistrust, fears, and lack of confidence. And it is madness to resolve such contentious issues through bombing, military actions and assassinations. It has to be addressed by preparing a solid ground and after giving a reasonable weightage to the grievances of the parties concerned. Writ of the state is essential, but it is also a fact that grievances of the smaller provinces are too old, too deep-rooted. Why our government sat idly, not coming up with alternative arrangements and backup plans.

At present Balochistan and Waziristan are under fire and every day something more sinister happens. The missing links to this chain are the two wars we fought for America and incompetence of our army-groomed politicians that ushered us into this dark alley. It would have been much better for Musharraf if he had contemplated the consequences of the military action and had scrambled for a consensus among the dissenting notes instead of fighting America’s war on terror and in the end waiting for the divorce which is inevitable.

The proper way to settle this kind of issue is that the matter be presented to the assembly for a thorough debate, positive criticism and engage the parties concerned; and decides it in a manner that is peculiar to politics and democracy. This may be the right way to deal with the issue. Moreover, keeping in view the geo-political realities of our region and the world it would have been a cost-effective strategy. Now if we look our other problems in which the ever-increasing poverty, unemployment and sustainable economic growth calls for our immediate attention. Inflation is rising continuously and the majority of our population seems hopeless about our economic future. The unemployed youths are increasing with each passing day; and it seems that the situation heading towards a point of no return. What was the practical utility of frightening the nation with this specter, which directly leads us to a civil war?

Another perplexing issue that this episode once again revealed is that our political culture has no solid footings. It has yet to come out of its dormancy and infancy in which it is sleeping for nearly half a century, and it seems that its is receding in this slumber more deeply. Those who are at the helm of affairs need to react to issues with a cool mind, argument and logic; unfortunately, they always merely carry on with their whims. Their behavior is against all the principles of understanding and rationality. Politicians’ whole weaponry consists of arguments, patience and regards for the others’ opinion; the failure of our politicians to carry on with democracy must be viewed in this light. As it is a fact that dictators thrive on crises and by making people subject to psychic frenzies and hoaxes. So is our General. It is the most averting the issues otherwise he has to handle and certainly, he has no prowess to handle all that convenient way to hold him aloof by feeding the mass with phobias, obsessions, and hoaxes. And he enjoying peacefully, the people has to argument and quarrel and when the dust settle down it will take long with them to concentrate again about the real issue and challenges. This mind capturing and holding the minds captive is a trodden path of the dictators; our general is not an exception to this rule.

Accordingly Kahlil Gibran in his parable the “Wise king of Wirini” describes the tale of a monarch who prefers madness and sells his wisdom in order to remain in power. Such is the situation of the Pakistani government and politics. They deny rationality and reason in order to remain in power forever, ironically not being descendants of any royal family. Our rulers come with lofty ideas and slogans and in the end surrounded by sycophants and opportunists brand themselves as the saviors and redeemers of the nation and end up as demagogues and tyrants on the alter of the political expediency. This calls for rationality and reason while conducting and managing the affairs of the state. We always run short of rationality in the course of political and daily routine, which according to dictionary definition is “the quality or state of becoming rational or having reasoning power” (Webster dictionary) or “being able to think clearly and make decisions based on the reason rather than of emotions”, (Oxford dictionary) it necessarily entails the analysis of good and bad attached to something or of an action by using the mental faculty which is entrusted with the ability to do this. Unfortunately we act contrary to this, we do be happy in realm of wishful thinking, fantasies, and phobias. So this hardly leaves any room to act rationally in a situation or to a situation, and when the ability to act rationally replaced by emotions. It leads to what C.J.Jung called “psychic epidemic [and] in this state all those elements whose existence is merely tolerated as asocial under the rule of reason come to the top”.

So the General and his detractors have to ponder that whether we have any future without Pakistan, certainly not. Therefore, it would be in the interest of both the ruler and ruled that if they look and search for some accommodations, it is always there, it only deserve our attention. Writ of state is the issue of life and death for us and similarly the development projects, so it is imperative to settle the issues within the ambit of the center-provinces and province-province relations keeping in view the point of views of the all the stakeholders. Certainly we can’t lose time in this regard; we have already lost many precious years amid futile quarrelling and mistrust. In addition, we may also not risk our cohesion and harmony. So it is imperative to search for a middle course that will be agreeable to all. By pursuing this route only the dream of a progressive and modern Pakistan can be materialized.