Ordinary Pakistanis are not citizens
Rashed Rahman
It has been an eventful week, with more than its just share of tragedies. While the genocidal Israeli war on the Palestinians continues with ferocious horror, the news of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other senior officials’ death in a helicopter crash in Eastern Azerbaijan province has come as a shock. Initial speculation about the ubiquitous Israeli ‘hand’ have so far not been confirmed (fortunately, as the alarm bells of an Iranian-Israeli war started tolling prematurely, as it turned out). The received wisdom so far is that it was an accident produced by bad weather. Naturally, messages of concern, condolence and support have flocked in from friendly and not so friendly countries, including from Pakistan. No tumult is expected in Iran as the mullah regime remains firmly in control and in such circumstances, the Islamic Republic’s Constitution lays down that the first vice president takes over pending a fresh election.
Pakistanis were treated to a movement in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) lately asking for electricity and food subsidies provided earlier. The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an alliance of labour leaders, traders, transporters and civil society, led protests and a march towards the AJK capital Muzaffarabad to demand electricity according to hydropower generation costs in AJK, subsidized wheat flour, and the downsizing of government to free up resources for the public. The peaceful movement had been on for a year, and the march on the capital was not expected to be different. Unfortunately, our corrupt, criminal, inefficient, brutal police, freed of all fetters since 2002, in its usual mode reacted with ferocious violence against the peaceful marchers. That ended up with the s*** hitting the fan, especially since it afforded the opportunity to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wiseacres in India to point to the troubles as an expression of the AJK masses’ desire to join India. That did it. The federal government swung into damage control mode and conceded all the demands to defuse the by now highly embarrassing situation for Pakistan’s stance of being the Kashmiris’ firm supporter against Indian oppression in India Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. One wonders whether, if AJK was not such a sensitive issue, such a prompt and ‘generous’ response would have been forthcoming from our authorities. After all, they had dealt similarly with a parallel movement in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) led by the Awami Action Committee just a few months ago on similar issues. Lest anyone gets carried away by the notion that these two examples indicate the only way to get rights in this country is to stage sustained mass protests peacefully until the inevitable disastrous police intervention, following which their demands would be met, it should not be forgotten that peripheries such as AJK and G-B are special cases because of the Kashmir imbroglio, and in probably all other cases all the peaceful protestors are likely to receive are broken heads and limbs, followed by incarceration for an indefinite period (given our marvellously efficient justice system).
Meanwhile, oblivious to the travails and troubles of ordinary folk, the elite of Pakistan continues to enjoy its status, wealth and clout without question. This includes the recent revelation of Pakistanis possessing some $ 12.5 billion worth of properties in Dubai (probably an underestimate). All those listed in this expose hastened to defend themselves by stating their properties were legal as they had been declared in their tax returns. Incidentally, the list includes retired military men as well as a notorious police officer, Rao Anwar. When last examined, it did not appear that the lifelong remuneration of such people could justify the possession of such expensive properties in our very own offshore investment haven, but pending an investigation (of which no signs have appeared so far), this is one more case of elite privilege that will probably go undisturbed.
Last but by no means least, the horror that overtook our some 11,000 students in Kyrgyzstan points to some seemingly incurable issues in our state governance. The incident involving the beating and torture of foreign students, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Arab, etc, by local toughs seems to have occurred in the aftermath of a fight between such local elements and some Egyptian students. The Kyrgyz toughs then attacked the hostels and residences of all foreign students, thrashing and injuring many, the social media footage of which reflects the viciousness of these attacks. Our government ‘sprang’ into action too little, too late, as always. The terror inflicted on the foreign students had been unfolding two days before our authorities woke up to what was transpiring. Immediately, as diplomatic protocol suggests, a demarche was delivered to the Kyrgyz diplomatic mission by our foreign office. The Pakistan embassy in Bishkek (the centre of the troubles) was ‘instructed’ to get up off its collective chairs and go to the aid and succour of (at least) our students under siege, locked into their dorms, terrified and running out of food and water (imagine now what the Gaza Palestinians are going through). Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was persuaded by the Kyrgyz authorities to cancel his posthaste planned visit to Bishkek as the situation was returning to ‘normal’.
From the accounts of our beleaguered students there, the embassy did f*** all to help, the flights generously arranged by the government to bring back hundreds of our students turned out to be chartered flights for which the returning students had to pay their return fare, and the embassy had been ‘missing in action’ since the trouble began. Why should all this surprise us? Unlike our elite Dubai investors, whose financial shenanigans are unlikely to be taken note of or moved against since they are truly ‘citizens’ of this country, the poor students at the receiving end of local gang violence (reportedly extortionists of long standing who harass and browbeat foreign students unless paid off) do not deserve such an appellation. Anyone with any experience of dealing with our embassies and diplomats abroad will agree on one thing: the unprivileged, non-elite Pakistani is not considered a citizen, therefore treated with utter disdain and indifference. Our diplomatic corps by and large (honourable exceptions notwithstanding) is cut from the same mould as our bureaucracy, only with stiffer necks and even more tilted-in-the-air noses. How can one blame them then for behaving as they do when any Pakistani is in trouble and needs their help abroad?
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