9/11 and Pakistani society

Social effects of 9/11

By Mazhar Khan Jadoon

It was 8pm, Thursday evening in 2010 when we drove into Peshawar from Lahore. The GT Road that snakes through the city and ends up as Jamrud Road at Hayatabad was deserted with eery stillness all around. This road is normally choked with all kind of traffic and buzzes with people all the time busy doing businesses and carrying out daily chores.

I asked my friend, who lives in Peshawar, where have all the people gone? Why is there so much silence and darkness? A few people seen walking along the road looked scared and in unexplained hurry. Something was terribly wrong with things around as we drove through ‘the ghost town’. “It is Thursday today,” my friend, who was driving the car, murmured softly as if trying to keep the silence around intact. “Yes it is Thursday,” I retorted angrily as it made no sense to me. My friend clarified and explained, “Tomorrow is Friday and something bad will happen in the city. As happens routinely, there will be a blast somewhere in a market, school, mosque or some official building. Suicide bombers prefer Friday for their missions as they think Fridays are auspicious days to kill and die.”

Next morning scared and adamant Peshawarites are waiting for the moment to happen. Hospitals and medical staff are on standby and ambulances are revving up. DSNG (Digital System of News Gathering) vehicles with all the news crew are ready to cover the event live. Police personnel are gearing up to meet the eventuality. The whole city is bracing for the inevitable to happen.

Boom! Our Friday fear came true. I almost dropped my cup of tea as the windows of the room I was staying in were shattered by the shockwave of a suicide bombing nearby. Then follows what has become a routine for people — blood, bodies, ambulances and rescue operation with political rhetoric and official condolences. Our TV channels make it sure that every single gory detail is beamed to desensitized audience that has somehow developed a taste for all the real drama. It was unlike Peshawar — hostility had taken over hospitality. Strangers are no more welcome as respectable guests rather they are looked upon as potential terrorists ready to explode themselves.

The war on terror and the reactionary bombing have changed the entire social and cultural outlook of Peshawar. The ultraconservative society has further recoiled into a state of social isolation just to survive. People no more take their kids along for Friday prayers — a voluntary reversal of old traditions. Wedding gatherings are confined indoor, while in some parts of the country where Taliban hold sway fun celebrations are replaced with religious rituals. The culture of cinema and theatre has changed and artists and musicians are forced to change their professions as they keep facing threats by the moral vigilantes. The only place in Peshawar where you could have full view of a woman was the billboards atop cinemas along the GT Road, but these images have also been ‘Islamised’ to avoid the wrath of those averse to music and films.

This phenomenon is not Peshawar-specific — almost all major cities in the country have gone through a decade of social changes prompted by sheer fear. 9/11 has not only reshaped the world, it has also changed philosophies and poisoned mindsets around the world. Perhaps none living in major cities would have missed the bang of a bomb or the scenes of devastation caused by bombing. Those missing the chance would have their share of gory visuals with natural sound from our hyperactive TV channels whose camera crew always jump the gun to shoot.

America’s display of ‘shock and awe’ may have secured its citizens, but it has played havoc with Pakistan, changing the entire social fabric of the society. The war on terror and the consequent spree of suicide bombings have changed the way people live and think. The war has created different social phobias stealing the joy out of social gatherings and meetings. Social phobias driven by different fears affect many people who tend to get very anxious in crowds as they start imagining ghosts of suicide bombers lurking behind.

Another casualty of the post-9/11 world is the right to free movement due to mushrooming growth of barricades of concrete blocs and barbed wires on every road and street of Lahore — and it has become part of our life though it instills fear rather than security. Peshawar and twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are no exceptions where one stumbles on every step over security checkposts manned by ready-to fire security personnel. Open places are shrinking while walls are growing taller and thicker. The growing number of concrete walls also symbolizes the divide the society is beginning to see — a divide between the extreme forces of liberalism and religious fundamentalism. The new ideologies (extreme left and extreme right) have pitted Qadris and Taseers of this land against each other and rest of the population has started aligning themselves with these two extremes. Again the victims are those toeing the middle path, the moderates, who are caught between the crossfire. They are forced to be ‘with us or with them’.

The post-9/11 destruction has been effected with a heavy price. “The cost of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan are estimated at 225,000 lives and up to $4trillion in US spending,” estimate scholars with the Eisenhower Research Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies in a new report by. The group’s “Costs of War” project has released new figures for a range of human and economic costs associated with the US military response to the 9/11 attacks. The Brown project says the wars have created more than 7.8 million refugees among Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis.

America has chased out al-Qaeda and its Taliban protectors into Pakistan, creating a new danger of the Pakistani society being taken over by militants. A decade after September 11, 2001, skepticism about the events of that day still persists among Muslim publics. In all of the Muslim countries polled recently by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, majorities still refuse to believe that the perpetrators of September 11 were Muslims. Pew finds that the Muslim world and the West still see the other as fanatical and violent. In Pakistan attitudes have moved to the extreme level — the percentage of Pakistani Muslims saying that Westerners are greedy, immoral, selfish and fanatical has increased by double-digits over the last five years.

“Among most of the Muslim publics polled, Muslims tend to identify with their religion, rather than their nationality. This is particularly true in Pakistan, where 94 per cent people think of themselves primarily as Muslim instead of Pakistani,” the finding says.

Bus ride

45 minutes in a public bus

By Mazhar Khan Jadoon

I had to run for a few yards, finally to be pulled up by fellow passengers on board a public bus. Breathing heavily, I threw myself into an aisle seat, next to a 45-year-old passenger who religiously kept coughing and spitting out of the widow without even realising what he was doing to other passengers. Welcome aboard a public transport bus and buckle up for a noisy ride! Up above the window was written in bold words; “Behave and show courtesy to other passengers”. That written advice kept me from asking a standing passenger not to place his old dusty leather bag on top of my head. My courtesy and patience could not match the weight of the bag and I had to request him to get off the bag. He was kind enough to throw that bag into my lap, retorting that this is the best he could do.

The next moment he was quarrelling with the bus conductor for the seat he was promised. The conductor was not in a good mood at all and was quick to retaliate and soon after it was free-for-all. The gentleman sitting beside me again spitted freely out of the window after a long spell of cough and remarked, "This belligerent bus conductor is upset because he had a fight with his wife and is on duty without having a breakfast." Passengers around who heard him guffawed and praised him for his guess ‑ probably most of them had experienced a day without a breakfast. The bus was full to capacity ‑ and for a bus plying on a local route it means five to six passengers hanging at the door and footstep. The driver of the bus was courteous enough to wait for the passengers who had just planned to leave their homes for the bus stop. Shouting ladies and gentlemen, who were getting late for their offices and destinations, could not convince the driver to move on. Everybody on board, except the driver, was in a hurry.

A man with a small bag hanging from his shoulder was desperately trying to make his way in. A terrorist, a suicide bomber? No he turned out to be a mobile gastroenterologist trying to sell out his homemade remedies that cures all the diseases a man can think of. Give him credit for attracting a diverse crowd for a few minutes with the help of his well-prepared script listing out a group of symptoms that miraculously matched that most of the passengers carried. And that was the skill of the mobile doctor to sell health to a crowd having little access to healthcare.

Another vendor elbowed the standing passengers to make room for his on-board shop. The man was selling literature in the form of booklets of poetry, Naats and stories teaching morality. Even if the price of a set of books was so tempting that I could have bought all of them, but something kept me from buying – perhaps I am not used to buy anything, except ticket, on board a bus. Still, the vendor found many readers for his books, owing to his skill of reading out interesting teasers out of the books.

Another quiet interesting feature of the ride – that kept me attentive throughout the journey – was public debate going on in the bus. Capitalising on the absence of an irritating moderator, everyone aboard was free to discuss anything from the Blackwater plot to steal Pakistani nukes to the political wrangling in the wake of NRO. It was a pleasant surprise for me to know that the common man – a term sadly coined for the have-nots of society by those who matter – knows everything happening around, and they won’t let the rulers to take them for a ride anymore. As topics for the public debate grew, so did the crowd in the bus, and it was time for me to get ready for another feast – that was to get off the bus.

The conductor announced my destination and I started pushing the passengers around, just as everybody was doing. It was one of the rare moments when I really hated myself for frantically pushing passengers and stepping on their toes in a bid to reach the bus door. The fact that it is hard to be courteous and civilized on board a public bus saddened me ‑ the reasons being countless. Once off the bus, I examined myself and thanked God for I was in one piece still wearing my woolen cap, shoes and jacket and still carrying my handbag. All I left behind was a noisy bus my yearning for a society where we don’t need to remind people of “BEHAVE”.

Arabs Uprising

Arab world is struggling for a change that could ensure political freedom and social justice

By Mazhar Khan Jadoon

It may be part of a ‘greater Israel plot’, or it may be another American move to reshape Middle East for a stronger foothold to tap more oil, or the revival of Islamic forces that are out to enforce Sharia in the Arab land. All these speculations will stay in the air until the dust of revolution settles down and a clearer picture emerges.

However, all that is happening in the streets of the Arab world shows one thing for sure; “the educated and more aware Arab youth belonging to middle class are calling the shots now for a change that will bring them at par with the rest of the world”.

No one was expecting that an isolated protest in a northern African country would trigger a tsunami that would flood the entire Arab world. Tunisian uprising gathered mass quickly and turned out to be a revolution pulling down the thrones of worn-out dictators one-by-one. It is people versus dictators. Absolute power blankets the mind and vision of a dictator and he fails to see the reality. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi also showed his true colours when he ordered his forces to crush the ‘rats’. It is the end of a dictator when he sees his people as rats.

The whole Arab world, perhaps, was waiting for a spark to ignite a change — that could ensure political freedom, social justice and right to speak without the fear of being gagged and imprisoned. Pent up desire for freedom provided the thread for the rosary of change in the Arab world.

Mubarak lost people’s confidence because he failed to feel the pulse of the young generation that is capable of juxtaposing their lives with that of the changing world with no room for repression and dictators. Taking their cue from the Tunisian uprising, Egyptians thronged Tahrir Square and forced the generals to send the 82-year-old president into retirement — as had happened to his counterpart — Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia.

The rage that sprang up in Tunisia and swept through Egypt has morphed into a ‘people versus dictators’ battle. The contagious rage knows no boundaries and is gaining momentum day-by-day. Two of the Arab rulers are down and the rest are nauseated with the event and are waiting for their turn.

Mubarak and Ben Ali have been pushed into oblivion by their fate decreed by people and what is in store for the rulers of Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq and Morocco is no different. It is just a matter of how quickly and wisely the rulers read the will of their people and leave without creating mess.

Libya

In his televised address, Gaddafi tried to scare away the swelling crowds threatening to use force to crush them. He should have talked sense because the use of force will only limit his chances for a safe and honourable exit. Mubarak went down with over 200 deaths while Gaddafi has already crossed the toll of 1000 dead and thousands injured. The resilience of Libyans shows that use of force will only quicken Gaddafi’s downfall.

Political analyst Robert Fisk says Gaddafi is facing the forces he cannot control. According to an article that he wrote for The Independent, Fisk suggests Gaddafi is groping in the dark searching for legitimacy for his illegitimate rule, “Gaddafi's claim that the millions of protesters in Libya want to turn Libya into an Islamic state is exactly the same nonsense that Mubarak peddled before his end in Egypt, the very same nonsense that Obama and Clinton have suggested.”

Bahrain

In Bahrain, the predominantly Shia Muslim protesters are sticking to their guns occupying the Pearl roundabout ahead of the promised talks between the opposition representatives and the rulers. Bahrain freed at least 23 political prisoners held on terrorism counts on Feb 23 and pardoned two others including an exiled opposition leader whose plan to return to the country may complicate talks with the government on political reforms.

More than 100,000 demonstrators recently packed central Pearl Square, in what organisers called, the largest pro-democracy demonstration this tiny Persian Gulf nation had ever seen. Tens of thousands of men, women and children, mostly members of the Shiite majority, got together with one message: “this regime must fall”. King Hammad bin Isa al-Khalifa is still clinging to power with calls for a national dialogue to try to bridge differences, preserve the monarchy and unite the nation.

Yemen

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said, only defeat at the ballot box will make him quit, despite a growing protest movement calling for him to resign. Tens of thousands of protesters continue to rally around the country. For the first time several Yemeni Ministers of Parliament joined the protesters in the streets.

Experts are voicing concern, about the US using the presence of Al-Qaeda elements in the country as a pretext for military intervention. According to BBC, many commentators warned against a repetition of the ‘pre-emptive’ action taken against Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq

Frustrated Kurds are crying foul at the tight grip with which the two ruling parties control the Kurdish autonomous region. Iraqis across the country have staged a number of protests in recent weeks against corruption, high levels of unemployment and poor provision of basic services such as clean water and electricity.

Algeria and Morocco

Now it could be Algeria’s turn to free itself from the autocratic rule. Fearing a full-blown uprising like that in Tunisia and Egypt, the government officials in the huge North African country are scrambling to stem an accelerating movement of street protests. This kind of a display of anti-government sentiment was unthinkable until recently. Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci had announced that his country's 19-year state-of-emergency laws would be revoked within days, ending tight censorship and lifting a ban on political demonstrations win back enraged public.

Algeria’s small neighbour is also undergoing change. Two of Morocco's biggest political parties and human rights groups have joined calls by a youth movement for constitutional reform that could reduce the role of the king. “More political freedom” and “end to dictatorship” are the by-words sending shivers down the spine of rulers in Rabat.