Today we observe anniversaries of two horrible incidents of our history.
First one is fall of Dhaka, an incident that culminated in a scene where our Eastern commander General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi in a ceremonial setting delivered his side weapon to Indian commander General Arora, and our 90,000 or so personnel became Prisoners of War.
Second one is the death of children by the hands of terrorists in APS incident.
Both event were shock to the nation. Commissions were made; all parties conferences were called, and lot of words were said and then within short span of time forgotten.
The commission report was never publicised because it will embarrass few people or institutions. But isn't this the point of the whole exercise of making a commission i.e. to find out all the circumstances that led to these catastrophic events, however embarrassing they are, and then face them with courage and incorporate the lessons in future course of action?
If our lack of courage to face the ugly truths of our past continues like this, what is the guarantee that next East Pakistan is not around the corner and next batch of innocent children will not face the death by the hand of terrorists?
It seems that we are only good at making songs and celebrating the dead but do not have the courage to point finger toward the actual cause and why? Because that will hurt the sentiments of few people or institutions who were at the center of all that.
Rome was a strong and sturdy empire that finally crumbled because its bureaucracy ended up serving itself rather than serving the Rome and when that happened, Rome died a long and painful death. Thing to ponder is that do we in Pakistan even have a portion of the resilience and strength of Rome?
So be it an organization or state, the lesson is that if any department, institution or person starts taking itself more seriously than the organization or state, the results are always catastrophic.
We are so busy in the petty turf fights within institutions and political parties that we always miss the big picture. Corruption of politician is bad and we should punish them severely but it was not corruption that truncated us into half and caused the death of innocent children.
Ask a Bihari Pakistani Muslim in Bangladesh who has been shamelessly abandoned by the state of Pakistan in the miserable conditions or the parents of an APS child - what are their priorities?
Does that Pakistani stranded in Bangladesh want to pursue the Panama case first or does he want to understand what made him stateless and wants the state to at least own him for which he left his home in 1947? Is it on the agenda of any political party of Pakistan, and more importantly is it in their active list of to do things?
Do the parents of dead children of APS interested in Flats in London of a corrupt politician or do they want to know what made the menace that killed their children?
We Pakistanis need to get our priorities right. Otherwise:
تمہاری داستان تک نہ ہوگی داستانوں میں
But that needs courage and spine.
Do we have that or have we resigned to the life of spineless existence?
Choice is ours.