Crippling our future

By Saroop Ijaz

Nine unarmed health workers for meagre payment administering polio vaccines to children have been murdered in the past few days. Six out of the nine were women; three out of those six were teenagers. This is more than enough for the spirit to sink. Yet, as it is often with Pakistan, the really depressing part starts after the murder. Boiler plate, cold and cruel excuses and justification are ready. First is, “it is happening because of Dr Shakil Afridi,” etc. One can agree that the only sensible objection to the plan to get Osama bin Laden was that it undermined the work of polio workers in Pakistan. However, it would be quite a fantastical stretch to link these killings with Dr Afridi’s conduct. We as a nation have become incredibly adept at finding the warrant for murder in everything. Precision has never been the strongest point of the apologist. Hence, we have the general; one size fit all apologies, “what about drone attacks”, “what about those killed in Karachi daily,” etc., etc.

Then there are those who say that polio vaccination makes our men go sterile. And to protect their manliness they chose to kill, teenage girl health workers. Conscious of unease, one can quote Kishwar Naheed, “Woh jo bachion say bhi durr gaye, woh hain kitnay chotay wajood mein.” (They whom little girls terrify, what small men they really are). We all know of them. What is more disheartening is the support they get back from their ‘educated’ and ‘understanding’ friends. “These attacks are a natural reaction to imperialist overstretches and you know there are kids affected in drone attacks as well” and other such familiar claptrap. No, this is not a natural reaction to anything and the foreign policy of Western countries has no bearing on this. All of us should condemn drone attacks on any children and innocent civilians. But it has no correlation with this. The obvious explanation in many cases is the correct one. There is this ideology of murder, hatred and violence and they will not even spare our children. In fact, they especially want to see out children crippled. Having to restate all of this so soon after Malala Yousufzai is tiring, but remains worth restating.
Dr Samia Raheel Qazi of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had the nerve to state that Malala was a US agent. More recently, I saw Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on a talk show. When asked to condemn the attack on polio workers, Chaudhry Sahib emphasised the ‘complexity’ of the matter and smelled a ‘conspiracy’ and a lot of other mumbo jumbo, except he never took the plunge of condemning the attacks unequivocally or even generally condemning the TTP by name. How one wishes that they borrow an iota of courage from Malala and the young lady health workers.
It is exhausting to even try and rationalise the mind of the apologists. However, if one tries it goes something like, the TTP are CIA funded, if indulged further, they will reveal Malala was also a CIA agent, and was shot at so drone attacks can continue against the TTP in the tribal areas. So if we have it correct, the CIA agents are attempting to kill CIA agents so a justification can be created to kill more CIA agents. Also, if the TTP are foreign intelligence agents then surely no one would advocate negotiations with them. However, don’t count on them to see the absurdity of their position. In the Peshawar airport attack, the real story was that of the bravery of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police in making the attack unsuccessful. However, our focus remained on the tattoos. With the tattoo controversy, it must have seemed to Zaid Hamid that all his birthdays have come at once. Most of us have forgotten, how he proved that Ajmal Kasab was a Hindu nationalist because he “looked like a Hindu,” etc. However, he seems to have an expanding market.
Then there is the most used of them all, “those killing innocent Muslims cannot be Muslims”, or substitute ‘Muslim’ to ‘Pakistanis’, if you wish. I dare not go into for how long Muslims have killed Muslims for my selfish wish to live a little longer. However, for the Pakistani bit, December 16 just passed. The ‘uncircumcised’ Bengalis and how it was not Muslims/Pakistani versus one another is hard to banish. We know the others, the insurgency is Balochistan is foreign-funded, etc. However, we know it from the messiah, all will be well once the US troops leave, the attacks on girls’ schools and female health workers will stop.
As we continue with our charades of unconvincingly lying to ourselves, the terrorist go about their business of crippling our children. They do not seem to share our confusion on whether this is our war or not. They own up to this war and are ready to inflict maximum damage, while we discuss the hidden meanings of demonic tattoos.
This is not our war, they say. Take a moment, and go talk to someone who has grown up with polio and listen to their story, often stories of supreme courage, moral and physical, but also stories of unimaginable pain and suffering. If that seems too much effort, just have a look at pictures of kids inflicted with this now-completely preventable disease. Who would wish that upon their child? Who would wish that upon anyone’s child? The TTP and their clones would, and do. They wish it upon all of our children. This is what they stand for. Not our war, still.