Pakistan is the most diverse country in the world. We vehemently celebrate its rich diversity in all our political speeches, and sometimes on our streets too. If some people are hurt, literally or emotionally, or even get killed during such celebrations, that’s not a big deal.
Our celebrations, like our independence and defence, are and cannot be without sacrifices.
To understand the implied philosophy, logic, and sense (and all these three in one para above), you must be a male, a Punjabi, a well-off urbanite, and last but not the least, a Muslim – and that too the right type of Muslim.
If you are none of the above, don’t waste time reading a wrong type of piece, on the wrong type of site, or being and living in the wrong type of country. Go to India or Afghanistan (but not China).
The point is that we are the most unique republic on earth, and have every reason to be proud. If you are not proud, or feel it hard to pretend pride, you are not one of us.
While we all know and celebrate Pakistan’s rich diversity (i.e., Pakistan’s rich’s diversity), we reserve the right to as often and as conveniently ignore it as and when diversity doesn’t suit us. This is democracy, so no hard feeling to those who don’t fit ‘us’.
And ‘us’ being the non-diverse MUMPs – Male, Urban, Muslim, Punjabis. Quite like the mumps virus, we too get activated to regulate what goes in the body politick of the mother land.
And why not; what else is democracy, if its not a rule of the minority in the name of a majority, where the former ensures every one else feels like a minority and hence remain in check!
The world can certainly learn from us more than we can learn from the world. This piece is about one specific aspect of our unique greatness.
What makes a country or a nation great is its history. We knew this from the beginning, actually even before the beginning. Therefore, first we made our history, then went for the country, and then for the nation.
No one has, or can try that sequence. Americans tried it but failed. However, if they engage our services, even a major of our premier agency can help then with that in a week’s time.
We did it because of our superior ability to view, conceive and imagine history like a dream, as well as like a movie.
Dream is something you all know a thing or two about, but movie making is something that few know. So let me first teach a key thing about movie making, which can give it a feel of a dream.
Its called non-linear-editing, which means a story telling and presentation which doesn’t necessarily follow chronological order, or any order. It can go back and forth, and thus keep the mind and attention of viewers engaged, entertained, amused, and enchanted and captivated.
In this piece I will only give one example, because its after all an opinion piece not a thesis. If you want more examples, please consult ISPR.
This example is about the making and celebrations of the Republic Day, i.e., the 23rd March.
In the 70 years of Pakistan’s history as a country (and please don’t confuse that with the history of Pakistani nation, which is much older), we have only celebrated about 62 Republic Days.
We decided to celebrate 23rd March as our Republic Day after we passed the 1956 Constitution.
In those days, Pakistan like many other countries had very high child mortality rate, so the poor Constitution could not see its 3rd birthday. Field Martial Ayub Khan decided to have a field day, and abrogated this nascent piece of document.
In 1959, when March came, his advisors had a huddle to deliberate what should be done on the Republic Day, because the Constitution this day stood to celebrate was not there any more.
Thus came the genius idea of dream sequence of history through a non-linear-editing. We went back 19 years and dug out something which was very close to 23rd March (i.e., 24th March) in 1940 – the day Lahore Resolution was passed. We renamed it Pakistan Resolution, and lo and behold a Pakistan Day was ready to be screened country wide.
As I said in the beginning, we are a unique republic; so empowered that we can make any day our day. So happy Republic Day. Let’s keep it up; and may we make many more days, our days!
