Much ado about much

WHEN the curtain is pulled back some, when the cannibalisation begins, when rabid dog turns on rabid dog, those are the fascinating, scary moments.

Someone said something stupid about martyrdom, a bunch of folk responded, there was much hand-wringing and disquiet, but before anyone could figure out what the average Pakistani really makes of it, a bunch of other folk yelled at each other and killed a few, and everyone forgot the last crisis to lament the present crisis in the full knowledge that the next crisis circus? is not long off.

In the middle of all of that, a Haqqani was killed in Islamabad and mysteriously, so very mysteriously, no one wanted to talk about it.

Oh, Pakistan.

Let`s start with the most immediate of the very recent.

It happened in Pindi, but it could have happened anywhere. Everyone knows that and the hate that fuels it.

What`s interesting though is how people react to hate and violence. Or simply the suspicion that a particular version of religion is sponsored and promoted by the state.

If it seems that the processions and rituals at this time of the year have become more elaborate and bigger over the years, it`s because they have.

For beliefs that are ancient and a population that is fairly static along sectarian lines, that doesn`t automatically add up. Factor in the last 30 odd years though and you have the reasons.

Once a fire was lit at the intersection of religion and the state, the other sides had several options: pack up and leave; sit down and do as told; or ramp up their own religiosity.

What`s interesting is that option three was picked by the 20pc. We`re here, we`re loud and this will never be a one-sect state. Over our deadbodies.

Not exactly something the rabids on the other side needed to hear twice.

So now, one side has its suicide bombers and the other its ever more urgent veneration of martyrdom.

Which is why everyone else is pretty much terrified this time each year.

One side instigated intobigger, bolder, more elaborate, more insistent commemorations as a sign of defiance driving the rabids on the other side a little loopier and a little crazier oh, Pakistan.

Until next year, on that front at least after the flames in Pindi are doused.

On to a very different martyrdom debate, from the sublime to the ridiculous, as it were. Yes, the ironies and contradictions and sheer idiocy of the Munawar-Fazlu-ISPR debacle are alternately tickling and horrifying.

But we`re interested in people today: the mythical average Pakistani and what he made of it. For our purposes, it was the pause that was most interesting.

Mythical average Pakistani hears Munawar, laughs at Fazlu and reads ISPR. Then he tries to work out what he makes of it all.

Good ol` Fazlur Rehman was the smartest of the three.

Sensing the danger, he dashed off into the safety of the absurd, puncturing a devilishly dangerous debate with laughter and offering everyone else a quick exit.

But the other two weren`tsmart enough to take Fazlu`s cue and waded in deeper, forcing our mythical average Pakistani to actually think about what they were saying.

Mythical average Pakistani loves his army because the army has assiduously courted his support over the decades.

The hows and whys are too well known to bear repeating, all we need to know for our purposes is that it`s no accident mythical average Pakistani loves his army and says a prayer for army shaheeds.

But mythical average Pakistani is also kinda into jihad because the army has made him like jihad. Again, the hows and whys are too well known to bear repetition; all we need to know for our purposes is that it`s no accident mythical average Pakistani is into the idea of jihad.

So what happens when jihad meets jihad and mythical average Pakistani, who loves his army and is kinda into jihad, has to decide which side he`s on? He pauses. It`s not a long pause because the old, manipulated love for his army still prevails. It may even be the most fleeting of pauses because the JI are bit players on the national stage.

But there is a pause because the original purveyors of jihad aren`t the only arbiters of jihad anymore.

There are other sellers too and the army`s preeminence in the narrative-setting game is gone.

Mythical average Pakistani`s allegiances and political beliefs are up for grabs. And boy is he being wooed by the rabids.

If the army is aware of this, then why pick this fight in this way with Munawar? Why force mythical average Pakistani to think about what Munawar was saying and thereby possibly risk his agreeing with the JI? The face-value explanation would be: he insulted our dead, our soldiers and that was intolerable.The less charitable explanation: naivety. It never occurred to the army that public opinion may have shifted, that mythical average Pakistani may pause before taking sides in the war of words.

Essentially, a cat chasing its tail while tripping all over a ball of wool. But not nearly as cute.

Oh, Pakistan.

And that Haqqani chap? Nothing. Nobody wants to talk about him. No one at all.

Where`s the condemnation by the Americans or the Afghans? Or if they did it, where`s the outrage from Pakistan? Or if Pakistan did it, where`s the anger from the Taliban? It`s as if the CIA, NDS, ISI and Taliban, Afghan and Pakistani, all got together to bump Naseeruddin off and then agreed not to talk about it.

What does Haqqani`s death even mean? Sometimes the non-news is the real news.

And scarier too.

Oh, Pakistan. • The writer is a member of staff.

cyril.a@gmail.com Twitter: @cyahn