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Pakistaniat has allegedly taken a battering after the release of the recent Wikileaks cables on Pakistan and her pathetic leaders. A detailed post will be published soon however in the interim my friend Raza Rumi has spoken for me and many millions of Pakistani when he wrote in the Express Tribune that ‘the wikileaks saga has reconfirmed the status of Pakistan as a client state. Its leadership — civilian and military — as a matter of routine, involves external actors in matters of domestic policy and power plays’.

For me, the Wikileaks cables have laid bare the fact that our civilian and military leaders have sold their soul to America.  The real Nawaz Sharif. Asif Ali Zardari, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Fazlur Rehman and others are for all to see with their real views on Pakistan aired in private to the God of America .One example alone will suffice to show how low Pakistani leaders can stoop to win influence.

The Sharif brothers have publicly claimed to be against a war for others (aghyaar ka jung as Mian Shahbaz Sharif has said numerous times) which is code for the US war on terrorism.  This has led to many calling them pro-Taliban and anti-US and the like, however a Wikileaks cable published in the Guardian here, proves otherwise with US Ambassador Patterson noting that Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan repeatedly saying that the PML-N was pro-American in private meetings with her.

Many Pakistanis feel betrayed after Wikileaks has proved that our so-called leaders are willing to sell out Pakistan as and when necessary. However I remain optimistic as I believe such disclosures help to bring the truth to 180 million Pakistanis, ordinary Pakistanis from Turbat to Taxila who care about Pakistan and will better inform our people and help them to be active Pakistani citizens, not spectators and followers of the leaders now exposed as liars, so that they as a collective can be the driving force for Pakistan’s progress.

Indeed I hope that the Pakistani public will use the Wikileaks cable releases as an opportunity to renew their love for the country and their Pakistaniat. In particular the masses should compare and contrast their toil and hard work for little reward with the actions of their leaders most of whom enjoy privilege and power. The Wikileaks episode shows up Pakistan’s leaders and not Pakistan nor its masses and thus must not be allowed to diminish our faith in Pakistan and our Pakistaniat.

It is often said that wherever Pakistanis reside, their heart beats in Pakistan. Pakistanisaggrieved at the Wikileaks cables living in the US, UK, Middle East, Pakistan and elsewhere are advised to do more (not forgetting US requests to do more) than simply criticise their leaders, as a better approach for all Pakistanis to take up is to do better than their leaders by serving Pakistan in any way they can. In doing so we can show our Pakistaniat and bring to life the words of the great Ahmed Faraz saab when he said that it is better to light a candle than simply curse the darkness:

Shikwa-e-zulmat-e-shab se to kahin behtar tha
Apne hissey ki koi shamm’a jalaate jaatey

In this respect I wish to share a personal example of Pakistaniat with readers which should motivate other ordinary Pakistanis to do what they can in their personal capacities to serve Pakistan. Readers will know of my anger at the betrayal of the Kashmir issue at the cost of Pakistan’s principled stand on the issue of over six decades by Pervez Musharraf here and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi here.

As a proud Pakistani I have remained committed to the Kashmir cause and represented the principled Pakistani position even though Pakistani leaders like Qureshi and Musharraf have not done so. I recently took on the BBC who demonstrated a pro-India bias during a BBC News at Six news report on the Pakistan floods. In the report Orla Guerin referred to floods in Azad Kashmir as  ’Pakistani-held Kashmir’ however straight after that report the next BBC News item referred to floods in ‘Ladakh in India’ which showed a clear bias in favour of India and against Pakistan since Ladakh is in Kashmir and is commonly referred to by all media outlets as Indian-held or Indian-administred Kashmir.

In my complaint to the BBC I wrote that ‘such deliberate bias in favour of India shows the BBC as biased and I find it very offensive. I expect the BBC to correct their news report immediately and want an apology to be featured prominently on BBC News ideally on the same news programme’. Readers will be pleased to know that the BBC accepted their mistake and can read the reply to my complaint verbatim as below:

 Dear Mr Arif,

Reference CAS-232371

Thanks for your e-mail about ‘BBC News at Six’. We apologise for the delay in replying to your e-mail. We realise that our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we’re sorry that you had to wait on this occasion.

I understand that you were unhappy as you felt that Orla Guerin referred to floods in ‘Pakistani-held Kashmir’ and then in the next item referred to floods in ‘Ladakh in India’. I note that you feel that this showed biased in favour of India as you feel that Ladakh is in Kashmir.

Your concerns were forwarded to News at Six’s production team. They have advised that this was an oversight on this occasion; we should have described Ladakh as “Indian-administered Kashmir” and we apologise for that.

I can assure you that we are committed to due impartiality and across our programming we have tried to explain how the current situation in Kashmir started and has since developed; we were sorry to read you felt otherwise.

With this in mind please be assured that I’ve registered your complaint on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content. Please again accept our apologies for the unfortunate delay and thanks for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Claire Jordan

The above example is shared in the hope that it proves that ordinary Pakistanis can serve their country and its causes with and without their so-called leaders. Indeed Pakistan’s greatest strength has always been its ordinary people who have given their all for Pakistan. One can compare and contrast this with the rotting corpse that continues to leave a stench in the soil of Pakistan namely its leaders who have shown their true colours thanks to Wikileaks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 @ 10:14 pm on the category Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.