Our country is a curious case of contradictions masquerading as consistency.
Due to the peculiarly lopsided history of our political, social and economic development, we have had to grapple with universalistic concepts, like liberalism and self-realisation, without first growing a lush national identity.
Resultantly, our norms and values are rife with contradictions that manifest themselves in various ways, and that too frequently.
To live in Pakistan then means living in contradiction.
Take the instance of ‘liberals’ in Pakistan. For some odd reason, a pronounced divide lies between the conservatives and liberals in our country, even though very few people in Pakistan truly understand the meaning of being ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’.
In this debate, both sides subject each other to the tyranny of monolithic conceptualisations with equal gusto, even though the off-balance power enjoyed by the conservatives makes their efforts far more noticeable than the liberals’.
Also read: The problem with Pakistani liberals
In response, a lot of ‘liberals’ waste no opportunity to tout the fairness of their conduct and the unreasonableness of their rivals’ behaviour, but in many cases, their own tolerance and fairness is borne out of a history of few or no conflicted interactions.
This is not true for everyone though, but sadly, a few people who do understand what being ‘liberal’ entails are more often than not forced to hide in plain sight because of the associated risks.
Over the past couple of years, we have started to at least discuss the possible faults in our ways when it comes to the presence of extremism in our country, and the country's leadership is finally addressing many thorny issues, albeit hesitantly.
However, gains made in the military realm remain to be fully materialised by ensuring that certain measures are taken, with the curbing of hate speech and regulation of religious seminaries as two core issues. These measures have largely been neglected so far.
It also seems that the PML-N government is sheepish about disturbing the status quo and incurring the wrath of the religious right. Sensing this hesitation though, over time the far right has steadily upped the ante, so much so that any and all efforts by the civilian administration to claim back the narrative are ruthlessly thwarted.
One such example of this trend is the recent event held in Nowshera where religious leaders called on the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the prime minister's recent speech in which he spoke of Pakistan as a ‘liberal’ country.
The PM had stated:
Our democratic and economic journey has not been without setbacks. Butthe Pakistani nation has once and for all decided that its future liesin a liberal and democratic country, where the private sector thrivesand no one is left behind.
As per the leaders in attendance at the Nowshera event, any attempt to attach the prefix ‘liberal’ to the ‘Islamic’ Republic runs counter to the ideology of Pakistan, so the conservatives contend that the premier should have chosen his words carefully and steered away from any and all liberal connotations.
One thing to note is that words can only achieve so much, and in the absence of actions, Pakistan converting into a liberal country at large remains a distant possibility.
The event in Nowshera also highlighted another aspect. In a country rife with forced conversions and with a general environment of viewing members of religious groups other than Islam as suspect, being perceived as a liberal can sometimes result in grave consequences no matter who you are. These consequences can range from censure to harassment for the lucky and persecution and sometimes even death for the not-so-lucky.
Also read: Wanted — Some sacred space that doesn't preach hate
So dire is the situation that concepts like freedom of expression here almost always have qualifiers attached to them, and the only thing worse than being called the ‘L’ word in Pakistan is the ‘S’ word, the latter alphabet representing the term secular.
The truth is that we are witnessing a battle for the very soul of our country, and while it may not be apparent right now, the results of this tussle will end up defining our future.
For keen observers that have grown up with an acute sense of the fanatical path the country seems to be heading down, hiding their true emotions while observing their worst fears materialise is now the norm.
In a situation where hate-mongers are free to preach openly and the tolerant have to lurk in the shadows, the future does not look too bright.