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Pakistan at a crossroads<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWhat do you see in your dreams, chacha<\/i>?\u201d my four-year-old niece asked, with her face resting on her hands and her eyes lit with joy in anticipation of hearing a delightful story, knowing that I take pleasure in satisfying her curiosity. She recently inquired about a souvenir of Tutankhamen\u2019s casket with a wooden mummy wrapped in Egyptian linen inside it that led to I explaining the process of mummification and the Pharaonic belief in afterlife. She intently listened to my rant and left the room repeating just one word in a singsong manner: Mumm-mee-fication.<\/p>\n

But this time, I was mute. Unlike her dreams filled with joy, my dreams, especially those associated with my birthplace Karachi, are grim due to the violence and terrorism that envelops the whole country.<\/p>\n

While I daydreamed of success, knowledge, love and spirituality, I had little control over my dreams in sleep.<\/p>\n

What has troubled me the most is the constant concern of my parents, who believe it\u2019s better to be safe than sorry. For years, each time that I was about to step out of the house, I have had to answer the same question over and over again: \u201cKahan ja rahay ho?\u201d When I was in my teens, I considered it to be an invasion of my privacy, and I felt very strongly about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey think I am up to no good,\u201d I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

As I grew up, my responses became more and more sarcastic, until one time I said: \u201cI am going out on a dinner date, do you mind?\u201d My father laughingly replied, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t\u2026 I just need to know your whereabouts,\u201d asking \u201cdo you have your cell phone on you?\u201d coupled with a piece of advice that I\u2019ve heard a million times before, \u201calways keep your cell phone charged, so that you can reach me if need be\u201d followed by a news update of terrorism in the city. That is when I started thinking from my parents\u2019 perspective.<\/p>\n

In the 90s, when I started driving a car in Karachi, the streets were not any safer than today. Car theft, random killings and kidnappings were common. News of this and that person kidnapped from a car at red traffic lights, commercial areas and bazaars had turned my mother into a nervous wreck.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 10-15 years and, with the passage of time, my parents\u2019 pitch has mellowed down, but the frequency of the question \u201cKahan ja rahay ho?\u201d hasn\u2019t changed. They continue to worry about their loved ones becoming victims of snipers\u2019 indiscriminate killing or suicide bombings that claim the lives of hundreds and thousands of innocent bystanders every year.<\/p>\n

There is mounting sentiment at home that the leaders have failed to curb the increasing violence and terrorism that has plagued the country. And its Western allies say that Pakistan may actually be complicit in fomenting terrorism.<\/p>\n

At the White House briefing on October 6<\/a>, President Barack Obama voiced his concerns over Pakistan\u2019s ties with \u201cunsavory characters\u201d that the US finds \u201ctroubling\u201d \u2013 without mentioning the Haqqani network. Because of the unspecific remark \u2013 which reminded me of George Orwell\u2019s essay titled Politics and the English Language<\/i><\/a> \u2013 the news following the briefing stated that the US president ciphered a link between Pakistan\u2019s spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda, which White House spokesman Jay Carney said was presumptuous<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Islamabad is indeed schmoozing with terrorist networks, it is doing more harm to Pakistan than anyone else. Pakistanis have endured the wrath of terrorists who kill Muslims in the name of Islam (as absurd as it may sound) and, at other times, due to Pakistan\u2019s alliance with the \u201cother\u201d that \u201cunsavory characters\u201d find reprehensible.<\/p>\n

Not a day passes by without news of Pakistanis being butchered.<\/p>\n

The one thing that kept me strong over the years are the words of a scholar and philanthropist Hakeem Muhammad Said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath guards life,\u201d said Mr. Saeed in Urdu, only a few days before his murder in Karachi<\/a>. \u201cIt will come at its destined time; neither a second early, nor a second late.\u201d Having learned to face the fears that permeated my household, extended family and friends, I couldn\u2019t manipulate my emotions to dream happy dreams.<\/p>\n

Our dreams project our innermost fears and joys \u2013 basically, all those emotions that have had a profound affect on us. My dreams differ from those of my niece due to Pakistan\u2019s troubled history. And there is little hope for change from the leadership.<\/p>\n

On Pakistan\u2019s 64th year of independence, President Asif Ali Zardari said that five years is too little to resolve all the troubles the region has accrued in the past 45 to 60 years. Really?<\/p>\n

In 1989, when Frederik Willem De Klerk<\/a> took office as South Africa\u2019s president, the country was in a state of emergency and experiencing widespread violence. After a program of reforms aimed at scaling back racial injustices, the country had its first non-race-based election only five years later<\/i> in 1994. Even though a clich\u00e9, it\u2019s worth noting: \u201cwhen there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A democratic intellectual Cornel West<\/a> recently tweeted that \u201cMLK-like activity is necessary to wake the country up and say, \u2018this could be our last chance for democratic renewal.\u2019\u201d Civil disobedience is, perhaps, the only way to hold the gluttonous leaders accountable for promises unfulfilled. But, if we don\u2019t act, the dreams of our future generations will be consumed with fear and sorrow.<\/p>\n

Fahad Faruqui is a journalist, writer, and educator. You can email him at fahad@caa.columbia.edu or connect with him on Twitter at @fahadfaruqui.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"