I am out of the country now days and I wish I could hear more good news coming from my homeland than the bad ones. But news industry does not buy or sell many good news; or may be there are more bad news in my land than good ones any way. I read about the killing of another young boy named Bilal Khan. It hurts me deeper and makes me saddened as much as I always am on any such news.
I lived in Pakistan for the most of my life and have traveled around fifteen countries out of which I have spent longer time in UK and USA. Until 2003 I had not gone out of Pakistan and my patriotism was at its peak like most of the Pakistanis. I was always looking at all the news and analysis with the lens of conspiracy theories. The whole developed world seemed to have an agenda against us and we being the best of the best nations were victimized.
Now After 15 years of travelling around and learning multiple perspectives; I can clearly see how badly we have been deceived by no one else but our own country fellows. The religious extremism on the one hand and armed forces supremacy on the other hand plus financially and politically empowered elite being the third force; a common man cannot even think big or speak aloud.
Very few of our educational institutions allow the teachers and students to go beyond text books and very few of our classroom interactions help to inculcate and develop independent and critical thinking. Our society at large and all social institutions knit together a social fabric which does not allow any difference of opinion from that of the dominant narratives of the empowered groups.
Bilal Khan or other young minds like him are the rare ones who dare to challenge the status-quo and who not only think differently but also speak up. I salute the parents, families, teachers and all the affiliated individuals and groups who help them to breakthrough all barriers and become what they naturally wanna be.
But then comes one dominant power group; any one of them who can see the truthfulness as a threat to their power, and they decide to silence this true voice. They threaten them, they victimize them and then finally they kill them. Just because Bilal and others like him think and speak aloud, they are to be silenced by those who want to send out the lesson to others that no one must dare.
Still we call it a democracy...still we call it a civilization...still we call it an independent country?
I lived in Pakistan for the most of my life and have traveled around fifteen countries out of which I have spent longer time in UK and USA. Until 2003 I had not gone out of Pakistan and my patriotism was at its peak like most of the Pakistanis. I was always looking at all the news and analysis with the lens of conspiracy theories. The whole developed world seemed to have an agenda against us and we being the best of the best nations were victimized.
Now After 15 years of travelling around and learning multiple perspectives; I can clearly see how badly we have been deceived by no one else but our own country fellows. The religious extremism on the one hand and armed forces supremacy on the other hand plus financially and politically empowered elite being the third force; a common man cannot even think big or speak aloud.
Very few of our educational institutions allow the teachers and students to go beyond text books and very few of our classroom interactions help to inculcate and develop independent and critical thinking. Our society at large and all social institutions knit together a social fabric which does not allow any difference of opinion from that of the dominant narratives of the empowered groups.
Bilal Khan or other young minds like him are the rare ones who dare to challenge the status-quo and who not only think differently but also speak up. I salute the parents, families, teachers and all the affiliated individuals and groups who help them to breakthrough all barriers and become what they naturally wanna be.
But then comes one dominant power group; any one of them who can see the truthfulness as a threat to their power, and they decide to silence this true voice. They threaten them, they victimize them and then finally they kill them. Just because Bilal and others like him think and speak aloud, they are to be silenced by those who want to send out the lesson to others that no one must dare.
Still we call it a democracy...still we call it a civilization...still we call it an independent country?