The Paradox of Pakistan

Last night I turned on the TV as its quite been a part routine to watch the TV for some time before going to bed . The audacious Waqar Zaka of The Musik with his show "Living on the Edge" was doing his best to prove that Pakistani youth is as intrepid as anyone else in the world could be, and youngsters of Pakistan were busy in providing Mr. Zaka with astonishing and mind-boggling dares to make his statements. I watched the program for few minutes before taking the remote in my hands to change the channel. The next channel in the row was Aag TV on which a young, appealing and petite VJ Fuse was running her show in which she was taking requests of the songs from her viewers and playing them on her show. The program was giving the image that Pakistan is free-thinking and progressive with pop music is the sensation of the youth.

Just after few minutes, I took the remote again and changed the channel. The next channel on which I stopped was Geo News. The images running on this channel were completely different from the images on the two channels I just watched few minutes ago. The whole world was upside down. The Pakistan on Geo News was completely different from the Pakistan I just observed on The Musik or on the Aag. The news of five blasts outside a theater in Lahore was on air which was followed by a special report on the recent ban on the attending of schools by the female students issued by the insurgent militants in Swat valley. It was whole different story.

In just few minutes, I witnessed two Pakistans. One which is very progressive and enlightened where the youngsters are ready to go to any extent to show the world that they are as good as anybody else in the world, and the other which is very fragile and unstable, packed with and insurgencies and confusion among the citizens. The paradox of Pakistan was all evident.

I had a hard time when I thought about the situation. Which is the correct depiction of Pakistan? What Pakistan should I believe on? The Pakistan depicted on The Musik and on the Agg, or the Pakistan shown on the Geo News.

After careful thinking I concluded that the Pakistan depicted on The Musik or on Agg is only represented the top one percent of the country living in the Defense Housing Authorities or in the Cantonment areas. The real Pakistan was that shown on Geo News. The unstable, fragile, filled with militant insurgencies and an angry population which is facing a daily death from the extreme inflation and a feeling of insecurity is the real Pakistan.

The real Pakistan is right in front of me, but the question here is that why the real Pakistan is like that. Why Pakistan is unstable? Why militancy is deepening its root in this Pakistan? Why the citizens are seeing the worst inflation and economic uncertainty? Why we are at this corner of the history where the world is questioning our survival?

I have many answers to these questions. I believe every Pakistani with a proper mindset has the answers to the above mentioned questions. The question giving me a real trouble is that where is the action from our side to tackle this situation.