Let there be hope: Candid corner

“They may have blown away the candles/ Of the nuptial throne,/ Let the one step forth/ Who can douse the light of the moon.” – Faiz Ahmad Faiz

Life is a story of incessant hope. Those who can sustain it through dark times, which is never easy, are the ones who are rewarded with fulfilling their aspirations. In this arduous process, the real challenge is not letting go of the sparkle of hope and always letting it brighten the prospect of tomorrow.

There is much that one can use to break through the mist of doubt and uncertainties that may hang over you, but there may also be times when the silence of the surroundings may give you the boost to look across the void into the infinite world of optimism.

While Faiz’s poetry is an immaculate reflection of how best to let hope serenade along the crevices of your path, it is Rabindranath Tagore who wraps the thought in his inimitable words: “But there, where spreads the infinite sky for the soul to take her flight in, reins the stainless white radiance. There is no day nor night, nor form nor colour, and never, never a word”.

While the human body is an enduring receptacle of strength that helps sustain us through difficult times, it is the spirit that acts as the bedrock of courage and resilience to tide us over what may appear as insurmountable obstacles. History is replete with stories of the human spirit lighting the paths even when those appeared engulfed in pitch darkness, with hope dying and hardly a ray of light showing through.

The human spirit sparkles in times of despondency. The challenge is to discover it within you and let it generate the strength to guide you to your coveted destination. Those who appear buried under the weight of time have hidden within them countless layers of resilience, and those who are abreast of pain and suffering will discover the potion to heal their wounds.

Much the same is the case with countries and nations. Human history may provide volumes on the weaker winning against the stronger or just a few overpowering a much larger adversary, but there are also times when things are manipulated grossly to prolong the night of darkness and the suffering that it may cause people. This could be the direct outcome of forcefully usurping the pillars of power and rendering the provision of justice a mere pipedream.

This has happened often in Pakistan, where the beneficiary elite has used its wealth and power to weaken and dismantle the edifice on which the state stands. Its prevalent condition is an apt reflection of this routine manipulation, where even the foundational essentials for the state’s constitutional sustenance have been trampled upon and disfigured, thus rendering the structure wobbly.

The institutions entrusted with the solemn task of safeguarding the constitution and ensuring the rule of law are rendered complicit in this act of usurpation. With an incomplete parliament acting as the rubber stamp and the judiciary becoming a victim of the 26th Amendment, only the executive is exercising its illegal writ secured through hijacking people’s mandate. The prospect of justice has completely evaporated with little possibility of it resurfacing if the existing state of things continues. The spectacle is debilitating as it is heartbreaking, but then it is in such circumstances that the human spirit comes into play to keep the path aglow with hope.

Pakistan stands at the crossroads: on the one hand is the debris piled on through undertaking unconstitutional acts in the past, and on the other is the prospect of a country that is run according to the statute book and the laws that flow from it. Weighing the options on the basis of how things have progressed in the last couple of years, there is practically no possibility of returning to full constitutional and lawful normalcy in the near future. The deep bias which prompted these actions seems to linger, thus injecting further lethal doses of partisanship into conducting the affairs of the state.

Going by any independent evaluation, things cannot persist like this for much longer. The role the state has played has divided the nation along multiple lines. Without adopting healing measures, the intensity of this division would increase with time, thus widening the chasm separating communities and people.

During the recent short war with India, it was heartening to see people coming together in an expression of unity and harmony, the positive role of the PTI being a key ingredient to that effect. But states cannot last through prolonged phases of conflict. This is particularly applicable to Pakistan, which is economically starved and dependent on outside help, from international institutions and friendly countries alike. That makes it excessively vulnerable, thus further enhancing the need to end this phase of societal divide. The use of brute state force in the past has created feelings of estrangement and even bitterness. This does not augur well for the country or the people and must be remedied.

Nothing could be more urgent than this. Persisting with tension would only exacerbate ugly divisions. The use of brute tactics has boomeranged. A comprehensive and dispassionate initiative based on the enshrined values of the constitution and justice is needed to bridge the divisions and bring people together in the cause of the state and their own welfare. It is not going to be an easy task.

But then, hope is the lingering panacea. Even in the darkest of times, it does not desert you. It is your most dependable companion. It helps you break the logjam of doubt and depression. It guides you along the path of rejuvenation. It is a healer of pain, cultivating trust and confidence. Faiz’s words cast an aura of optimism: “Awfully dark may be the night/ But from this dark shall emerge/ A surge of blood that is my evocation./ And glowing in its shadow/ Is a stream of gold radiating from your eyes.”

With hope by your side and a string of steps initiated to instil justice in the societal echelons, no objective would remain unachievable. However, the risk looms of not taking these steps when they are most needed. A delay in this would further accentuate the rupture, pushing it beyond mend. That would come with disastrous consequences that the state may be unable to sustain.

The need is to pay heed now, thus paving the way to “feel a thrill passing through the air with the notes of the far away song floating from the other shore”.

The writer is a political andsecurity strategist and the founder of the Regional Peace Institute. He is a former special assistant to former PM Imran Khan and heads the PTI’s policy think-tank. He tweets @RaoofHasan