Sethi-020423

Najam Sethi is wrong. Our identity is Pakistani, not Muslim, not Indian, not Punjabi, but Pakistani.

Let me give you an example of what adopting a broad identification like Muslim identity can do. A human is also a living thing. If Mr Jatt gives up his identity of human and adopts the living thing identity, he will go out in the sun and say: plants are also living things and have been known to photosynthesize under sunlight, so I'll stay here and make my own food like them.

Another example: if a Muslim nationalist guard of a school sees Afghans with beard, shalwar above ankles and klashnikovs entering a school and shooting Pakistani students clad in western-styled uniforms, whom do you think he will side with?

There are 10 steps on the ladder of Afghan terrorism, first 9 of which are dipped in Muslim nationalism which Pakistanis resonate with, but when on the last step the terrorists pivot into Afghan nationalism and blow themselves up in Peshawar, Pakistanis become confused as to why that happened? The answer to that question is Durand Line, not Islam.

On the other hand, adopting a narrow identity based on language or ethnicity can also be counter-productive. You lose the strengths of other ethnicities. In Pakistan, everyone wants a country of their own, not realizing that if that happens, their miserable condition will remain the same while waderas and sardars will enjoy all the fruits. If you probe further, the same separationists will tell you 1947 was a blunder.