You know Oscar, that was not directed at you. Sometimes in these discussions we end up making running statements but please don't take that personally. I have a issue with people who use this "we made Pakistan thing" and think everyone else is indebted to them.
It may not be “we made Pakistan” but definitely had a big chunk- although in frankness the big chunk came from the part which was ruled like Brown sahibs and subjected to racists like Ayub Khan.
There is no doubting that the migrants formed the core of the educated class, and hence the key bureaucratic structure of early Pakistan. Ethnic manipulation in subsequent years changed that and Bhutto is responsible for the degradation more than anyone.
If the rest of the ethnic class no matter in majority were by nature sheep due to their lack of education, it isn’t the fault of the ethhnic categories that were not sheep and player their part.
Bengalis had a major input into Pakistan versus Punjab, simply because their leadership was more effective at garnering support- that does not mean that Punjabis did or did not want Pakistan but it does mean that Punjabi leadership was not effective or not as dedicated and still playing options. Whether they represented Punjabi sentiments accurately or not is also questionable, but what matters are the key contributors to the cause which every study and book on the subject not
Embellished by the state shows where the core of the movement was and where the push remained.
By that standard, we should state that most of KPK was not for Pakistan due to their reds. Does it reflect on the ethnicity today? No, but it does reflect on history and if one does not acknowledge history, then we are bound to repeat the mistakes as a nation and while it does not effect expats with foriegn citizenships like you and me as compared to someone who may experience the fallout of ethnic hatred properly, it does end up having an impact on our identities.
The same Bengalis against whom rape was used as a tool by certain officers would now laugh if they saw that in the 92 operation against MQM, rape was used again against familes of militant workers.
Did a woman deserve rape because her husband decided to put his party orders above country- orders that may have come from leaders working at the behest of foriegn intelligence agencies but that does not justify raping the wife of that man. These were all brushed under the carpet in the usual mohibbul watani and everyone is a brother.
Manzoor pashteen is only the latest in the long lasting ethnic tensions that rise due to inequality in resource distribution and development, and then hearing sentiments like what you stated.
It is personal, and while most can be objective if sentiments are discussed with logic , not all will take disparaging comments against their ethnicity especially when all they see is metro trains and glitter in one city when their areas lie in deplorable conditions or not even if the fault truly lies with the leadership of those areas.
If you keep calling an ethnic group Indians despite all their contributions then they WILL reach out to external forces who offer “assistance”. If you keep crying regarding leadership of those people when even the leadership of your own ethnicity focuses on stealing and giving privileges to only a few, then those are stones from glass houses.
This country does not change by snide comments on origin or blaming communities on poor leadership but by creating greater harmony at the roots level. I used to laugh at people in Islamabad while I lived there who never visited Karachi and referred to it like some city in another country.
The same applies to other places as well, do we know the conditions of people living in basti malook? Or naudero? Or Hoshab?
Heck do the people of F-8 sector even know about troubles in Awan town?
Or those in DHA Lahore of people in ferozwala?
If we are unable to connect with a community on a level where we see their conditions or work with them to improve it, then what is to be said of leadership?
Leadership broke down in Pakistan when Liaqat Ali Khan could not wait till the Quaid was dead..
so if it is a leadership issue causing ethnic tensions and there are people who can see it, even if they are 2% it falls on them to help the other 98% see it.
