You dont have to apologize for anything. Those bigots do not represent Punjab...nor should by any level Punjab be answerable to Sindh or otherwise. Because supposedly that was the idea of being Pakistani(and Muslims Majority to an extent) that our distinctions were to only matter culturally. The idea was that you take pride when you see people from Balochistan and their hardiness , See a Yousafzai and their culture, See the lights and sounds of Lahore.. to the Dhaga Kebabs in Karachi.. You feel the same throughout. Sure, you would always find differences.. but it should feel the same as it would when you visit a relative's house. It would feel different and yet the same. And it does, but bigotry , racism.. most of them out of vested interests and people like Ayub Khan and Zia.. have left us torn apart.
I go find meals here now and then in a place called Chicken hut because its Halal. There, a Mirpuri guy takes my order which is prepared by a Bengali and is served by a Pathan from Naguman. They all are at it in their workplace.. all speaking in relative levels of Urdu.. no one uses English except to communicate with customers. In the many times I've been there, Ive heard them talking on the phones now and then.. I hear bengali, I hear Pushto.. but they all work to make a living and get along.
Perhaps I am too romantic or foolish to see a glimpse of what Iqbal thought of. But then again, there are just the "stories" of a long crushed idealist.
