So, We Are Nuclear Too!!

It is 5:00 PM on a dusty miserably hot day with incipient power failure in Karachi. Someone surfs the net and finds out that WE DID IT at 3:00 PM in West Pakistan. We are later told by the PM that five bomb blasts were made in Baluchistan. A sense of elation and dare I say it, almost relief permeates the atmosphere. Finally the suspense is over. Besides the elation is an awful sense of loss. The loss of perspective in front of the terrible needs that hold a community together. We just had to do it. We had to win. There was no choice. Humanitarianism, Environmentalism, Ethics and Economics all took a back-seat to Self-respect. After-all, all the pragmatists of the world insist that winning the race is more important than arriving anywhere.

The sound of clapping that broke out in my office after the Prime Minister confirmed the five bomb blasts said it all. We are all too human and terribly terribly keen to remain on the map of the world. The Prime Minister did not use the term ‘jihad’ or the word ‘kafir’. What he said seemed almost childish in its simplicity, he seemed sorrowful rather than triumphant, serious rather than exultant, strong rather than emotional. In the wake of the world’s lack of security support to Pakistan, the choice was self-evident. It was just a matter of time really and today the time came. The Karachi Stock Exchange crashed to an unheard low today. Tomorrow has been declared a bank holiday in order to stop a bank-run. We and the poor tighten our tattered belts for the punishment that the world may deem fit for a nation as small, as corrupt and as Islamic as us.

The reactions of the more interesting world leaders are more informative than a book on Psychology.

Mr Atal Vajpayee is so thoroughly a politician that he has forgotten being anything else. Thanks to the Satellite up above, one heard him yell to his opposition that now India’s blasts have been vindicated and this proves the far-sightedness of the BJP’s nuclear decision. I am terribly sorry for the Indian nation if it is fooled by such illogic.

Mr Clinton resolutely announced that he had no choice but to impose sanctions. With a sinking of the heart, I quickly run through the things Pakistan makes BY ITSELF. Vehicles? No! CKD and SKD (completeley knocked down and semi knoched down) it is and maybe Japan won’t send us Suzuki "legos" or kits any more. What about the Asian Development Bank, The International Finance Corporation and the Commonwealth Development Corporation? Probably further disbursements will be halted, since the G8 are the donor nations. Apart from Sugar, Textile, Rice, Wheat and Cement there is little we do not import or rather smuggle. Exports will suffer but the greatest burden will be debt-servicing. A country that which finances loan payments through new loans is in a pitiful condition now. Strangely, in a world which is incredibly inter-dependent, imposing sanctions is a two-edged sword. It is improbable that Capitalist America will kill its own markets in-spite of the brouhaha. Aid and donor packages will be cut-off. The poor, the very poor and the poor women will suffer most with the stoppage of Aid packages. I worry that the population control drive will suffer leaving more ill and more poor on the streets and on the Chowks of Pakistan.

In the wake of the Five, there is uncertainty about specifically what will happen to the economy. For the die-hard Pakistani patriots it seems that the bombs may act like a catalyst. A common enemy may imply a common purpose.

It is interesting to note that Bill Clinton stated that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ But the very first wrong was the Nuclear Bomb used by the USA against Japan. It was then that nuclear weaponry became the ticket for global power. The first wrong perpetuated the hatred and fear with which struggling nations like us aspire for a voice in global politics. Perhaps, Mr Clinton should be told that three wrongs do make a small right. The G8 should realize that nationalistic and regional goals should not be the objectives for the 21st century. What the world needs is global democracy and participation in world politics rather than this clique of G8 nations who decide anything worth deciding.

Nawaz Sharif has called to the nation to pay its taxes and announced that he and the President are vacating their Official Government accomodations and plan to use the great big monstrosities to better purpose than luxury. These austerity examples seem puny after fifty-years of corruption, but then in a bleak scenario such as this Self-reliance is the word of the day. Has the nation found its conscience? Dare we hope? Dare we build? And lastly, dare we care about Pakistan?