BANNER: The Shootout at Sahiwal & We, the Resilient Nation!

By: Waqar Azeem  Jappa

Tragedies, they say, keep no calendar. And, there is no such thing as a sweet or an un-harmful tragedy. They are painful. They bring despair, grief and sorrow. The recent Sahiwal incident is no less than a tragedy which I will talk about in a bit.

We as a nation in our short history have had many tragedies. Some were self inflicted, others were thrust upon us. Yet, others were a work of nature.  But, thanks to the exceptionally resilient character of this wonderful nation, we navigated through turbulent times and emerged victorious almost every time. No doubt, it took us some time but we made through them, every time.

That is the kind of nation we are; hard, resilient, self motivated and sinfully patriotic. These are the basis of our national culture. This is who we are. This is us; you, me and every other Pakistani out there working really hard in his own capacity to make his/her family, department, community, nation and countrymen proud. And it is not without impediments. Trust me. There are hurdles on the way but we go on.

There is this some unknown force that keeps us pushing. It does not let us give up and overwhelm by the obstacles. What is it? How does it look like? Ever wondered?   It is this resilient character that defines us. It is deep rooted. It runs in our blood. It is what we have inherited from our ancestors. The whole freedom movement of the subcontinent revolves around it.

Brilliance in resilience against all impediments is a prerequisite for an ideal that you think is worth sacrificing your life for.  This is what M.A Jinnah did. This is what Faiz sahb did. And this is what every Pakistani has done particularly, during the last 12 years against an enemy that had no face, no heart and so cruel who didn’t even spare our children.  But, we stood victorious in the end. Who defeated him? Yes! It was our resilient, firm and steadfast character as a nation that we must be proud of, dealt the fatal blow to the enemy.

Take a good look into the life of any of your family member, your friend, your teacher, your colleague, your boss or your milk man at your doorstep or your Sabzi wala down the street or the gentleman cobbler on your way to office. You would find one trait common in all of them: resilience. This is what defines Pakistan as a nation-A Resilient Nation.

That said, the cold blooded shoot out of an alleged terrorist facilitator family-a father and mother in front of their 3 kids by the men in black have painted the law enforcement agencies as brutes with a license to kill. This will go down as a savage act of self- condemnation and humiliation even if charges were right. Let there be a transparent and open investigation into the sad incident and the truth, whatever it is be known to the masses. Let there be justice done and seen to be served to the bereaved family and the shooters.

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Writer is an actor by heart, blogger by instinct and a dreamer by default. He has an M.Phil. in media studies from University of the Punjab.