What does it mean for a nation to feel lost? To feel disconnected, suffocated and betrayed at once? That is exactly what millions of Pakistanis have been experiencing for the first time in their lives – a collective alienation, grief and a national disorientation.
It began the day their voice was crushed and when their elected leader was taken away. The day Imran Khan was removed, something broke inside this country. For many Pakistanis, it felt like their own institutions, the ones they were raised to believe in – turned against them. A mass treachery, heartbreak, panic and hopelessness so deep it is now turning young men rebellious, distrustful and detached from the very identity and institutions they once proudly defended.
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Pakistanis used to feel an outsized admiration for their country, they were prepared to defend it even with their lives . Despite all its flaws, they carried its flag with pride abroad and held it with zeal at home. Even with ethnic conflicts which is an all together a separate debate, the chimeric national identity still felt real.
They trusted and stood strong with those who stole their rights and were doing so for many years. Yet the concept of nationalism and love for it, blinded their sense of judgment. But all that illusion shattered under this current regime. The smoke and mirrors they relied on for decades have finally evaporated and the nation woke up to a harsh reality. The reality of two nation theory not the Jinnah Sahab one, but A master and a slave one. People experiencing it first hand are in a state of shock, confused, coping with it in silence, in fear and are like hostages in their own land.
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And those living abroad now feel nationless, rootless, unsure of where they belong .They have been deeply affected by the horrendous events taking place at homeMost of them are afraid to speak. Afraid that if they speak out, their families will be harassed and persecuted and they will be stigmatised as anti-state elements for calling out the wanton actions of the government.
And for the first time, Pakistanis understand what it is like to feel homeless, a person without a nation, going through a collective depression, a collective identity crisis. And on top of all that, we’re shamefully being branded ‘anti-national’ for calling out the tyrannical actions of the government.
But unfortunately this vicious cycle isn’t new. Every generation of Pakistanis has suffered the same betrayal, Fatima Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Baçha Khan, East Pakistan, Bhutto, Bugti Benazir,andnowImranKhan.Everygenerationhasgonethroughthetraumaofit’shopeand aspirations go up in flames.
Sadly Pakistanis were already confused about their ethnic identity, debating whether we are Indian,Iranian,CentralAsianorArab?Butnowtheconfusionrunsdeeper.Nowwehavebeen thrown into further confusion about our national identity, which was already deeply fractured .
It is a country whose people no longer trust their journalists, their news, or even their own fellow Pakistanis. It is a surreal feeling of losing all ties with a place that you used to call home and which has almost become dystopian.
This is the real difference between a first-world democratic nation and a third-world undemocratic Fascist state.And mark my words — when a nation becomes indifferent to the needs aspirations of it’s people who have been abused, ignored, and suffocated, nothing good follows,It always ends the same way: in lawlessness, crime, unrest, and chaos.
You can strip people of their rights, you can silence their voices, but you cannot crush the anger that grows underneath. And when that suppressed rage finally erupts, it would result in a catastrophic tidal wave that will sweep everything away.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the position or editorial policy of the publication.
