One fine September morning, 1974, a change in the constitution would occur, that would ultimately force us to lose, ‘one of the greatest scientific minds Pakistan has ever produced’, as quoted by Daily Times. Our leaders just seemed so pre-occupied with the Machiavellian principles of ruling, and appeasing to the general population to legitimize their rule that they would inadvertently handicap Pakistan’s Science and Development movement permanently. This great mind that I’m talking about is none other than Abdus Salam, who left Pakistan in protest against the controversial draft that categorized Ahmedis as non-muslims. Abdus Salam was a theoretical physicist, and the first Pakistani to win the Nobel prize in Physics. He was the head of the IAEA delegation that helped develop peaceful nuclear technology, and even managed to persuade United States to give them a small research reactor. Even though we pushed Abdus Salam away, the international community recognized his achievements; He received critical acclaim from leading scientists, media and World leaders. And not only that, he even has a street named after him in CERN, Geneva.
So what was the point of this somber text? To make us feel bad about ourselves? No. Rather it was to remind people that we have made mistakes in the past, but what we’re observing right now is a De Ja Vu of sort, when one of our greatest teenage mind is questioned on her integrity, despite taking bullet for her anti-Taliban views. Not only was she the first Pakistani to receive the Peace Prize, she was also the youngest person ever to receive one. Her campaign for education to be the basic right of all and sundry was the main reason behind the ratification of Pakistan’s first Right to Education Bill. While the keyboard warriors were busy calling her a CIA agent, she was touring the world, empowering women and children to ask for their right to education. A fact often quoted by the keyboard warriors is that ‘She only received fame after being shot! AGENT!!!’, when in fact she was well known for sending articles defining her life under the Taliban rule to BBC under a pseudonym. She was shot, not for wanting to go to school, but for criticizing the degradation of education under the Taliban rule. Farman Nawaz, a Pakistani freelance columnist, actually made a very valid point when he argued that Malala would have gained more fame in Pakistan if she had belonged to the province of Punjab, and he might not be far off, considering how Punjab is actually a pseudo-machiavellian dominator in domestic politics.
So what we should grab from this whole essay-esque post is that we’ve made mistakes in the past, and we’re on the verge of repeating them again. Sambhal Jao Pakistanio.
