I have often asked myself why our English newspapers while being an important part of our ‘media mix’ regard terms and phrases like ‘Patriotism’, ‘National Honour, and Ideology as essentially Urdu Medium.
The attitude of our English newspapers towards issues like Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations is quite different from the ‘perceptions’ that constitute the masses of Pakistan. The editors of the English newspapers probably believe that being ‘intellectually’ superior, they simply can’t afford to be on the same page with the masses of Pakistan.
The masses of Pakistan are idiotically ‘patriotic’, obscenely obsessed with such sick notions as national honour, and ridiculously divorced from reality. This is the impression that is conveyed by those writers who are published in English newspapers.
I am not speaking just of Dawn. Dawn though remains a classical case in this respect. It is so intensely possessed by ‘ a passion for intellect’ that it simply can’t identify itself with ‘the national sentiment’ on the issues like Kashmir. Recently I read a piece in Dawn that was a ‘befitting’ exercise in upholding the philosophy of ‘accepting national disgrace for material honour’ that Hussein Haqqani often projects in his writings.
I have the unenviable privilege of having known Haqqani ‘the intellectual’ for whom nothing is higher than success. And by success he means ‘status and money.’
He has achieved both— first as spokesperson of the PML (N), then of the PPP, and now of a clandestine wing of the C.I.A.
His book ‘Magnificent Delusions’ warns Pakistanis of the dangers of harbouring the ideas of parity with a power as mammoth as India—- and of any intentions to exercise right of dissent from the U.S dictates.
In his views the people of Pakistan are cringing in the yoke of these magnificent delusions. Once they forget that the terms like patriotism and national honour exist in the dictionary they would have earned the right to exist.
Quite logically HH is an ‘intellectual giant’ in the eyes of Dawn.
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