Strange Expectations
By Ali Sukhanver
‘If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, it is like expecting the lion not to eat you because you don’t eat him’, says Shakespeare. Expectations play a very vital role in making our life hell or heaven. Expectations are in actual our desires and hopes that we wish to be fulfilled by hook or by crook. We pray for their fulfillment, we struggle for their achievement and in this way most of our joys and sorrows directly or indirectly get connected with our expectations. Wise are those whose desires and expectations are logical and rational; but what to do if our very logical and very rational expectations prove a house of cards. A few days back, addressing a consultative trade meeting, the Commerce Minister of Pakistan Khurram Dastagir Khan said that import of electricity from India will greatly help overcome the Pakistan’s current power crisis. He asserted that Pakistan will continue to promote trade with India despite tensions along the border. The honourable Minister was very honest and sincere in his opinion and certainly while making this statement he would be expecting the same positive response from the Indian side but if he had listened to Shakespeare’s advice, his expectation might have been altogether otherwise.
Maintaining friendly relations with the neighbouring countries particularly with India has always been a ‘top priority’ for Pakistan. There have always been so many factors which could possibly create hindrances and widen the differences between Pakistan and India; these factors include cross border tension from the Indian side, Indian interference in Balochistan and above all the criminal role played by the Indian consulates in Kabul to destabilize Pakistan but Pakistan did never let these factors mar the peace-process between the two countries. In spite of the fact that for the last three months India has been demonstrating a very aggressive and very violent military activity against Pakistan along the Line of Control, Pakistan is still trying to address the situation through peace-talks, just because Pakistan considers peace the most important and inevitable need of the time but our Indian friends do not seem willing to appreciate this amiability. The aggressiveness and rudeness of India no doubt gives birth to a strong feeling of disliking and hatred against India in Pakistani people. And in reaction to this aggressiveness they blame the government of Pakistan for showing ‘undue softness’ to India.
A few days back, Indian officials requested the government of Pakistan to permit India the export of wheat to Afghanistan through Pakistan’s land route. The government of Pakistan might be having a soft corner for India but at public level the government had to face a very bitter reaction. The people from the flour milling industry were of the opinion that India is on one hand ‘murdering’ innocent Pakistanis along the Line of Control and at the same time asking for permission of using the land route to Afghanistan through Pakistan; it is all unfair. Moreover they feared that Indian wheat carries a disease named Karnal Brunt which could be harmful to Pakistani wheat if it spreads here. They say that asking for the permission of using the route to Afghanistan is a very cunning type of conspiracy. The only target of this request is to damage Pakistani wheat crop with Karnal Brunt.
Most of the Indian people are mild, moderate and peace-loving but at the same time there is the extremist section of the Indian society also. The extremists belonging to this section are so narrow-minded that they are not ready even to allow Pakistani actors, players, singers and musicians to perform in India. Recently the Hindu extremists belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party have threatened to block the release of Pakistani actor and singer Ali Zafar’s new Bollywood film ‘Kill Dil’. According to the sources, the producers of this film have been since long receiving threats for casting Pakistani actors in Indian movies. The BJP terrorists say they cannot allow Pakistani actors to work in the Indian film industry because there is so much talent in their country and there is no need to look across the border. Sanjay Upadhyay, the vice president of BJP Mumbai unit said talking to the media, “We will protest against the release of Pakistani actor’s film ‘Kill Dil’ and will oppose every film-maker and every production house willing to cast Pakistani actors.” In presence of all such examples Pakistan’s every effort of maintaining good relation with India goes waste. Today, the situation is no doubt very painful and pinching for everyone who loves peace but tomorrow, more in pain and agony shall be those who expect that things between Pakistan and India would one day return to normal. They are the people whose lives revolve around expectations and they are the people who have never heard of Shakespeare’s comments on expectations.
