A bang, a whimper and the things in-between written by Shah Nawaz Mohal

Shah Nawaz Mohal
The writer is a law graduate
 and member of staff 
Islamabad Bureau

CPEC stoke same hopes that SAARC did three decades back

"The newspapers are flooded with op-eds, analyses, commentaries, exclusives, blogs, even obituaries about the terminal regional organisation. The final nail came when Progressive Pakistan went on to ‘explore possibilities of creating a greater economic alliance in South Asia’ to counter Incredible India’s designs of ‘SAARC sans Pakistan’

CPEC in, SAARC out. And the seer of all times, Voltaire, summed
up the ‘most recent developments in South Asia’ thus, ‘That is the order of things; one nail drives out another; so goes the world’.

But before sifting bang from a whimper, let us survey all things in-between that happened beside Uri and Surgical Strikes. Pakistan cosied up to China like never before. Russia sent its troops to joint military exercises in Pakistan for the first time. Afghanistan bagged a billion dollar aid package from India. And India landed itself in LEMOA — a defence pact with USA.

With such mighty happenings, with such ‘strategic’ leaps afoot, who cares for a good-for-nothing, spineless organisation that failed to deliver on what it promised and is zilch but a bane. Yes, dearest sirs and ma’ams, you are witnessing the last moments of Mr South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, commonly known by its sobriquet, buddy SAARC.

The newspapers are flooded with op-eds, analyses, commentaries, exclusives, blogs, even obituaries about the terminal regional organisation. The final nail came when Progressive Pakistan went on to ‘explore possibilities of creating a greater economic alliance in South Asia’ to counter Incredible India’s designs of ‘SAARC sans Pakistan’.

Now that was the whimper, those who heard it, brushed it aside. Those who didn’t were busy celebrating the bang.

Everybody heard it, loud and clear. And why wouldn’t they. When one hears of 45 billion dollars, provision of endless job opportunities, an imminent dawn of prosperity, increased economic activity and all things good and splendid day in and day out the bang becomes louder than Big Bang.

But in recent days doubts have cast their pall over China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Pervez Khattak, last week warned once again that KP is being denied its rightful share in CPEC projects, ANP and Jamaat-e-Islami also chummed in with PTI as former announced protests while later threatened to resign in case their province is denied its due share in western route.

"They say past is a foreign country, people do things differently there. But are we doing anything differently? Have we learned our lesson? Have we opted a different path to tread upon? We, dearest sirs and ma’ams, just underwent a change of masters, not a change of path or heart

Fact of the matter is that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a total share of eight projects under CPEC namely Joint Feasibility Study for Upgradation of ML1, KKH II (Havelian-Thakot), Establishment of Havelian Dry Port, D I Khan-Quetta Highway (N-50), Suki Kinari Hydropower Project, Optical Fiber Cable from Rawalpindi to Khunjerab and Upgradation of ML-1, KKH III (Raikot-Thakot). By December 2016, the 650 km section of Gwadar-Quetta section will be completed. And the work is underway on 285 km Dera Ismail khan-Hakla Road.

Mr Khattak, you’ll have what is yours. But since these projects involve brick and mortar unlike statuses, bytes and tweets, you have to hold your horses for a little longer.

Since the goddess of geography denied us the best plot on planet and handed it over to America, in her gratuitous vengeance she tucked us right in the middle of a perennial buffer-zone, an old wise sage, a rising dragon, and a twin brother-turned-arch nemesis. It would’ve been nice if we made amends with our arch nemesis, kept aloof of the buffer-zone and learned a thing or two from old wise sage.

But, dearest sirs and ma’ams, we didn’t do any of it rather we pursued some other mighty designs and majestic schemes.

And we never bothered to catch our breath and ask one simple question: What is it that makes us tumble every time; why we are quick to form bonds, give assurances, and make tall claims; careless in keeping them whole, reluctant to abide by what we’ve vouched for and pull the plug right before our palates prepare to taste the much-anticipated fruit. This is our Sisyphean circle and we plan to perpetuate it further.

They say past is a foreign country, people do things differently there. But are we doing anything differently? Have we learned our lesson? Have we opted a different path to tread upon? We, dearest sirs and ma’ams, just underwent a change of masters, not a change of path or heart. No epiphany dawned upon us and we didn’t wake up to a higher calling either.

Now we rue that our sincerity and loyalty is being paid back by supporting our enemy, India, to increase its presence in Afghanistan, another enemy, and establishing a hand-picked anti-Pakistan government in Afghanistan. Now we wail that our old master has ceased to be trustworthy and blame him of always double crossing us. Now we dream of crushing our old master’s aspirations in the region by hammering out an alliance that includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.

TS Eliot in his poem ‘The Hollow Men’ saw the world ending not with a ‘bang but a whimper’. We have a natural tendency to reduce our bangs into whimpers. Let us hope and pray that the bang of CPEC will avoid the fate of many whimpers we’ve heard during 69 years of existence.