A Note of Thanks

Pakistan Defence Day, a solemn day of remembrance, a day when we set aside our internal differences, and come together as a nation, to thank those men in uniform who have made the supreme sacrifice for our motherland. We thank the young men whose mothers await death to reunite with their sons; we thank the newly-weds whose widows will spend their lives alone; we thank the fathers who exist only in faded childhood memories.

Today, I take the opportunity to thank the unsung heroes of our history: the brave and selfless Generals who have always forsaken their rights to martyrdom, choosing instead to suffer the misery of growing old with their children, and dispatched generations of men to everlasting glory.

On this day, how can I not thank the tactful Generals of ’65, the masterminds of the designed-to-fail Operation Gibraltar? The stalemate of a war you invited may have spilt innocent blood on both sides, and may have ended without the resolution of any issues, but it did put into reality for our nation that elusive philosophical concept, The Other: the perpetual enemy in whose opposition we must always define ourselves. We thank you for this important contribution to our national identity. We thank you also for being trendsetters, for your unprecedented actions have paved the way for the Generals of today.

I salute the resolve of the honourable Generals of ’71, whose tireless efforts made history. The mass murder that you oversaw in an assiduous, yet ultimately futile, attempt at maintaining our national honour and unity has rightfully catapulted Pakistan into a select list of proud nations alongside Japan and Germany. You tenaciously waged a war that most would have deemed unwinnable, just because it was honourable to do so. I have no doubt that the half a million Bihari patriots you deserted in Bangladesh join me in thanking you from their refugee camps for according us all this dignity.

I thank Allah daily for the benevolent Generals of ’77. An ambitious populist is a dictator-in-waiting, so thank you for pre-emptively liberating us by hanging Pakistan’s first popularly elected Prime Minister. It matters not if the charges against him were false: there is, after all, such a legal tradition as the Doctrine of Necessity. It is sad that only in the World Hereafter will we be able to properly thank you, O martyrs of Bahawalpur, for Islamisation and guns and drugs. It is no exaggeration to suggest that our thankless society will need a collective effort at a superhuman level to squander these gifts.

But the selfless Generals of ’07, I cannot thank enough. The entire Free World joins me in gratitude, my Lords, for you are beacons of freedom in the Muslim world. You have gallantly stood in the line of fire to defend us, and put Pakistan before all else. Your diplomatic acumen and political shrewdness have complemented each other to ensure that instead of being bombed ‘back to the Stone Age’, we will be suicide-bombed back merely a millennium and a half. To express our appreciation for this and so much more, the least we can do is to accept you and your successors as our Overlords for eternity; you are truly indispensable.

Dear Generals of the past and the present: thank you so very much. You have led us you with such exemplary tact, honour, benevolence and selflessness, that we continue to try and emulate you in our mundane civilian lives. You have shaped us as a nation, more so than any other force. You are the reason why any Pakistani, anywhere in the world, can proudly claim to be one. Were the great Noor Jehan alive today, she would surely re-dedicate to you her tribute to the fallen brave of September ’65:

Aey watan key sajeelay jawanu!
Meray Naghmey Tumharey Liay Hain…

O! Brave young men of the nation,
My songs are all for you…

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and for a tribute to the real heroes...

Aey watan key sajeelay jawano!
Meray naghmey tumharey liay hain.

Sarfroshi hai iman tumhara;
Juratoun keh paristar hau tum;
Jau hifazat karey sarhadoun kee,
Woh falak baus diwaar hau tum.
Aey shujaat key zinda nishano!
Meray naghmey tumharey liay hain.

Beweeion, maon, behnoun kee nazrein,
Tum kau dekhein tau yoon jagmagaein,
Jaisey khamoshion kee zubaan sey,
Dey rahee haun woh tum kau duwaein.
Quam key aey jaree paasbano!
Meray naghmey tumharey liay hain.

Tum peh jau kuch likha shairoun ney,
Uss mein shamil hai awaz meree;
Urh keh pohncho gey tum jis ufaq par,
Saath jaey gee perwaz meree.
Chaand taroun keh aey razdano!
Meray naghmey tumharey liay hain.