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Pakistan media has an amazing repertoire of patriotic songs post every nerve wrecking and state machinery failure in our historical journey of nearly 69 years. The latest one seems to be from coke studio one of the most watched music programme in Pakistan creating the complicated and beautiful relation between music and patriotic emotions.
People admire and listen to it such songs, and appreciate the skin raising experience which these songs give to them for patriotic reasons mostly. However, Pakistani patriotism mostly generated through its media has, prevented fruitful policy debates. Pakistan is trapped into its poor conceived policies and media playing its role of stimulating only virulent and blind nationalism. And that is the reason for me that listening to coke studio song is like listening to manipulation and demagoguery in a musical way.
Post Army public school tragedy we saw songs continuously being played on media channels of Pakistan and by declaring them SHAHEED in the songs we seem to have closed all the debate on that loss and tragedy. Religious symbolism is a good way to keep dissenting and most importantly questioning voices shut in Pakistan.
I personally have a serious issue with giving titles to (someone else) children, men and women titles which they may not have wanted in the first place.
We hide our shame by celebrating these men, women and children in our so-called patriotic songs. And we think these songs will heal the wounds of all our tragedies.
The constructive honest debate, commissions, responsibility fixing, accountability questions and reckoning all lost and we are happy enjoying these songs at this juncture of our history once again.
Writer: Mona Aurangzeb
The writer is from FATA, a political and social commentator on Pak-Afghan region. She tweets @mo2005
THE PASHTUN TIMES
