63 years ago, a grave mistake was committed by a handful of politicians and other notables behind the closed doors of North Indian drawing rooms by conflating a legitimate and constitutional anti-colonial struggle into a private and selfish attempt towards the preservation of their political futures. The bastard child of the subcontinent, carved out of the limbs of the great nation, has endured a tumultuous history befitting of the process through which it came into existence itself. Masked under the dogma of religious freedom and the rhetoric of western liberal political thought, it has proven to be a futile attempt at bringing together the heterogeneous population of a distorted territory. The weight of history holds the chains of the enslaved masses in its hands and the only hope of salvation is for a rethinking of what this country represents and an inquisition of great magnitude into what it truly means to be Pakistan. Can nationalism be re-written or can a nation-state continue to endure without the vague allegiance to a unified political community? I wake up thinking what is Pakistan for I belong to a different Pakistan and the servant washing my car belongs to another Pakistan and the person currently drying dates along the banks of the river Indus in the heartland of Sindh belongs to yet another Pakistan. The army represents a Pakistan, the landlord represents another Pakistan, Zardari embodies a third version and Sufi Mohammad a fourth. Those burnt in Gojra were Pakistan as well although they might not have been for those who lit the fires that condemned them to their infernal end. The last answer to the question of what is Pakistan has failed. It is time to come up with a new one.

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