Come at me for it or whatever but the last time anyone bothered to change Pakistan ideologically was Musharraf in his early days. It’s not that simple to get rid of those mindsets but that was the only concerted effort I have seen in my life. Sab Se Pehlay Pakistan. Enlightened Moderation et al. It had some impact in certain sections of big cities at least in terms of pushing the envelope on women’s dress, mingling between the sexes, but in Pakistan you can only speak of tolerance in pleading tones, not equal citizenship as a prerequisite of nationhood. Of no religion being better than another. Now the army is fully a business concern. Even side hustle of propaganda like this that pleads some moderation has been fully shelved. Now TLP is allowed to run amok without a single relevant person bothering to comment on it.

The only path to cultural and linguistic tethering now passes through the Shia faith, it seems to me. Deeply entrenched annual rituals, commemorative shaayari, a grand narrative. Middle class sunni children have none of that. And access to native things that don’t pass through any religion at all is down to zero for the middle class school going kid since the banning of Basant & the end of any fun literary culture for the young (mainly Ishtiaq Ahmad & Ankh Macholi).