- By: Barrister Usman Ali, Ph.D.
Pakistan stands at the brink of its most precarious hour. Enemy aggression looms along the frontiers while, inside, a small clique fans the flames of discord. Escalating friction with India makes national unity not merely desirable but indispensable. In such a moment the nation needs calm at home, unshakable faith in its institutions, and collective resolve. Yet some actors, blinded by ego and poisoned by partisan spite, are sabotaging all three and putting security itself at risk.
Spurred by strident yet hollow revolutionary slogans, particularly in certain border districts, and by the more fervent followers of one political party, individuals are vilifying their own country, army, and institutions simply because their leader faces lawful detention. The toxin they broadcast across social media echoes the enemy’s script word for word. When the army is squared off against an external foe, stoking hatred at home is not dissent; it is collusion. The campaign has even drawn in Afghan voices long marinated in anti-Pakistan propaganda, magnifying its reach.
Disagreement with policy is a democratic right; dismantling an institution through wholesale defamation is reckless, indeed, treasonous. Mature nations allow critique, but none barter away security, sovereignty, or institutional integrity. Today every other dispute must yield to a single imperative: safeguarding Pakistan’s freedom, safety, and stability.
The arm-chair revolutionaries of YouTube, self-proclaimed sages recycling threadbare slogans, are pushing more than dissent; they are marketing a lethal idea. Some nurture ancient grudges; others, in their naivety, serve as mouthpieces for the enemy. Their rhetoric not only mocks the armed forces but openly questions the state’s very existence, infecting young minds with cynicism, institutional loathing, and civic apathy. Internal conspirators and external adversaries see an opening and are eager to spread the infection.
History records that whenever Pakistan has faced danger from abroad, political foes have closed ranks behind the state. The past has witnessed harsher disputes, trials, exiles, even hangings, yet no one cursed the state or parroted the enemy. Tragically, for the first time we now see supporters of a former prime minister echoing hostile propaganda on the threshold of war, preferring abuse of their own army to unity. This is no longer politics; it is a perilous psychological distortion that could cost the nation dearly.
We as a people face an uncompromising test. Will we elevate the faction over the flag? Will the liberty of one individual outweigh the security and dignity of 240 million? Can we be so blind as to mouth the enemy’s lines at the very moment he presses the trigger? Every thoughtful Pakistani must ask: does loyalty to one man or party justify endangering our country, our soldiers, our future? If those same leaders regain office tomorrow, how will they govern through the constitution, army, and state they ridicule today? And can anyone credibly believe that those shaking the pillars now will shore them up later?
These events also demand honesty from the military and other state organs. Repeated forays into politics, grooming favourites, and stitching artificial coalitions may yield fleeting advantages, but history shows that such expedients breed monsters that later devour the hand that fed them. The margin for further mistakes is gone.
The government must therefore act without hesitation. Voices poisoning national cohesion and running toxic online crusades must meet swift, lawful, and decisive response. On the question of state integrity, compromise is impossible.
Finally, the public must choose reason over rage. Do not let political devotion consume patriotism. If we prefer animosity, prejudice, and blind zeal to a clear view of the real enemy, the harm will fall on the entire state, not on a single party or institution.
Remember: where the homeland endures, all else endures; if it falls, nothing remains.