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Islamabad Diary

Déjà Vu

Life goes on as Basant made us believe a few hundred kilometers away from the killing fields

By Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri | March 2026


The specter of the federal capital is in gloom and blood-soaked. Another suicide bomber, apparently, from across the Western frontier, made his way to a Shia mosque in fortified Islamabad. He was unchecked, like the one who made it in November at the District Courts’ premises. Perhaps, the sleuths were preoccupied with a witch-hunting mandate against political opposition.

The follow-up, as usual, was lamentation for public consumption. Dozens were buried, and a 100 odd are crippled for life. Not so blurred is the capitulation of the State in the reclusive province of Balochistan, as 12 of its towns and cities were held hostage for a day by unscrupulous elements. The loot and bloodshed will never be known publicly.

Life, nonetheless, goes on as Basant made us believe a few hundred kilometers away from the killing fields. Lahore was in fanfare under the patronage of its cosmetic chief minister, who was eager to showcase modernity by making Lahoris fly kites. A dossier from the provincial authorities said that over 50 million kites were sold with approximately 300,000 serious flyers, generating a whopping business of Rs2.5 billion.

This adulterated mosaic of sorrow and serenity, however, did not go well with our One-Nation synopsis. Eyebrows were rightly raised as Basant celebrations were not called off officially. The Sharifs and the sycophants were in ‘hurray’, as SOS for blood donations were being cried out. A couple of social media posts from Maryam, saying: “I am happy to see you happy” @ ‘Liberty in Lahore’, were distressing.

An amicus curiae, meanwhile, stole the show. Barrister Salman Safdar played the devil’s advocate and superbly performed as ‘friend of the court.’ He brought from the confines of a solitary cell accounts of ‘otherness’ that made the nation get nostalgic of the political who’s who of yesteryears who ‘enjoyed’ their ‘entitlements.’ Imran Khan, down with a severe eye infection, stood high on the index of moral clarity, empathy, and fighting spirit. He only asked for items merely to live on in prison, and not for contested freedom.


The honourable ‘last’ Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, under the 27th amendment, after exhibiting the magnanimity to inquire into an incarcerated former prime minister’s “living conditions,” went missing. He did not jot down the short order required for remedial measures. He thought it more appropriate to lecture at a sessions’ court in South Punjab on legal dictums, as a perplexed opposition kept the country on tenterhooks.

Politics since then has been in a déjà vu. Pakistanis are witnesses to the extra-judicial killing of an ultra-genius, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The man who articulately played on both sides of the civil and military fences was hanged. He was lost in the midst of an acrimony that was personal to the core, making it an untenable national loss. There was some flimsy consolation after four decades, as the Supreme Court ruled that the then-Lords had erred. It was too late to regret.

Fast forward: a celebrity, the greatest skipper of all times and philanthropist who gave the nation its debut World Cup, Third Umpire to the Gentleman’s game, and three cancer hospitals, is being held incommunicado. He is awaiting his fate as rules are thrown to the wind at the expense of ridiculing the public conscience. Ironically, Bhutto’s party is refusing to read the crosscurrents of realpolitik out to deface civil edifice on the ruins of an eviscerated constitution.

It reminds me of Earnest Hemingway, who said: “…the world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” Pakistan’s civil society, however, is awakening from slumber. Learned men are calling for the rule of law and adherence to virtue.

Hamid Mir, an adored journalist, aptly quipped on Imaan Mazari’s swift “overnight” sentencing, saying: “… the insane girl leaving behind luxuries of life … in pursuit of civil rule… has opted to give birth to her child in prison …” That says it all, tongue-in-cheek, of where we have reached as a nation.

POSTSCRIPT: We cried for the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues at the hands of the Taliban in 2001. Here in Islamabad, we too had the audacity to bulldoze a World War-I memorial, as well as a Mughal-era building, 200 meters from the British-era obelisk in Rehara village. It was collateral damage on the path of a housing society for the mighty and powerful. Rest assured, no one cares!

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