Hubris and egos or humility and wisdom - what should prevail?

I have been thinking whether my interest in politics is because of nature (my genes) or nurture (experiences). In undivided India, my father was the President of the Nainital Muslim League. He was arrested immediately after the partition and spent six months in jail on fabricated charges of 'anti-state' activities and was only released when my mother wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru who was my father's patient.

The earliest memory of my life is that of a three-year-old. We used to live in the clinic of my father facing Victoria Road in Karachi directly across Paradise Cinema. The students were protesting on the road on January 9, 1953. Suddenly, there was commotion and shots were fired. My father (and I observing from between his legs) watched from the balcony. Tear gas shells and, immediately thereafter, real bullets were fired. I remember seeing a body slumped on the road. An inspector warned my father to go inside. That's all I remember. Reflecting on it today, it was a story of hubris that has been repeated throughout our history.

Protesting students were pushed aside by a flag-carrying automobile whose occupant was Minister of Interior, Mr Mushtaq Gurmani. That is when the firing started. Gurmani lost consciousness because of tear gas and was lifted away. Sadly and criminally, 26 students were killed. The first to lose his life was a young boy scout, Nainsuk Lal, who was tending to a bullet-injured student protester. The entire city joined the protest and life was paralysed. Public property was damaged including Gurmani's car. During the negotiations that followed, peace was restored on the appeal of a student leader Kazim, not on the request of the government. Did we learn anything?

The next year in 1954 in memory of those killed, a convention was held in Katrak Hall. Mr AK Brohi, then a Minister, was supposed to speak. Gurmani felt insulted the year before, he was also against negotiations that had brought peace, and his hubris and ego was yearning for revenge. Brohi arrived, but a planned pandemonium was started with plain clothes people along with arranged gangsters mixing among the students unknown to them. The peace squad among students was led by Dr Adeeb Rizvi (of SIUT today).

Our long history of labelling parties and leaders as traitors and anti-state dates back to 1951 when the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case was initiated. Those arrested included Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Maj Gen Akbar Khan, Sajjad Zaheer and Capt Zafarullah Poshni (who recently...