THE prime minister has spoken. The resolve has been expressed, which many hope is for real this time. The country has offered its trump card, the military, to spearhead, dominate, its advance against militancy. In its presence, the politicians have agreed to back a national drive which Mr Nawaz Sharif promises to oversee without partiality to any group and without bias for any past favourites.

It is going to be a long and long-debated campaign, beginning with the discussion whose job it is actually to deal with this situation. The fear of the Pakistani apparatus’s inability to effec-tively deal with the challenge will have to be overcome. The feeling that the people have time and again been betrayed by the system, in pursuance of one cause or another, is not going to go away easily.

It will only help matters if those who have questions are not snubbed in the name of national interest. The prime minister’s call signals the start of just one segment of the process which must lead to an effort at the complete rehabilitation of society. It will require participation from everyone from the belligerent to the meek.

There is a theory of two irreconcilable parallels that are trying to take the country in two opposite directions.

Society is badly fractured. It comprises so many islands, and for reasons of simplification, there is this theory of two irreconcilable parallels that are trying to take the country in two opposite directions. Yet, in between stands a multitude of people who are not ready to side with any of the two completely. They may be inclined to show some support for the side which guarantees them security at a given moment, but they are also confused ideologically.

The two parallels have been helped on their separate ways, one barely coming in contact with the other, until there is confrontation. The children of the two parallels are born in total oblivion to each other; they belong to two different school systems that exist at a distance from each other, in the two Pakistans. There is little room for moderation between the two opposites that do not meet but only live in fear of the other.

Given the loud arguments at this stage, all that the two sides can call for is annihilation of the other. This is like expressing no-confidence in one’s own argument. Let there be no doubt that while the context and profile may change, this war against terrorism that the prime minister has declared now will — will have to — involve at some point the rehabilitation of and non-violent engagement with elements from among those who are apparently the target now.

This is how it has always been in wars big and small and this is what is one of the basic aims of the criminal justice system.  It cannot be done by the gun alone.

These are points that will eventually come into discussion but obviously right now the stress will be on building a national consensus for the action that Prime Minister Sharif vows to carry to its logical conclusions.

Considering that the suspicion has been built over long years spent doubting everyone around, it will be a task of some proportions. It is no small handicap that the politicians have no political force at their command to facilitate opinion-building. There are no party cadres to speak of and no local-tier government aiding a confidence-building exercise. The assurances have to come from the top, and there is so much space for doubts to creep in.

This is a society divided into so many small parts, for reasons of security alone, where individuals are looking to hide themselves under one cover or another. This cold week in Lahore the complaint is that the Chitrali cap bearing the stamp of a shopkeeper in Peshawar is likely to get you a closer, second probing look from the personnel manning the various security pickets.

A few weeks ago, you were advised to avoid wearing black lest you made yourself too conspicuous to anyone wanting to leave a violent mark on Muharram. A reminder every now and then sounded about the need for you to choose your mosque carefully and keep your distance from the madressah. There are so many examples which can be listed to show the Pakistanis’ quest for finding the safe doings in this complicated, disparate Rome that they must lead their lives in today.

The search for security in the background of the terror-infested phase that this country has been going through has isolated Pakistanis in a way that makes unity all the more difficult. Whatever common ground that existed has been overtaken by suspicion, and a wish to be anonymous or a desire to be in the winning camp.

If this is the time to stick to your own kind, time to close ranks, be united in the face of the challenge, some find it more difficult than others to categorise themselves. The black and white is there all too fleetingly. The doubts return quickly, and once again you find yourself a member of the wandering minority, one who can be placed in any group and who can be as easily expelled from any.

For those who are never able to say it categorically, their pain of not being able to personally deal with tragedies such as Peshawar is compounded by their failure to come up with a ready, ‘befitting’ answer in sync with the national thrust.

Maybe they have been allowed too many versions of the story and are inclined to choose suitable chunks from it and join them together into a whole that doesn’t conform to the national — what is that pet word these days — narrative. Perhaps the times are too intense to allow the expression of doubt and uncertainty, but unless the people in the grey area have spoken and have been heard and been convinced, the work towards reinventing Pakistan will be far from complete.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2014