Everywhere there is only at (anger/vengeance), although at is actually the hostility of God, whereas pat (a soft leaf) is the mercy of God. At consists of arrogance, anger, passion and revenge whose extreme makes God the enemy of man, and pat means the leaf of a tree as well as settling matters amicably. When the world came into being, terror ruled; every discussion, every dispute, every issue was settled through war and fighting. Man did not know any method of solving problems except war, but as man progressed, he kept moving away from wars, quarrels and fights; he began to leave at and started adopting pat. But it is unfortunate that in our society even today, instead of using pat, at is used.

As man gradually received conscious training, he gave different shapes to his warlike instinct. To fulfil the desire for competition, he satisfied his competitive nature through peaceful contests in sports. To gain a higher status or kingship, instead of fighting with weapons and massacres of armies, he began politics so that through peace and harmony he could compete with others. Politics can certainly be an alternative to war, but in politics there is peace, dialogue and negotiation, whereas in war there is fighting, beating and blood. At also means revenge in Punjabi—“At khuda da wair honda” (At is God’s enmity)—whereas a famous meaning of pat is honour—“Ho Laal Meri pat rakhiyo.” Honour is certainly better than revenge and retaliation, but it is unfortunate that national politics and conditions are moving towards at; no one cares for pat. Politics and positions used to have honour, which we have lost. In the Insafi (PTI) narrative everything exists except respect—neither for their own nor for their opponents. Crossing limits in any matter is dangerous. “At chakna” is a Punjabi idiom which means to annoy everyone and create chaos. Many dervishes endured this behaviour, swallowed even their honour being ruined, but such at becomes the enmity of God, and now it has become the enmity of God—yet this enmity will not hurt only the Insafis, it will harm the state, politics, democracy and tolerance collectively. For a long time, it seemed that the founder’s overseas supporters had no concern for his life at all. They care only for the narrative and earning dollars from it. Whereas if they had gotten Imran released from jail, all issues would have gradually been resolved, but the result of lifting up at is a severe deadlock. The army has never openly reacted so harshly against a political leader or party. As an institution, the army did work against Bhutto, Benazir and Nawaz Sharif, but behind the scenes. Now announcing the fight is surely an example of “tang aamad bajang aamad” (forced to fight due to extreme provocation).

Although the matter has reached from pat to at, history’s lesson is always that fire should not be fanned, rather water should be poured on it. Despite talking about reconciliation and negotiations for the last three years and reaching disappointment, still, now also, fighting, quarrelling, punishments and banning a party are not a permanent solution. Temporarily, this will suppress PTI but political movements do not end through anger, violence or pressure. These political emotions and movements have to be ended through politics itself. Politics is not treated with allopathic medicine; politics is treated with homeopathic medicine. The cure for passion, anger and extremism in politics is wisdom; only with intellect and a cool temperament can emotions be handled.

The major mistake of PTI’s extremists and YouTubers is that they consider everyone except themselves to be guilty, paid and touts. Their second wrong idea is that for the first time in history only they have shown resistance and only they have borne the greatest hardships. Their third mistake is that they are unwilling to forgive even the slightest lapse or objection from their opponents or their own comrades. Whereas when MRD had to run a movement, the People’s Party made alliances with its fiercest political opponents. PDM was also an alliance of severe opponents which sent Imran Khan home from power. PTI, even after three years, could not reconcile with any party, nor could it form any alliance, nor could it give any democratic movement’s agenda. Many lawyers and democracy-lovers are worried about the injustices done to PTI, but PTI extremists have locked the temple of their own party. They neither accept the stance of anyone else nor are ready to acknowledge anyone else; all others are showered with abuses.

I have written pages upon pages about the mistakes of PTI and Imran Khan and have also been targeted by Insafi trolls and YouTubers. In response to their at, I have always used pat. Whatever I do myself, I advise the powerful side to do the same: the state should not fill politics with anger and revenge. Politics is related to wisdom; its issues should be seen not with anger but with a cool temperament. Instead of replying to PTI’s mistakes, insolence, abuses and injustices in the same language, start solving them through politics. Politics does not kill people with bitter poison; politics hunts humans with sweet poison.

Where at and pat are in contest, there mut (intellect) is needed. To counter politics with politics, political moves should be adopted, political allies should be consulted on political strategies. Nawaz Sharif and Zardari may be unpopular and weak at this time, but no one can deny their grip on politics. PTI was able to topple them only because behind PTI in the past were the full powers of the establishment and the judiciary.

As for the lies of social media and YouTubers and their self-made narratives, the solution is to free the tied hands of national media and enforce effective law on false news. For TV, PEMRA law exists; for keeping checks on the standards of social media, an institution like PEMRA should be made in which the government is also present as well as independent people so that the global impression ends that there are restrictions on free speech in the country. Review the history of the world—great lies have always been defeated by the cool strike of truth. To end fake news, true news will prove to be the counter; the remedy for biased interpretations is interpretations and analyses that prove truthful. Falsehood and wrong analyses cannot be countered through bans; they are countered through freedoms. If there is freedom, the next very day false narratives and fake news will begin to collapse. Remember that arrests of great names were claimed which all turned out to be false, but national media could not counter them because it had neither access nor freedom. The fabricated stories, “inside information,” and secret conspiracies revealed daily by YouTubers—can the alternative media not investigate them and prove them wrong? Of course it can—if free media is given the chance…