This is a town of the diseased — those who never managed to say what truly ailed them. It is a state of hysteria in which people do not speak; they mutter. These are the once-mute people who have finally found their voices, yet cannot grasp what they ought to say. And so they expel from their tongues whatever their throats, vocal cords, and lips can muster. It is a tragedy that people have rendered their sorrows incurable. They flourished all their lives on crooked paths, and when they finally stepped onto the straight one, they had already forgotten where they were meant to go.
Everything that has been thought about has been disastrously wrong. Everything that is happening is happening terribly. Now, maybe even the simplest question has been forgotten: what was there to think about?
This play is an elegy for a society without a voice.
Civil society — which should act as a bridge between the people and the ruling elite — has failed. The intelligentsia remains fixated on Imran Khan, despite its task to critique elite policy and offer an antithesis. It cannot move beyond him. Yes, he paved the way for much of what we witness today. But continuing to pursue him serves no public purpose. It serves the elite. It distracts from the actions of a junta that has pillaged this country for decades.
Universities have lost their essence. They were historically established as spaces where members of a society acquired knowledge, socialised it, and, after qualification, used it to identify social pathologies and eliminate them. Today, universities function primarily as grooming grounds for brain drain.
One of the institutions that once socially trained and intellectually nourished students was the debating society. These societies are still celebrated in name. We revere the Oxford Union for hosting debates on national and international issues throughout the year. Pakistan, too, has produced distinguished debating societies. Institutions in Lahore — Government College Lahore, Punjab University, and King Edward Medical University — are worth mentioning for having prestigious debating societies. Government College, in particular, prides itself on a long tradition of fostering debate and discussion.
Under the current regime, however, universities are compelled to ensure that debating societies do not engage with politics or religion — the two forces that most profoundly shape how individuals navigate life. The current regime has reduced debate to a hollow competition of speaking faster and uttering more words.
Each year, substantial public funds are spent on hosting grand and prestigious debating competitions. But what purpose do they serve if they cannot open the mind of the common man? How can they make him aware of the misery he lives in or help him envision a way out? If politics and religion are forbidden subjects, then what remains? A human being? No — only a compliant worker, condemned to a nine-to-five routine, returning home each day to repeat the same cycle.
As Jaun Elia reminds us:
“یہ خراباتیانِ خرد باختہ
صبح ہوتے ہی سب کام پر جائیں .”
Even merit has been compromised. Some institutions reserve quotas for cadet college teams, ensuring their qualification for final rounds. Talent and effort are ignored, while teams from military colleges receive a clear path forward. This practice undermines institutions that take genuine pride in cultivating debate, art, and intellectual labour.
Society is collapsing. The 27th Amendment has granted lifetime immunity to five-star generals and the president, shielding them from legal accountability. The Constitution has often been little more than paper. It rarely mattered. However, society continued to be a vibrant and dynamic force that held power accountable. Debating competitions were one of the many arenas where citizens attempted to challenge authority. I do not know what becomes of a society in which even debate has granted immunity to power.
It is impossible to discern who holds the collar in this harrowing darkness. Our minds stand paralysed because the original objective has been forgotten with alarming ease. What will be the result of a system in which indulgence is granted to usurpers? What outcome can emerge from a struggle that shelters embezzlers?
This is not merely the death of debate. It is the death of society itself.