THE complexity that is Pakistan was on full display over the weekend in Karachi. Yesterday, the Difaa-i-Pakistan Council held another sizeable rally, this time at a stone’s throw from Jinnah’s mausoleum. Speaker after speaker called for the reinvention of Pakistan in line with a muscular, reactionary and religion-driven nationalism. The Pakistan envisioned by the DPC would be out of step with the modern world, harkening back to a mystical past whose recreation in present-day Pakistan would apparently be the solution to all that ails the country today. A narrative of hate, intolerance and xenophobia dressed up as ‘independent’ foreign and national-security policies is what was on offer at the DPC rally. There was some irony in the location chosen, for the backdrop of the Quaid’s mausoleum made for a jarring reminder of how far Pakistan has drifted from the vision of its founder. Indeed, if there was something Mr Jinnah would have been proud of this weekend in Karachi, it would be the Karachi Literature Festival. There, writers and intellectuals came together to promote values alien to the DPC supporters: pluralism, tolerance, diversity, a love for the arts and culture, and free thought and expression.

So which is the ‘real’ Pakistan, the one on display at the DPC rally or at the literature festival? Both are, but there is also a crucial difference: the mindset espoused by the DPC appears to be in the ascendant, while that on display at the literature festival is on the decline, or at the very least on the defensive. Perhaps that is the greatest dilemma facing Pakistan, that while there still exist many different versions of Pakistan, a more intolerant vision is being pumped more aggressively, and more successfully, into the body politic and society at large. If there is a silver lining, it is that most Pakistanis still appear to reject the more extreme and hateful ideologies. DPC, for all its success, still appears to be very much on the fringes of Pakistani politics. Still, a well-organised movement with formidable resources and a willingness to intimidate can distort the political field, making it more difficult for reasonable voices to promote reasonable policies and choices.

Could the more moderate mindset on display at the KLF be transmitted through wider swathes of Pakistan? The KLF itself is obviously first and foremost a literary event and not a political vehicle and because it caters mostly to an English-speaking audience, its outreach is limited. But the wider problem for moderate thoughts and ideas is that it has few champions in the public domain anymore. Those that do try to speak up — Salmaan Taseer comes instantly to mind — are brutally cut down and other politicians and state officials with similar thoughts have been successfully cowed into keeping their ideas private. Still, Pakistan remains a complex society and moderate forces on the defensive could bounce back. Perhaps nothing works like the marketplace of ideas and allowing the merits and demerits of competing idelogies to be established in the public domain. If the DPC is retrogressive and the KLF ‘too progressive’ for some circles, the very fact that the public has a choice is indicative of a society in danger, but not yet necessarily doomed.