Zahrah Nasir When the world, as they have always known it, comes to a drastic end as a direct result of warfare, famine, earthquake, tsunami or some other form of equally catastrophic disaster, the surviving 'victims' pour out of their ancestral habitats in desperate need of succour and safety, carrying meagre possessions with them if they can, fleeing in only the clothes they are wearing if evacuation is immediate but, with or without portable material possessions, they all have one basic thing in common, they are suddenly homeless. The lucky ones amongst them may have relatives to go to elsewhere, relatives who welcome them with open arms, take them in, feed them, help them any which way they can until, that is, cash becomes tight and the welcome, inevitably, runs out. Those minus such relatives are, if they are 'lucky', herded like cattle into hastily erected, tented camps set up by governments and well wishers where they are, for a time, given rations, clothes, cooking utensils, blankets and free medical care until, as days turn into weeks and weeks run into months, conditions deteriorate, rations evaporate, goodwill is replaced by impatience and those who welcomed them with open arms simply cannot wait for them to go to anywhere other than where they currently happen to be. Passing the buck by closing down refugee camps, by dispersing their inmates towards societal quicksands which wait to gobble them up then spit out the pieces, is no way in which to 'force' refugees to go back to places that, in many instances, no longer even exist. We, here in Pakistan, should be fully cognisant with refugee problems in all their shapes and forms as, let's face it, the creation of The Land of the Pure caused the largest refugee problem of all time and, since then, we have been inundated by surging tides of refugees from countries including East Pakistan, Burma, Iran and Afghanistan, all of whom we have learned to live with in varying degrees and all of whom, to some extent, have assimilated into the simmering, cultural cauldron in which we all exist. Yet, shockingly to say, it would appear, to all intents and purposes, that whilst we merrily engaged in assisting such unfortunate 'foreigners' as crossed our borders, we are increasingly reluctant to help our own indigenous peoples, peoples in this case, who actually have more right to call this land their own than do those whose ancestral roots lie buried in pre-partition India. The tribes of Waziristan, north and south, of Mohmand, Bajaur, Swat, Malakand as a whole and others scattered throughout Balochistan, NWFP, the Northern Areas et al have inhabited these regions for centuries; have historically been forced to offer uncertain suzerainty to overlords from Afghanistan, in some cases from China, from ancient Tibet and Kashmir, be these 'overlords' Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu or otherwise; yet have always maintained a fiercely independent dignity of their own, holding the fabled border regions against invaders from the north, time and time again plus, of course, held out against British imperialism far longer than either Sindh or Punjab. Proud now to be patriotic Pakistanis, even though progressive governments have often treated them extremely shabbily indeed, they are, on the whole, ready to lay down all they possess, including their lives, for the sake of their country and all of us who happen to live here in often far more comfortable situations than they can ever hope to emulate and yet, now that a certain, very small percentage of these warriors have found the need to send elders, women and children to 'safety' in the plains as the army ferociously battles terrorists and unholy infiltrators in their mountains, we, the 'rest' of the population, have offered an unforgivable slap in the face by demonstrating a violent reluctance to accept them. Admittedly, understandably to a degree, if one takes serious note of all the politically motivated shenanigans woven in to the threads of their daily lives over the past 30 years, some of these, largely uneducated tribesmen, have fallen victim to the unrealistic promises of the foreign mercenaries they mistakenly welcomed, under their time honoured code of traditional hospitality, after they were driven south from Central Asia and Afghanistan but they ultimately, and not before time, learned their mistake and are trying to make amends by forming lashkars to turf their former 'guests' out, paying a dreadful price in the process, a price some obviously feel is not high enough. Persecuting the, hopefully, innocents, the old men, women and children who have been forcibly 'relocated' among us for the duration of what is, in all respects, a civil war on their home territory, is no way in which to move forward towards the peace and harmony of a secure future for us all; as, by treating these people like pariahs we run the risk of alienating generations to come, an alienation that could manifest itself in a far more terrifying scenario than the one we currently endure. The writer is a freelance columnist.