The unexpected victory at Lord's of the far from favoured Pakistan team in the final of the second Twenty20 World Cup may well prove to be the 'yes, we can' moment for a nation long beleaguered by a series of domestic travails.
These include the inconclusive domestic war against the Taliban's brand of terrorism and loss of faith in a political establishment that had made heady promises about the return to true democracy after the tragic assassination of former PM Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 at the hands of the same terrorist forces that till recently were challenging the writ of the state by invoking a distorted version of Islam.
It was the same constituency led by warlord Baitullah Mehsud and his acolytes who had attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in early March and all of Pakistan bowed its head in shame at this despicable act.
But Younis Khan and his team have atoned with rare aplomb for this vile act committed by one extreme fringe of their brethren and the Lord's victory over the same Sri Lankan cricket team will remain laden with complex symbolism of many shades.
The nation-wide celebrations that had the people of Pakistan in delirious rapture is testimony to the joy and hope that the Lord's win generated in a till then despondent populace.
It was perhaps unintended coincidence that June 21 was also the 56th birth anniversary of the late Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower President, reiterated his country's commitment to resolutely fight against terrorism and the Talibanization of Pakistan.
Prior to Sunday, few Pakistanis would have believed their President but now there is a spark of optimism that if the much reviled cricket team can pull off a miraculous victory in the face of intense criticism and self-doubt, then perhaps a rejuvenated nation can take on the Taliban with equal determination - and prevail.
'Yes, we can' is the current mood and one hopes this will not be nascent and short-lived.
It is instructive that among the many bans imposed by the Taliban in their inflexible and cheerless interpretation of the 'true' Islamic way of life, sports were taboo - and cricket in particular.
Hence the much reviled attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and one may conjecture that the Taliban lost a large swathe of support when they carried out this dastardly attack.
During a visit to Lahore a day after the attack, I was struck by the manner in which the local people gave vent to their deep anguish at what was seen as a double transgression of the most heinous nature.
First it was a visitor who had been targeted - the 'mehman' - who even by the Taliban code was to be protected; and second - 'khuda kay liye' - for Allah's sake - they were cricketers - the most venerated public figures in all of South Asia.
Thus the Lord's victory is a cock-a-snook at this Taliban diktat and even Peshawar -- site of the Pearl Continental Hotel attack -- was celebrating Shahid Afridi's exploits with bat and ball.
The 'yes, we can' metaphor has many resonances for Pakistan at this juncture in its troubled history of 62 years since August 1947.
While the more immediate priority is the war against the Taliban that the Pakistan military must win -- what with the al-Qaeda now claiming that they are seeking to acquire Pakistan's nuclear assets so that they may be used against the U.S. -- the deeper imperative is to embark upon an objective and candid quest about its identity and what constitutes the normative interpretation of Islam, the basis on which the country was created ab initio.
Today, Pakistan knows what it does not want in the name of Islam -- the Taliban variant of Islam.
The compliance sought by way of long beards and traditional clothing for men, severe restrictions on women and the banning of music and other forms of entertainment as being symbols of true Islam is being rejected by a large spectrum of Pakistani civil society.
Pakistan's internal discourse about Islam that was deliberately distorted since the Zia years will now have to be reviewed dispassionately and it is this 'yes, we can' that is the more significant and abiding endeavour in the long run.
Again, like the unexpected victory crafted by the Pak cricket team -- the most befitting response to the discourse of the Taliban lies within.
During my current visit to the U.S., where Af-Pak was the subject of considerable discussion in every interaction, I chanced upon an unedited version of a Pakistani film - 'Khuda Kay Liye'.
This was a revelation for me, since the version I had earlier seen did not contain what is perhaps the most powerful section of the film - Naseeruddin Shah's rendering of a maulana who unequivocally establishes that Prophet Muhammad did not forbid music.
Quoting authoritatively from the Koran, the Taliban obsession with male attire and beard and the taboo against music are shown to be completely invalid and a distortion of the tenets of Islam.
However, this part of the film was expunged during the Musharraf era at the behest of the Pak clergy and what is now available is the sanitized version.
This five minute court-room elucidation of the true meaning of Islam and what is expected of its adherents can be a powerful intervention in the prevailing domestic discourse in Pakistan -- and elsewhere where the al-Qaeda/Taliban ideology is to be resisted.
Today's technology allows for this clip to be placed on the internet, YouTube and other cyber outlets and can well be an antidote on FM radio -- which the mullahs have been using so skillfully in parts of Pakistan.
Pakistan's ultimate challenge is to carry out an internal mea culpa, to review the distortion and denial that has marked its internal discourses about Islam, the religious faith on which it was predicated and embark upon that internal jihad -- the true quest of the seeker.
The post Lord's 'yes, we can' euphoria must be taken to its logical conclusion.
© Thomson Reuters 2009.
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