I am of course bullshitting, but that’s okay because so is the government.
How can a government that regularly supplicates itself before everyone, and has acted cravenly even in the face of those who kill and threaten the decent citizens of this country, show spine? Take Karachi, our current concern.
Who doesn’t know what’s happening in that city and why? Given the nature of fault lines and turf wars, given also the government’s inability to survive without the MQM and the ANP, two of its coalition partners, and given the tension within the PPP — between constraints at the Centre and compulsions in Karachi — what kind of resolve can the government show to yank Karachi back to normalcy. And I have only listed three ‘givens’.
The Sindh home minister said he had no idea about the Rangers operation and threatened to divest the force of its powers to operate in Karachi (an indication of who the Rangers were operating against); the federal interior minister first said there was miscommunication, meaning he either forgot to inform the home minister or one of the two wasn’t using Mobilink Indigo, and then said he, too, didn’t know who had ordered in the Rangers. The next day we were told the government had ordered the operation, but there was a delay in informing the concerned ministers because homing pigeons were unavailable for three days. I ask you!
Some two years ago, I wrote a column in Daily Times captioned “Hore Choopo!”, an untranslatable but poignant Punjabi expression. Since not much has changed, let me reproduce an excerpt:
“...the Pakistan People’s Party has shown a tendency for masochism which is both laughable and worrying.
“I am reminded of the joke about a hunter going out to hunt down this grizzly. He reaches deep into the jungle, spots the grizzly and fires a shot. Boom! The grizzly seems to vanish into thin air just as the shot is fired. As the hunter looks around, there’s a tap on his shoulder. He turns around and sees the grizzly, who tells him: ‘Get killed or drop your pants.’ It’s called a Hobson’s choice.
“Once the grizzly is done, he tells the hunter to buzz off and stay clear of him. The hunter returns home, seething with anger, buys a bigger rifle, and returns to the jungle the next day. Sure enough, the grizzly’s there. Shot fired. The grizzly disappears again and as if on cue, the hunter feels the tap on his shoulder. He knows what to do!
“Back in town he buys a bazooka and returns to the jungle the third time. The grizzly is relaxing. The hunter fires; there is a loud explosion and much smoke and dust. Certain that he’s got the grizzly this time, he walks on and just then feels the inevitable tap on his shoulder. The grizzly is standing there, smiling. Even as the hunter is preparing to drop his pants, the grizzly says: ‘You sure you are into this only for hunting!’
“I can’t but ask: Guys! Are you into this just for the politics?”
Let me say here that in my personal capacity I have always voted for the PPP even when doing so required holding my nose. Let me also add that this government has, on certain counts, done more than others have been able to — and under very trying circumstances and in the face of obvious media bias.
But this is precisely the point. Why fire the shot and then act cowardly; or act plain cravenly at other times? Bluster followed by retreat doesn’t make good policy. Neither does compromise mean capitulation. When the allies had walked out, the government should have said, ok folks, shape up or everyone ships out. Shared risk it’s called. Instead, the government, in trying to hang in there, has allowed everyone to dictate terms to it. Hardly commensurate with acting resolutely, which is what is required.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2011.
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