Empire strikes back

By cutting Khadim Rizvi and his band down to size, the State has taken a solid step towards the victory Pakistan needs

On Friday, the State stood its ground. And reclaimed some of it too. Can it stay the course?

In Orakzai, terror made a comeback just when all thought it had bidden adieu. The same pungent odour of gunpowder in the air, the same cries of anguish as the injured wailed the dead, the same hollow sounds of official vows to do this and do that, and the same meaningless condemnations from the usual gang of condemners drafted from pre-drafted texts saved conveniently in official hard drives.

In Karachi, the same tactics of armed assailants attacking a high-profile diplomatic target, the same firing of automatic rounds, lobbing of grenades and exploding of suicide vests and the same raw courage from under-resourced police guards to foil the terrorists’ plan.

In Lahore, the same government dispatching the same police to undertake a different task against the same Khadim Hussain Rizvi of the TLP and succeeding in achieving what it had miserably failed to do when the same Rizvi had successfully trashed the writ of the same government and State.

It is tempting to draw some forced conclusions that bind the three happenings in three different cities on the same Friday. And yet there is that gnawing feeling that something somewhere somehow connects the three in a loose-hanging chain of the State’s untimely non-interventions of the past. There is an echo that taunts us all.

It is also an echo that reverberates across the cross-section of a society still nursing the wounds that the TTP inflicted on it. It is a society that heals quick, but forgets less quick. And it is hard to forget that many wounds could have been avoided — had fate so allowed — if people in power had taken timely decisions and not kicked the can further down the road.

At some point, the right decision was taken by some people who said enough is enough. Pakistan began to fight back. People were hungering to reclaim peace that the terrorists had snatched away from them. The men and women in uniform led the fight and the entire nation cheered them on. The monster of terror, so feared once, was now slain by fearless warriors of Pakistan’s law- enforcement agencies. A populace that seemed divided on ideological lines stood united when the battle commenced.

But victory is not a switch that can be turned on with a flip. Perhaps it comes in waves, washing ashore with energy, receding and leaping back with gusto. Orakzai was that victory receding like a wave heading back into the deep. So was Karachi. And yet, the next wave is swirling back onto the shore.

And that’s the change. What happened in Orakzai is heartbreaking, but it is increasingly becoming an exception rather than the norm. What happened in Karachi was also an exception. It was an exception in its frequency — or rather the lack of it — and it was an exception in that it did not succeed in its apparent objective of breaching the parameters of the Chinese consulate and attacking the staff. We have seen similar attacks on sensitive installations by bands of terrorists and wreaking havoc in terms of casualties and damage. But in Karachi on Friday the three terrorists failed even though precious lives were lost.

Is the State more prepared then? Are the law enforcers better trained? Is the terror machine significantly degraded? Or is it a combination of the three? Here’s where the situation gets a bit complicated.

The military arm of the State — armed forces, paramilitary, intelligence outfits — have never been better trained, better equipped and battle-hardened than they are today. They have fought and won a war against terrorism. That’s a war most countries are still struggling with. The military arm of the State has also won the war against ideological ambiguity. Once upon a time there was confusion about who the enemy was. Today that confusion stands cleared.

The other weaponised arms of the State — the police and civilian law-enforcement agencies — have not fared so well. They want to be like the Army but the civilians won’t let them. If ever there was a glaring failure of the political leadership, it is the utter unwillingness to professionalise the police for utterly selfish, myopic and petty political reasons. The police force continues to pay the cost of this political sin in its own blood.

Is the State more prepared then? Yes and no.

And yet many among us are eager to declare victory and walk off. Such a declaration would bring us back into our comfort zones and kick the can of difficult decisions further down the road. The Karachi consulate attack has given us three heroes: SP Suhai Aziz, Constable Amir Khan and ASI Ashraf Daud. Amir and Ashraf engaged the terrorists and laid down their lives. Reportedly, the three terrorists were killed in this firefight within minutes. These cops deserve all the accolades, all the commendations and all the praise State and society can give them. But individual acts of heroism cannot dilute the urgency for institutional reform. Yes, the same police reform that successive governments have blocked and which the present government is also having second thoughts about.



Real sustainable victory will happen when the police and other civil law enforcers will be as well trained, well equipped and motivated as the armed forces, real sustainable victory will happen when the civilian side of the State can also successfully fight off the demons of ideological ambiguity, real sustainable victory will happen when the State as a consolidated entity decides to terminate the snakes in the backyard instead of feeding them milk, and real sustainable victory will happen when the writ mandated to the State by the citizens shall be declared non-negotiable regardless of who is negotiating with whom.

By cutting Khadim Rizvi and his band down to size, the State has taken a solid step towards the victory that Pakistan needs. But Rizvi is a symptom of a larger ailment. Let’s give thumbs up for finally identifying the symptom.

Now let’s aim for the real cure.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2018.

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