How we eroded rule of law?

Imagine Pakistan of four decades ago when sectarianism or extremism was almost non-existent. There was no Iranian revolution or Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Cold War was at its peak but redlines were clearly drawn between the superpowers. Once those lines were crossed, everything turned upside down; the life in our neighbourhood was not the same and still grappling for normalcy.

Afghan Jihad considered to be the last nail in the Soviet Union’s coffin was not without collateral damage — a damage which has changed the psyche of the people in the region. They don’t seem to have a sense of normal living as human beings; extremist tendencies have become the hallmark of new order in Pakistan and its neighbourhood. Now Daesh, also called ISIS, is promoting a new order. Amazingly, Daesh, a faceless phenomenon, is now dreaded upon not only in the Muslim world but across the universe. Denying space to Daesh is the major plank of American special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s talks with the Taliban. Someone should ask the Americans how these Daesh people entered Afghanistan under their watch. No one knows how Daesh came into being, but all of a sudden it has become a formidable threat to the world. In a recent seminar on Pakistan-Afghanistan, it was revealed that now Daesh has a strength of 80,000 globally while in Afghanistan the number varies between a few hundred to three thousand.

How we became an abnormal country after the Afghan Jihad and Iranian revolution? It’s now in common knowledge that the Iranian revolution brought in competing ideologies in Pakistan: Saudis and Iranians made Pakistan a fighting ground for gaining favours within Pakistan, although luckily the curse of sectarianism did not creep deeply into Pakistani society and its institutions. Only those serving the Iranian and Saudi interests could be seen fanning hatred in the name of their ideologies.

Simultaneously, the Jihad in Afghanistan which claimed the fall of the Soviet Union itself became a victim of competing interests pulling in opposite directions. Yesterday’s Mujahideen who fought together against the Communist infidels became sworn enemies. They killed each other while praying five times a day. Even the current milieu offers a ridiculous paradox — both the Taliban and the Afghan government are two sides of the same coin; there is no difference in their ideologies and both are conservatives to the core but stake their claim to the throne in Kabul. It’s a sheer power struggle between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The only difference is that the Taliban side is better organised, less corrupt by Afghan standards and well entrenched in the Afghan countryside. And the other side, while being corrupt, has the patronage of the Americans who set the agenda of global order and decide which country or organisation is to be labeled as terrorists. It is quite expedient for the Americans to remove the Taliban from the terrorist list in order to discuss their troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. So, yesterday’s terrorists can turn tomorrow’s interlocutors.

The purpose of drawing such a long preface about the country and the neighbourhood is to bring home the point that we walked into the trap of vicious conspiracies of the global powers (read America) and lost our way of life as normal people. Just imagine how we would play till late into the evening as children in sixties and mid-seventies, and our parents had no worries about our safety. Now one is worried even about his grown-up children when they are late after the sunset. We had less prosperity, less material comforts but we were happy people. Now with expanding middle class and more material comforts, we are less happy and feel insecure.

One primary reason for this sorry state of affairs is the erosion of the rule of law. One can vividly recall that in sixties a cycle without light in the evening was challaned by the traffic police. There may be challans even now but the chaos on the roads reflects the mental anxiety amongst the people who may be highly incompetent in their professions but become impatient on roads to prove that every second is precious to them regardless of traffic violations. Think about this: under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) possessing a knife more than four-inch blade is a criminal offence. What is the situation on the ground now? People flaunt Kalashnikovs which are not produced in Pakistan or officially imported in the country but a licence is issued by the Interior Ministry. It is said that now issuance of Kalashnikov licence has been banned but there is no word about hundreds and thousands of licences already issued. There is no move to ban the possession of Kalashnikov which is a weapon of terror not deterrence. It symbolises a class of rogues who are ruling this country; posh colonies have Kalashnikov-wielding watchmen in front of each house to demonstrate that here lives a powerful man who may or may not be corrupt but possesses the means to protect himself. This is a slap on the face of a state which cannot provide protection to its citizens but expects loyalty from them. It has now become a status symbol to move in a convoy of Kalashnikov-wielding guards just to display power and pelf.

Religious bigotry is another curse which has held the entire country hostage so many times in the past. Political or personal differences have assumed the shape of blasphemy and the state looks helpless to tackle these people. The state has failed to provide universal education to its children. Madrassah education is producing a mindset which acts more like a zombie than a normal human being with necessary skills. And it all happens due to the apathy of the state and weak implementation of the country’s laws.

We may boast about defeating terrorism but we have very little to say about the rule of law in the country. Unless we respect our laws, we cannot demand respect to our sovereignty. Only a rule-based society commands respect within and without.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2019.

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