No no-go area?

Recently, the DG ISPR shed light on the security landscape of the country and highlighted efforts to promote peace and stability in society. He praised the kinetic and intelligencebased efforts directed towards countering hybrid threats and stated that the country has no no-go areas today.

While this may be true in the security realm, several no-go areas exist in non-security domains that continue to cost the country and its people dear. It is worth wondering if there is such a thing as non-traditional no-go areas, and indeed there is. In this context, the term “no-go area” can refer to an attribute, concrete space or mindset where the entry of permitted things is virtually barred or where proscribed ones are readily permitted and practised.

As these areas do not typically pose direct physical danger, they can be called “soft” no-go areas. However, the detrimental implications of these soft areas are more severe, systematically plotted and long-lasting than those of traditional no-go areas. Against this backdrop, the country has several no-go areas that have brought it to a deplorable condition. For example, democracy in the country is a no-go area for a genuine democratic culture. Good governance, transparency, accountability, freedom of expression and effective public service delivery are alien in democratic domains.

The reason for this might be because the elections, the soul of the democratic political setting, are no-go areas for volunteer public voice. Despite its democratic face, the public has never been the gravity of national power and most decisions have historically been taken behind closed doors. As a result, the country’s bureaucracy is a no-go area for competence, efficiency and responsibility towards the public. It finds itself more responsible towards the powerful and the patrons than the public. Efficient service delivery, redressal of grievances and responsiveness towards the public are among the things virtually barred in bureaucracy.

This has transformed the public spheres into no-go areas for the rights promised in the Constitution. The increasing unemployment, unprecedented inflation, grinding poverty, accelerating flight of human capital, deteriorating law and order situation, illiteracy and strengthening extremist tendencies are what the people are left to fend for themselves on.

The government’s focus is on perpetuating power and maximising riches. Consequently, the country has become a classic example of a no-go area for genuine talent. Thanks to the institutionalised culture of favouritism, nepotism and red-tape, self-made intellectuals are destined to meet a desperate fate. Unemployment, repression and human capital flight are what most self-made and honest individuals face in the country. The corridors of justice are mostly no-go areas for justice for most of the masses, let alone speedy and economical dispensation of justice. As justice for the poor is a mirage, they are left with nothing but to compromise with the aggressor. Most of the media are no-go areas for objectivity, truth and the public cause.

The so-called watchdog has been transformed into a selfishly pursued economic venture. Society at large is a no-go area for exalted and humanistic values of sincerity, honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness, integrity and altruism. Last but not least, Kandhkot in Kashmore is on its way to becoming, in its original sense, a no-go area for its residents. With the lowest literacy rate in the country (24%), this district of Sindh is in the clutches of the feudal-bandit-police nexus. The district is increasingly becoming a haven for bandits, private militias, the lucrative kidnapping for ransom industry, and inter- and intra-tribal violence.

Today, citizens feel insecure even in their homes, let alone roaming around freely. Though the hard no-go areas have almost been eliminated, the soft ones continue to plague the country. Unless all types of no-go areas are addressed, holistic prosperity in the country will remain a dream.