The unintelligible design

Are magic and espionage kindred arts? Former Deputy Director of the CIA John McLaughlin thinks as much. But do not take his word for it. Look at their common elements. Secrecy bordering on invisibility. Disguise. Misdirection. Surprise. Complexity. And premium on combining disparate elements in a swift conclusion. Or at least this is how media represents these elements. But magical tricks are ephemeral. Could espionage have a lasting impact? The jury is still out. Because, like all human actions, the effects of spying and intel ops depend on which outlook they represent. No matter how effective and brilliantly executed an operation is, if it lacks the tissue of forethought connecting it to a more lasting vision, all its labours may be lost in a heartbeat. It matters little if it serves good ideology or bad. Results are agnostic to value judgments of that kind. However, they depend on the holding power of such a vision for dear life.

But if intelligence is anything like magic, we have seen its spell break painfully in the public eye in the past quarter of a century. Why would that be? Onslaught of technology? Faulty ideology? Or outdated methodology? A bit of everything, but above everything else, the metamorphosis of nation-states into insecure, whiny little entities and the phenomenology of this metamorphosis. Before 9/11, even before Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, pundits often spoke about the decline of nation-states.

Huntington's work surfaced in reaction to a similar claim by one of his pupils, Francis Fukuyama who, in celebrating the triumph of the West, predicted a more globalised world. That and The Economist's obituary of the millennium claiming the end of the idea of god. In the end, as the culmination point of both these fears, 9/11 changed everything. Even though nation-states and the clergy found new footing, they instinctively knew this was captured space, an untenable position contrary to the natural flow of history. Ergo, the wilting of the common sense, the rise of perpetual insecurity resulting in the caricatures of their former selves. If the two most powerful institutions of our lives were to change in such a horrible manner, could their elements of power remain unaffected? So, cruelty became an end in itself, reason an enemy and empathy a weakness. I have already mentioned Spencer Ackerman's Reign of Terror and Noah Kulwin and Brendan James's brilliant Blowback podcast as evidence. If you haven't gone through them, I suggest you do.

When I first began my formal writing career more than a quarter of a century ago, I did not know how to frame these arguments in such a way. These trends were metastasising, and tempers were running high. Given that I was regularly writing on these tricky issues without a formal orientation as the visibility of my work grew across borders, I ended up offending too many intelligence agencies. In my defence, I was young at the time and was still learning the ropes. Since then, I have learned and changed a lot. If there was any accidental ideological bent, I have purged it. What matters to you most - freedom, democracy, human rights, pluralism and your right to defend your own - matters to me too. Only if we could find a magical reset button, things would be so hunky dory. Perhaps due to an accidental combination of a broken mind, experience and a healthy amount of paranoia, I can connect causal dots where many miss a connection, which can benefit everyone.

If you think I will waste column inches speculating on the Faiz Hameed trial after this prelude, do not hold your breath. What has been reported so far through the official press release only represents a symptom, not the malaise. And it is incumbent upon us to look at the bigger picture even as law takes its course. We mortals may think the world revolves around us, but we are all dispensable, expendable and irrelevant against the tides of history. Also, I do not derive any pleasure from anyone's misery, even if I am not particularly fond of them and who might have contributed to my own misery just out of sheer force of habit.

No. This country has suffered a lot in the past decade. Even when terrorists were not hunting us, economic instability, agitation and sit-ins were paralysing our lives. The country saw seven finance ministers between 2017, when the Top City scandal occurred, and 2022, when Faiz Hameed and Qamar Bajwa retired. Whenever an FM seemed poised to pull the country out of the economic morass, he was changed. In the meantime, the economy and the common man on the street kept suffering. During this time, the country's national security crises, Pulwama-Balakot and the surrender of gains in the war on terror, materialised. These two crises and the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces resulting in the Taliban takeover skewed Pakistan's already skewed existential challenges. Is it not worth inquiring what went on behind closed doors?

I am not particularly fixated on individuals because many mysterious trends predate the ascent of the two names above. Just before the 2013 elections, when a lobby feared the growing influence of the Saudis due to a PMLN win, Qadri staged his sit-in in Islamabad. When Modi wins, India bends backwards to activate an alternative route between Chahbahar and Afghanistan and lobbies for JCPOA. As if to forestall the CPEC announcement, we see the twin sit-ins of the PTI and the PAT due to a mysterious and contrived national crisis that caused inconvenient delays.

But these crises only intensified in those six years. The Guardian story of the Indian-sponsored killing spree in Pakistan is well-known. If we saw it coming, what did we do to stop it? Add to this the tit-for-tat phenomenon that I have mentioned before. If something bad happens in India, something similar happens in Pakistan. When the world is alarmed by Pehlu Khan's lynching in India, Mishal Khan's lynching takes place in Pakistan. When an elderly woman is gang-raped in Delhi, the motorway rape case not only surfaces but is poorly handled. On August 21, a Bharat Bandh (Indian shutdown) was staged by Dalits and other backward communities protesting an Indian Supreme Court verdict, which seems to serve the BJP's cause of dividing these communities. On August 22, clerics swarm Islamabad, putting pressure on the Pakistan Supreme Court. This is too much of a coincidence.

I do not care how all this fits Ajit Doval's defensive offence narrative. Who in our country has been facilitating all this, and why? And why are such elements not uncovered? Why is it that when we raise these questions, our system is weaponised against us? Whatever this is, strategy or incompetence, it only exacerbates human suffering. Please let us know if there is a method to this madness so I can shut up and leave. I did not create this country, and life is short. Please let us know if it is each man for himself.