Of silly statements, questionnaires, and our helplessness

Is anyone safe at all in Balochistan, Minister Kaira? Even WITH the FC everywhere?

I had always thought Qamaruz Zaman Kaira was a bright and courteous man until his latest outburst in reply to Mr Nawaz Sharif saying the Frontier Corps should be withdrawn from running the everyday affairs of Balochistan before the elections as the Baloch leadership did not trust it.

We must also remember that serious allegations of abducting, torturing, and killing Baloch activists have been levelled against the FC too, which matter has been taken note of in serious manner by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, as well as written about extensively in the national and international press and mentioned in talk show after talk show on the electronic media. The UN, too, sent a team two weeks ago to look into the matter of the disappeared, invited by the FO in one of the few good initiatives that moribund dinosaur of a department has taken in a long time. Well done, FO.

It is thus extremely silly of Mr Kaira to say that the government will withdraw the FC from Balochistan if Nawaz Sharif takes responsibility for maintaining law and order there. Whilst we shall talk about the absurdity of Kaira’s statement later, could he please inform us what security there is at present in Balochistan, with the FC reigning supreme?

Are Shias safe? Are ethnic minorities, particularly Hazaras, safe? Are Swatis, most of them poor labourers sweating for meagre wages in the coal mines safe? Are academics, settlers and Baloch, safe? Are Baloch youth safe? Is anyone safe at all in Balochistan, Minister Kaira? WITH the FC everywhere?

As for asking Nawaz Sharif to take responsibility to ensure safety of the people in Balochistan, how ridiculous could you get when your own party rules both in Balochistan and in the Centre; and in the neighbouring province of Sindh which, too, can help in stabilising the situation in Baloch districts abutting it? If you are half the man I think you are, you will withdraw your stupid statement and apologise to the nation, Nawaz Sharif, and especially to the Baloch for trivialising such an important and critical matter.

Again, one has to say that it is good to see a political leader from Punjab standing with the Baloch and saying things that must grate mightily on the tender sensitivities of the guardians of our ideology; our frontiers and our faith. It was great to see Imran Khan, too, meeting Sardar Akhtar Mengal, and while cynics might say Khan met Mengal merely to disabuse people of the widespread belief that he is a creation of the Mother of All Agencies, I for one do applaud him for the good signals it sends.

But the agencies will do what they will, and you and I ‘bloody civilians’ can do nothing about it. For example, the Pakistani and Indian political leaderships can go ahead and come to any agreements to lessen hostility between the two countries, like easing visa restrictions, our guardians will always have the last say. An octogenarian friend and a great gentleman who comes from Srinagar, and who has been there many times over the years, the last two by the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus, a service started only for Kashmiris on either side of the LOC wishing to visit their relatives, has received yet another long questionnaire via a Havildar of the Mother of All Agencies.

Whilst you have to see it to believe it, reader, to get some idea of the wooden-headedness of our great ‘spy-masters’, why is this respectable senior citizen being bothered with answering all of the idiotic, dunderheaded questions that he has answered already, twice, in the space of four years? Do the guardians of our ideology not have that gadget called a computer? Do they not maintain any records of those who have visited the other side of the LOC just two years, or less, ago?

Or is it the fact that using a computer to store data is too intellectually challenging? In which case, do they not have that other device used to store data, called the ‘file’: the one that is tied with a piece of cloth tape (also known as ‘nala’ in secretariatese) and is carried from office to office by the ‘daftari’ aka ‘chaprassi’?

In any case, why should this gentleman be bothered with answering questions — which have increased with the passage of time by the way — such as: what his father, who died in 1932, did for a living; what his mother’s occupation was; who his sister’s brother-in-law was, and what he worked at? The dates of his grandparents’ death, and their occupation? And to top it all, where his brother-in-law’s grandparents were born and what they did for a living? Imagine the stupidest question and it will be found in that questionnaire. But, what are we to do?

And now for a tribute to a brave Baloch journalist who had worked for Radio Pakistan in Khuzdar as a contract employee since 2004, and was recruited as a regular employee early this year as part of the Balochistan Package. Abdul Haq Baloch, General Secretary of the Khuzdar Press Club, who had had to moonlight for local newspapers to make ends meet was so happy that he was now earning a better salary.

Well this poor man was shot dead on October 2, 2012, another innocent victim of the madness going on in Balochistan. I am told that Radio Pakistan has promised one job to his heirs, which is an excellent thing. But that will not bring this young man back. RIP.

I end with a reference to the TTP’s offer of  ‘protection’ to the PTI’s  ‘Tsunami to South Waziristan’ because the Taliban say they agree with Imran Khan that drones violate Pakistan’s sovereignty. I don’t suppose Imran Khan and the TTP think that lopping off Pakistani soldiers’ heads and displaying them in videos and photographs with an executioner carrying an axe in the background, is a violation of our sovereignty?

P.S.: The Sipah-Salaar-e-Azam has said the army ‘supports any political process as long as it is within the Constitution’. Er, is asking for the elimination of ‘death squads’ against the Constitution? And, er, since when has the army arrogated to itself the right to say what is, or what is not, Constitutional?

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2012.