Time to crack down on weapons

Why doesn’t head of state or PM try to cleanse the country of illegally acquired weapons in a door-to-door campaign?

The public in Pakistan is still fearful for the future. The masses want a warm arm around their shoulder and somebody who says “hang on chaps, things are going to be different and better next year”. But will they be? This very theme was the subject of one of those local high-calorie talk shows, which are long on emphasis and short on coherence and substance, calculated to increase the viewer’s intellectual cholesterol. It was obviously constructed to the whim of hierarchical bureaucrats who believe that a successful talk show is one that is bereft of torque, guts or momentum as long as it is delivered with abysmal seriousness and doesn’t arrive at any conclusion. One speaker, who gave the impression that he had burrowed deep into the soil of native wisdom, employed the gambit that is frequently used in local talk shows in Urdu when somebody doesn’t have a proper answer to a question. He mulled over what had been asked, looked heavenwards as if desperately searching for an appropriate quotation from Ghalib, and then answered a question by asking one of his own. This was a cue for all members of the panel to speak at the same time. The charade lasted for an hour. By the time the discussion ended, I had forgotten what the theme was and so had the moderator.

What I have against many talk shows is that the moderator often behaves as if the viewers were composed of a bunch of yokels that live in those never-never happy valleys where goats are surrounded by smiling, monosyllabic peasants who knit those appalling jerseys. Why don’t these talk show hosts ask questions that are pertinent, relevant and germane to conditions in the country instead of waffling about irrelevant drivel? They should ask questions which strike at the very heart and soul of this land. Questions like: why doesn’t the head of state or the prime minister try to cleanse the country of illegally acquired weapons by asking the army chief to use the three arms of the military, the Rangers and the police to unleash a rigorous door-to-door campaign of confiscating weapons from people who don’t possess genuine licences? This would curb street crime and targeted killing to some extent by removing hit men from the various political parties. But it has to be done with the wholehearted support and commitment of the men in uniform.

Who the hell cares if Seraiki speakers are denied their own province or if the government continues to stall and defy the Supreme Court? These are non-issues. Unfortunately, nobody appears to be interested in the real problems that plague the land, like removing illegally obtained weapons, establishing the rule of law, giving the severest punishment to wife beaters and rapists, treating karo kari as a crime under Section 300 of the Pakistan Penal Code and not glorifying it as an act of honour killing. And there is, of course, the issue that the Muslim clergy doesn’t want to hear about — tackling the population explosion. In Pakistan, when a man viciously beats his wife, probably maiming her in the bargain, she invariably takes it submissively, especially if she comes from a poor, defenceless background and has nobody to turn to. In the US, Britain, Germany and other parts of Europe, when a man sadistically beats his wife and the incident is reported to the police, the man is arrested, tried and imprisoned for 10 years. And we are supposed to be an Islamic republic. Need I say more?

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2012.