Bitter revenge

Democracy’s revenge has not been sweet for thousands of Pakistani citizens murdered or maimed by acts of terrorism.

Democracy’s revenge has not been sweet for the thousands of innocent deprived Pakistani citizens murdered or maimed by acts of terrorism that have strangely multiplied over the past five years. Calculated is the fact that over 2,000 poeple were killed last year and if we look at this year, when well over 300 have reportedly lost their lives through terror attacks in less than three months, what total are we heading for in 2013?

“It is always a paltry, feeble, tiny mind that takes pleasure in revenge.” (Juvenal, 2^nd century AD). Is it this to which the party in power has reduced democracy?

The government and establishment’s refusal to even attempt to deal with bombings and so forth, to protect the state’s citizens, which both institutes are expected to do, and to not even dare to name the perpetrators identified by the media, is the most blatant form of collective cowardice.

The man appointed to head the ministry — which is in place and paid to deal with internal security — the one and only, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, has proven that the Goebbelsian theory of the bigger the lie and the more repeated, the more it will be swallowed by the public does not hold true in the Pakistan of the 21^st century.

Malik came in for a most amusing pasting in London’s The Guardian on February 28. He is quoted as having proclaimed to that publication last December that “We have given a good beating to the terrorists. We have been able to break their back, we are in a position now to fight, to fight and fight.” Says The Guardian, “He has found fame through his almost daily television appearances, usually made at the scene of the sort of catastrophic attacks that would end the career of a home secretary.”

And the best, “For many Pakistanis the interior minister, with his designer ties and purple-hued hair, is the face of the government.” Whatever be the reason that he is where he is, his, as he terms it, “psy-war” is not paying off. Under this “face of the government” too heavy a toll has been taken of too many citizens.

This brings us to the evening of March 3 in Karachi and the bloody bombing of a predominantly Shia area, resulting in the death of over 48 men, women and children — a follow-up to the slaughter of over 200 Shias in Quetta in the first two months of this year. After the bomb went off, it reportedly took Karachi’s police some two hours to arrive on the scene. Symptomatic of the Sindh government’s wilful helplessness towards the killings that take place in this city was the fact that the police force in large numbers was posted around and probably beyond the Clifton area as the prime minister was in town and he and the Sindh chief minister were expected to “grace” a dinner hosted by an adviser to the Sindh chief minister for her own engagement. Their bodies were guarded; their routes were suitably, safely lined.

What qualifications the adviser possesses to advise on two subjects and be granted the status of a provincial minister is a separate issue. As is the fact that the celebrations were held on the grounds of a heritage site — and some hours after the bombing took place. Admitted is the fact that 500-plus security personnel were posted to guard 400 guests (normal, she said, nothing out the ordinary). One press report has it that she stated her intent to “wrap up the event as early as possible”.

Well, that’s how it goes. Those who have assumed VIP or ridiculously VVIP status, petrified of being victims, hog the security forces and to blazes with the rest. This is just one of the many examples of the attitude of the elected and non-elected representatives of the people of this nation.

Solution: Get rid of them, and find, if possible, honest and responsible replacements.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2013.