The invisible contestants

The security forces of Pakistan must confine the invisible contestants to their hideouts and protect democratic forces

For many optimists who believe in democracy, the forthcoming elections are the initial goalposts of a positive direction for the country. Since its very creation, Pakistan has been oscillating and it has yet to find a direction.

There are thousands of contestants for the forthcoming elections to be held under a considerably free and upright Election Commission. Voters’ confusion, this time around, is an indicator of free and fair elections. This time, there seems to be no state institution twisting the general will as per its wishes; and hopefully, the elections will be regarded as just by political and democratic forces. In this sense, the elections are not engineered. However, there are “invisible contestants” in the elections who want to manoeuvre them in their favour.

The murder of a local leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Swat on April 14, subsequent attacks on its leaders in Charsadda and, of course, the murder of an MQM candidate in Hyderabad a few days ago as well as the most recent attack on Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the ANP are all obvious signs that this time, the Taliban — the invisible contestants — want not only to sabotage the elections but also to turn them in their favour. The ANP is the single political party in Pakistan which has — no doubt, with many leadership and governance flaws — been consistent in fighting the deadly enemy within. This is the reason that the ANP has been singled out by the Taliban among scores of political parties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the political stronghold of the ANP. Along with the ANP, the MQM and the PPP are also on the hit list of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Both the ANP and the PPP are regarded as being of leftist ideology, although in Pakistani politics, ideology has long been replaced with opportunism and rhetoric, and is virtually left to the extremists, both religious and ethnic.

With too many political parties having colliding interests, there is no hope of any consensus on the menace of terrorism. Had political parties had a consensus on extremism, there would have been no vocal threats, let alone assaults on political and democratic forces by extremists. The lack of a national consensus on terrorism among the political forces in Pakistan is the real tragedy faced by the nation. This seems to predicate a number of issues that need to be resolved.

First, it implies that political parties are not serious enough on the subject of extremism; and this is evident from their manifestos. Many among them even regard that the terrorism in the country is imposed by certain foreign powers that are at war with other extremists somewhere outside Pakistan.

Second, political forces are helpless before certain other forces which, in turn, do not want to root out terrorism completely.

Third, the lack of consensus on terrorism implies that Pakistani society in its entirety actually wants what the extremists are apparently out for. Despite the widespread apologists in the media and social media, this doesn’t seem to be the reality. How many in Pakistan buy what the religious political parties sell? In any nationwide free elections, these parties have never been successful in securing majority votes. They didn’t even perform well despite being covertly supported by the secret agencies in Pakistan.

The security forces of Pakistan must, at least, confine the invisible contestants to their hideouts and protect the democratic forces, especially the centre-left political parties, so as to ensure free and fair elections. Otherwise, the May 11 elections may be deemed engineered — this time, by the so-called non-state actors. Furthermore, political parties need a unanimous stance against extremism in all its varieties to free the nation of its bloody grip. Otherwise, there seems to be no hope for a prosperous and peaceful Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2013.