The lull before the storm

In militant's twisted logic, by directing aggression at parties they make sure their brand of theocracy will triumph.

General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani comes across as a quiet, somewhat taciturn person, who shuns the political limelight and speaks when he has something important to say. This time, there were two terse messages. Don’t listen to the rumours which have been popping up like weeds. The elections will be held on May 11. And, the military is determined to ensure that the extremists and militants do not derail the democratic process. The messages were as plain as a pikestaff.  That old chestnut, the war on terror, is far from over.

The pronouncement has been well-received, especially as the caretaker government in Sindh hasn’t been able to stop the vicious attacks on the offices of the three liberal, secular parties. It is obvious the militants couldn’t care less about the democratic process. But in their twisted logic, they probably feel that by directing their aggression at the parties that stand for the qualities that were bequeathed to this nation by its founder — they are making sure that their brand of theocracy will triumph in the end.

Recent cartoons by Sabir Nazar in The Express Tribune perfectly describe the situation. One of them showed a vicious looking militant armed to the teeth in a bowling alley. In front of him are three pins marked PPP, MQM, and ANP. He is gloating at the prospect that he can bowl an inswinger, which will knock off the three pins in one swift action.

On Wednesday evening, I watched final round in the “Perspectives” programme of PTV World. Fazal Qureshi was listening to representatives of three political parties making small anodyne statements while they composed their faces into deep meaningful intent. The Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif was represented by Nehal Hashmi. At first, he sounded somewhat ambivalent about the subject of the meeting. He spent considerable time outlining the PML-N programme and suggesting that if his party came to power, the country would see a true Islamic welfare state, which, curiously enough, is what is also being preached by Imran Khan.

Syed Wajid Hassan of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the other right-winger, came across as a balanced, thoughtful speaker with a reasonable command of English. He gave a painstaking, somewhat ecclesiastical analysis of the problems facing the country in his slow deliberate elocution, where every sentence came with an exclamation mark, and admitted that all parties should be given a fair chance to contest. But he managed to tie himself up in knots, while trying to dissociate his party from any kind of obvious Taliban patronage. Saeed Ghani of the PPP, very much the underdog, put up a brave front, but he knew the chips were down. But hats off to Bushra Gohar of the ANP, who was a welcome bloom in the brickwork. A little emotional, but to the point, she was the only one who asked the crucial question: “When candidates from other parties can move about freely in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, why is it that ANP candidates are targeted all over Pakistan?”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2013.