Not happy happenings

One day a half-hearted rather lackadaisical prime minister makes an uninspiring attempt to exhort his countrymen to stand firm and together, shoulder to shoulder with the government and armed forces, as “we have decided to make Pakistan a land of peace.” This, after his government had more or less been bludgeoned into supporting the all-powerful army in its determination to tackle what undeniably is the foremost threat to the land — militant fanatics and their terror tactics. It had performed a double U-turn in double quick time forced upon it by circumstance.

The next day in his family constituency of Lahore, proud capital of the (more or less) ruling province over which his younger brother presides there was anything but peace and unity. There is something radically wrong in Lahore. Near the closing of last month the police passively stood by, watching, in a state of immobility, whilst a woman was beaten to death by her family with a bunch of bricks, in the hallowed precincts of the Lahore High Court (what has been the follow-up action to this incident?). And then less than a month later the same police force was super active and used live bullets to fire upon an unruly mob of an opposition party. There were deaths, there was much wounding.

Now, the question that needs to be answered by the younger and more talented brother is who gave the orders for the police to remain supine in the case of the High Court, and who exactly gave the orders for the police to fire and kill in the case of the Tahirul Qadri acolytes? Someone in authority in both cases must have decided on inaction and action. Just who? Surely to heaven, someone has to take responsibility for both.

Karachi has always been violence prone and fear-laden, the latter mainly due to the sometimes in sometimes out of power coalition party. That this party has the ability to send Karachi into a frenzied mess with the utterance of one sentence has for decades been and still is quite amazing. The party sets a true example of how fear can permeate, and how fear can be used to the fear-makers’ advantage (or hopefully sometimes to its disadvantage). Fear spread like fire in Karachi after the most shameful and condemnable Lahore event last week when the Sindh coalition party made its usual strike call, and then fled when the party chief, apparently not finding sufficient supporters amongst transporters and businessmen, called it off.

Meanwhile, a day rarely goes by when our press does not report the gunning down of policemen, mainly in Karachi and the K-P areas. They are being shot or mutilated at random. This also says much about how the writ of the state is eroded and how those in charge, whoever they may be, care not a whit.

We are told the country is at war — indeed it is, mainly with itself with the Taliban following a nose behind. The army and air force are doing what they want and need to do in Fata, but will it be enough? As a foreign publication put it the other day, quoting a pressman from the Fata area, “The writ of Taliban is not in a piece of territory. They have established their writ in the minds of people.” We know that the great Punjab is a safe home to many of these former ‘children’ of an earlier government and potential martyrs to some of the prominent politicos of today. As for Karachi, according to MQM’s Farooq Sattar the Taliban control 25 per cent of Karachi — and if anyone knows about the Taliban and their mischief it is the rival MQM. Early this year The Wall Street Journal printed a map of Karachi showing how the Taliban have established a pincer like grip around the city, under the caption ‘Tightening grip’. Karachi it had it, is ‘the largest base for the militant group outside the country’s tribal areas.’

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.

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