Now there is a problem. There always is, when things are not what they seem; and when people say what they don’t mean. We saw it in Faisalabad — again.
Enraged crowd collided that day like ancient armies on a vast battlefield. Sticks were swung like battle axes and fists thrown like spiked hammers. Men and boys spat rage and venom as the air reverberated with the sound of war.
Then somewhere in the middle of the mayhem, someone raised his gun-wielding hand, and pressed the trigger. The spring mechanism inside the gun hammered a firing pin into the back end of the bullet, igniting a small explosive charge. The bullet spun through the spiraling grooves inside the barrel, emerging at a muzzle velocity of more than 2,000 km/hour. It sliced angrily through the air and slammed into the body of Haq Nawaz, puncturing flesh, splintering bone and shattering organs. Haq Nawaz had no chance.
It happened in front of the cameras. There was no hiding and no shielding. The shooter walked about without a care in the world, firing away as if practising on a range. He did not belong to any law-enforcement agency, and yet he strutted around brandishing his weapon with complete abandon. Who was he? And why was he shooting to kill in a crowd?
Herein lies the problem. The last few months have vomited some weird characters on to the national stage: Gullu, Pomi, Chainee and an assortment of ruffians who breed inside the armpits of governments. These thugs thrive on crumbs from the official table, and do their dirty business under the protective shadows of the police. They represent the dark side of our political system — vermin and maggots growing fat on official largesse.
But no one speaks of them and all that they do. All know about them, but no one dare admit it in public. Fear is a powerful emotion, and fear can elicit total silence. These villains are merchants of pain; they kill, maim, extort, kidnap and do all such things that are, well… unpleasant. They are the qabza mafia, and all other mafias. They lurk in the shadows, but hide in plain sight. But they are ultimately nothing more than enforcers — henchmen for the real dons.
And who are these real dons? Well, now here is where politics blends into criminality and vice versa. Over the decades, this country of ours has developed a strong tolerance for the culture of violence. In many ways, strong-arm tactics have acquired certain legitimacy within political activities. So it is now acceptable — perhaps even desirable — for successful politicians to wield influence through a bit of force. This force is meant not just to browbeat opponents and people at large, but to generate economic activity. Huh?
Yes, in the brutal world of Pakistan, where the State joins other predators in hunting its own citizens, millions and billions are made through qabzas of one kind or the other. These qabzas are done through force. Then they are legalised through influence. And while all this is being done, the law shrivels up like a terrorised victim and hides under the table.
This is the worst kept secret in the country. But no one does anything to put an end to this. The problem is the man in power. He is the one who sanctions this criminality because he himself is the product of the system that reeks of such unsaid thuggery. This culture of the Gullus and Pomis and Chainees is weaved inside the fabric of our political system — legitimised over the decades by those who birthed it, nourished it and clothed it in State apparel.
The Faisalabad shooter has still not been identified and apprehended. His face is plastered all over the media, and yet the police and other law-enforcement agencies appear helpless. Or is there some other explanation? Is he deliberately not being nabbed and produced before the public for fear of exposing some other people? Is the Pakistani system going into overdrive to protect the powerful?
These questions and fears have no place in a true modern, democratic and transparent system where rule of law reigns supreme. Yet it is the irony of all our ironies that many among us defend this rotten state of affairs in the name of continuity. In no self-respecting country would a government and its police be so shamelessly incompetent that it would not be able to identify a man whose face is on every TV screen and every newspaper front page. In no self-respecting country would the law let this absolute travesty go by without the most severe of consequences.
Here then is the problem: we know what the problem is, we even know what the solution is, yet we do nothing. Yes, we do nothing because those who can do something are not interested in doing anything, and those who are aghast at the situation appear powerless to shout out aloud that the emperor indeed has no clothes.
If there is no official sanction to such cover-ups, no one dare indulge in them. But when power-wielders themselves manipulate the law to suit their agendas, there is little that a common citizen can do. There is no need to smash this system. It needs reform. This reform can only take place if the man at the top decides in all sincerity that it must be reform. There’s no rocket science. There’s no complication. This hypocrisy can be cleansed. This criminal duality can be quashed. This abhorring manipulation can be ended.
Yet it prevails — and shall continue to do so unless the men and women who run this system indulge in ruthless honesty to cleanse this filth. The shooter in Faisalabad is a reminder of all that is wrong with our system. He also provides us an opportunity to set this rot right. But will we?
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (21)
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@Blithe:
You are definitely on the roll to get commissions from the coal projects!
fight is not of political nature, it is brand of new politics that laced arms, pounded with fear, who or whom could this new virulent laced with arms business be referred: yes to those eager to perpetuate this culture and system, for them govt mean to occupy all the wielded powers and use per their intentions, mistakenly those dinosaurs think that to fire any one to occupy belongings of any one to hypnotize govt institutions and their heads is right of the govt ,let the system be perpetuated to kill ,to assault to loot and plunder the peoples,yes system is perpetuating, has the system improved or worsen, yes it worsened and continue to worse
@koshur_batta: Great point . But no need to dignify this guy's article with a response. Let the PTI revel in their own spling error. They obviously cannot take criticism because that's what their leader taught them .
@koshur_batta: @Naeem Khan: The author writes truth nothing but all the truth all the way. This human specie is rare in this world and Pakistan Journalist community should be proud of him and I would recommend this gentleman for the highest award a democracy can award. it is a sad truth though that the educated clas s of the country has not yet woken up to their responsibility, leaving real politic to the crowd.
Rex Minor
@koshur_batta: But what do you actually object to in this specific article?
After reading that.......Raymond Davis came to mind and he got away with it. I thought @Ranjha's comment was down-to-earth and very real. The government has totally lost its credibility despite the SC's help. It is incapable of doing the right thing and approaches every situation with confrontation.......it is incapable of reform because it took them decades to build the castle, now fixing the foundation is not an option for them. Life in the castle is much too good.
I wonder at the intellect of those people who are trying to cover up the excesses of the govt, while, there are others who are justifying violence, while, yet there seem others sitting on the side-line as silent spectator, waiting for what ?
We have a society where " bribe & influence-peddling have replaced the system or one might say, it is what the system is ".
This is a preface to polarized society, where agitation & violence seem to have become order of the day.
While Karachi is shut at every call by the MQM yet same call by PTI is painted in every pessimistic voice, as if the loss due to MQM call over the years is justified, while others call for peaceful protest is given a new twist ( it has been proved beyond doubt, which party till today was more peaceful than PTI in holding protest).
Our intellectual capacity seem to have dried up to an extent that " we have become intellectually bankrupt ". That is all that I can say & Mr Fahd is one damn patriotic person " for whom the bell tolls "....keep it up, with a promise to make yourself physically visible like many of us on the day our country need us.
@Humza: Wow! What brilliant synopsis! Here is one of your "gem" '..after all, in Muslim societies it is fair to place the blame on a scapegoat' In one stroke you decapitated all Muslim societies. Painted them with one brush. Why is it "fair" only in Muslim societies. This is done all over the world. Where ever govts. are elected. The Republicans blame Obama for everything imaginable. If it snows it is Obama's fault. The Democrats pay them back in kind. You are dead wrong. And you are biased against Muslim societies. Everything bad in England was English Poodle Blair's fault. Then it was Gordan Brown's fault. Now it's Cameron turn. Even Churchill was blamed and thrown out. He was just a war time leader. Not a peace time Prime Minister. THINK.
@koshur_batta: The author speaks the truth.
I wonder why you would be against reforming this corrupt system or against the qabza culture.
I cant imagine any rational person who does not benefit from such culture/violence disagreeing with what has been written.
You sir, are a very good writer, and I enjoy reading your articles. But reading some of the replies over here makes one very pessimistic about the future of Pakistan. God has given all of us intelligence which we should use in calling a spade a spade. We should all unite against the oppressive politics being practiced in the country where the government is using gangsters either their own personal paid ones or in the garb of uniforms, killing maiming and suppressing people fighting peacefully to get their voice heard. Only self serving people would justify the killings and violence perpetrated by the people in authority. There are others who I am sure don't even belong to the country but are making bold statements about a situation that shouldn't concern them. And still there are others who compare the murders by government officials and henchmen of unarmed people in plain daylight in complete view of cameras for the whole world to see to targeted killings or personal enmity carried out at some unknown locations. Its all a very sorry state of affairs, but keep it up Fahd!
@koshur_batta: Putting my own PTI affiliation aside, as a Pakistani and as a taxpayer, is it not justified for me to simply ask why a man was killed on live TV coverage with such impunity, not a trace of remorse and relative ease that too right in front of the police? is it being too biased to note that such an event has so little importance to us that raising your voice against it becomes purely political? We are now a nation with immunity to all humanitarian elements with the sole rational of political associations to form our opinions, sorry but this seems too relevant to your post!
There are rumors the guy belongs to the famous Hafiz's outfit, and is hence untouchable because that outfit ultimately belongs to 'THE Untouchables' (they will remain untouchable in Naya Pakistan as well).
@Humza: By the same token why are you not addressing the extreme dire conditions in Balochistan? Roughly 500,000 people have migrated out of that province. For fear of their lives....90% of them Punjabis. Why just bring up KPK? How about Sindh?...Thar...? Poor you. See, Nawaz does not visit Quetta, Karachi, or Peshawar. Because he is not wanted there. He is not their Prime Minister. They do not want him. They did not vote for him. He is trapped in Fort Punjabistan. Simply because of communal, ethnic and provincial vote. Poor, poor Sharif Bros.
@Humza: Where was your mouth when 14 people were shot dead in Lahore?Do you call that carnage as well or carnages only happen in kpk? PTI has only been in power for 2 years in Kpk while The throne of Punjab has been under the younger Shareef for 7 years,,what has changed? Perhaps you wouldnt be saying all that if anyone of those 14 people were related to you.Stop defending the murderers unless you are part of that thinking and idealogy that gives birth to Gullu butts and co.
@koshur_batta: Are you condoning what this man in Faisalabad has done, by criticizing some one who is trying to bring this murderer to justice. Why don't you ask the family of Haq Nawaz how do they feel and if they will criticize the media for bringing this murderous act to the fore front. The author has been pointing out all the ills this nation of Pakistan is facing day in and day out. I am sitting far away and don't support any political or religious party but I could see who really cares for the well being of the country. In my view Fahd Husain is one of those patriotic Pakistanis who genuinely care what is happening to the country and exposing the excesses of those who are ruling the country, may it be PML-N, PPP or any other party. Please tell us how would you bring this murderer to justice, if he is protected by the ruling class then would it not be prudent for people like Fahd Husain to raise their voice and hopefully some one will listen and bring some sanity to this unfortunate nation of Pakistan. I say thank you Mr.Husain for bringing to the light this murderer who is politically protected and we hope that this man will be arrested and justice will be done. It would not surprise me if Rana Sanaullah is involved because he was also in charge when that massacre happened at Model Town Lahore.
Fahd, you know very well that the "dialogue" will go nowhere.
Roll up your sleeves. Time has come to show your mettle on the road, not in the paper. Muscle powered is the call of the day to get rid of the evil squid wrapped around the face of Pakistan!
Godspeed Imran. We are all with you.
If the body of one protester is "carnage", what would you call the six murders in KPK on Saturday? Six bullet riddled bodies were found dumped in a river near Nowshera. This is part of the rot that is endemic in our system. Why has not the police there apprehended the killers of the six bullet ridden bodies other than complacency and politicization of murders? PTI should be blamed for the rot in KPK in which police disregard murders, schools are functioning poorly, roads and infrastructure remain poor and there is no visible improvement in job prospects for people. People need to fix the systemic rot all levels in KPK by going out to the provincial parliament in Peshawar and demanding the resignation of the elected chief minister there. The rot of the last 67 years in KPK should be the responsibility of the current CM by your logic. After all in Muslim societies it is fair to blame all the ills of society on a convenient scapegoat rather than work collectively within imperfect institutions and an imperfect democracy to improve things with time.
Consistently you are showing more sense in your articles when you say we need to reform the system and not smash it. But you are big time wrong when you suggest a person on the top must be sincere enough to do it. Single person reforms are reforms of a dictator and no matter how good those are, they go out with the dictator. For lasting reforms, we need strong institutions with balance of power. We need strong parliament that is always against direct military intervention and finally we seem to have that. We need strong media and we have that. But we are lacking strong law enforcement and courts. If we are able to do that, all Gullu Butts will be in jail and elections will not be rigged.
I totally agree with you. Many politicians have made money through criminal activities and after entering Assemblies they continue to retain these goons not only to scare the opponents but also to indulge in qabza activities.an acquaintance's son works for a well known Sindh Assembly member as a tout and goes around finding clients who have land related problems. This man gets your job done for a certain amount and is paid some%fromthe money given to the said member. Two govt number plated cars are parked at his residence.
ET: PLEASE LET THIS ONE GO.
You seem to have a perpetual anti pml-n stance. Is it because of your affiliation to ARY or are you just in love with Imran Khan and his incessant contradictions? I used to watch your programs and you seemed so neutral back then. It seems the media instead of being neutral has picked their sides and biases. Btw, I am not a noora fan, nor am I an Imran Khan fan. It's just that when you see Media being extremely Bias, you wonder if you can really trust them?
The problem with Pakistan in a nutshell is there is no distinction between public office holders and state institutions. Politicians, bureaucrats and military officials fervently abuse state institutions to achieve their private ends. As a result, no state institution is independent.
Punjab Police, is a perfect example, of this phenomenon. PP is reduced to providing security to VIPs and providing cover to political crimes of their masters. This is the root of most evils in Pakistan.