New Pakistan, I suspect?

Yes, this does look suspiciously like a new Pakistan, but it could very well suffer from disturbing lack of permanence

The search for jet black terrorists leads to the nabbing of white-collar criminals. It’s open hunting season on dirty, rotten scoundrels. Shocked? You should be. That’s not how we do things in Pakistan. So what gives?

The last few weeks have witnessed frantic nab and grab action in many corners of the country, forcing citizens to scratch their heads and ask: are we finally entering an era where the traditionally short arm of the law is growing in length? The evidence is mounting. In Peshawar, the government picks up a local PTI minister for corruption; in Karachi, NAB and FIA arrest high-ranking officials of the Sindh government while taking away records and files from the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) offices; In Lahore, PPP leader and former hockey star Qasim Zia is seized (again by NAB) for embezzlement; in Rawalpindi, the army takes action against its own generals for financial bunglings, and the list gets longer and longer. This is crazy stuff. Suddenly, Pakistan’s law enforcement seems to have grown some teeth, a spine, and perhaps even a brain.

This sounds suspiciously like a new Pakistan. Are the leaders in grave danger of becoming good men?



There is a certain urgency in what we are seeing unfolding; a certain deadlined challenge that is in the process of being achieved. An impression has successfully been created that the state finally means business; that the gloves are off and political expediency has been boxed and shelved. Onwards ho! Doors will be kicked down, closets overturned and skeletons dug back out. Villains, run.

For now, that is.

Retribution triggers such happy emotions. You killed our sons? Now hang. You looted our money? Now rot in jail. You abused your office? Now suffer humiliation. Yes, the average God-fearing, well-meaning, taxpaying citizen is experiencing deep catharsis watching lowlife scoundrels being dragged to justice. All power to those who have grown fresh spines. May you crush more two-legged rodents under your boot.

But wait. Everything that feels good, isn’t. Snatch n’ grab makes for great headlines, but what then? How many of these crooks, cons and racketeers will actually be convicted? Would not it be fairly easy for them to worm, wiggle and wriggle their way out of our rotten criminal justice system and into the fresh, crisp air of lucrative freedom? Naming and shaming is good, but convicting is better.

Plus, hey who’s doing the naming and shaming? And at whose behest?

Three federal agencies backed by a federal minister inspired by a federal institution are driving this campaign. FIA, NAB and Rangers (in Sindh) cannot be accused of having a brilliant track record in the past. Yet, all three at this point seem a model of efficiency and resolve. Is it that overnight these three agencies have discovered their mojo? Or stumbled upon a hidden reserve of proficiency, performance and prowess? Or is it in fact a new-found will at the top that has transformed them into rocket-propelled chainsaws?

Chaudhry Nisar, the minister of interior (and exterior too apparently), wears a determined, no-nonsense look nowadays. They say he doesn’t take pressure and uses his moods like a lethal weapon. In Star Wars terminology, he is this government’ Jedi and the federal agencies are his lightsabres. Slash and burn, baby.

Is he drawing his strength from the mother of all federal institutions (no not parliament, sorry)? If anyone looks more sombre and determined than Nisar, it’s General Raheel Sharif. You do not hear him, you just see him doing things and visiting places. It is whispered that he’s the man with the plan. Yes, he is the one driving the apex committees, which are in turn driving the campaign against all sorts of lawlessness, which in turn is leading to snatch n’ grab of mighty vermin across provincial and ethnic lines.

So you see, hope springs eternal, but so does cynicism. Yes, this does look suspiciously like a new Pakistan, but it could very well suffer from a disturbing lack of permanence. The fragrance of utopia may well be overpowered by the stench of depressing predictability. In other words, while individuals matter, institutions matter more. Without key men like Gen Raheel driving policy, would the policy of his institution be the same (please refer to the last COAS tenure if in doubt)? Similarly, without Nisar, would NAB, the FIA and other law-enforcement agencies work like they are now? Or would they revert to their corrupt, incompetent selves?

Beauty, they say, is skin deep. Apparently, so is un-institutionalised change. Remove a few change-making individuals and the vicious jaws of status quo slam shut and chew up the hapless change.

In Sindh, the federal agencies are shaking down the mighty, but will they go all the way up? Will they have the capacity and the will to demolish not just the hutments, but the skyscrapers too? Or will the power of ballot-based legitimacy shield head honchos from the long-ish arm of the law?

In Punjab, will the law enforcers keep raiding madrassas or force genuine cleansing and reform on them too? The state is up against a ferocious status quo and has traditionally quivered in its boots when stared down by the maulanas. Is this change we are witnessing built on a foundation of steely resolve or a clay base of flexible expediency?

With Imran Khan’s merry men and women returning to parliament on Monday, this representative forum will settle down to a predictable rhythm of debate and discussion dressed up as policy. If you really want to know if Pakistan is changing, look not to parliament, but to the streets outside. It is here that we will see the rule of law being exercised with ruthless equality and scoundrels being dragged through mud. And it is here, too, that we may see the long arm of the law being sliced short while the same scoundrels are garlanded and welcomed back into the loving embrace of the abhorrent status quo.

Unless, change itself becomes the new status quo.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2015.

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