Terrorization
of the Majority
By Shireen M Mazari
At all levels of society
in Pakistan, the silent majority of all shades is
being terrorized in one way or another. The state
may feel that negotiating with the Jamia Hafsa and
Lal Masjid extremists and lawbreakers will result
in a peaceful resolution of this challenge to the
writ of the state with an avoidance of collateral
damage. However, for the civil society of Islamabad,
the terrorization is already in full swing so the
collateral damage from the Jamia Hafsa terror and
blackmail has already happened.
How has this happened? Through rumors that have
been floated and circulated to terrorize civilians,
primarily women and young girls into submitting
to the demands of the Jamia Hafsa to abide by their
social norms.
For instance, rumors have been allowed to run amok
that young girls wearing half sleeve shalwar kameez
suits have been attacked with acid in public places
-- including in front of shops in Super Market and
Jinnah Super Market. Other variations on this rumor
are that hot coffee has been thrown on young girls
in Aabpara and one variant even had it that this
scribe was attacked in Jinnah Market with a needle
thrust into my neck or back -- depending on the
version one heard -- by a burqa-clad woman! Of course,
in my case the incident definitely did not occur
but the children are fearful and it took a lot of
persuasion to make them visit the usual video shop.
The visit was necessary because one does not want
to submit to the tyranny of a crazed minority simply
because the state has chosen to indulge their extremism.
Unfortunately, many members of civil society are
succumbing to the climate of fear being generated
not only by the Hafsa brigade itself accompanied
by their baton-wielding Lal Masjid, but also by
the state's decision not to assert its writ firmly
against these lawbreakers. The fear is based on
the premise that if the state is unable to protect
the ordinary person from the diktat of the violent
extremists then there is little choice but to either
stay locked up indoors or fall in line with this
extremist diktat. So, effectively the damage to
civil society has already been done and the dye
of extremism has been cast.
The situation has been further aggravated by emails
from self-proclaimed "intellectuals" who
are sending addresses of alleged "brothels"
-- some of whom on quiet investigation turn out
to be addresses of respectable citizens who belong
to a different sect from that of the Jamia Hafsa-Lal
Masjid brigade. Vigilantism is in full swing and
is having the desired terrorization effect on civil
society, especially when there is a receding expectation
that the state will/can protect the innocent.
Enlightenment and moderation are perforce being
cast aside in the wake of the tyranny of an extremist
minority that has been unleashed on Islamabad. Young
girls are being kept home and women also fear going
out to the markets in the evenings. So an unnatural
male-only environment is taking over in the public
domain in the capital. And each day brings ever
more groups of the extremist ilk strutting with
the confidence of "the protected" in the
streets of all the sectors of the capital. With
the world watching all this for themselves, what
soft image can we portray?
And this is our tragedy today. We really are, by
and large a tolerant and moderate society but the
state seems to have lost its will to assert its
writ firmly when confronted with the armed zealots.
Where are the law enforcers and the defenders of
the nations? In the copters incident -- where all
claims by the Hafsa lot regarding the emission of
gas from the helicopters were false when checked
into -- the fear that has spread into the public
was reflected in the fact that the Lal Masjid extremists
broke the car windshields and mirrors of some passing
cars but no one chose to report these incidents.
Instead, the long-suffering public stoically bore
this abuse also. After all, few believe the police
would have come to their assistance.
So there we are; a terrorized civil society as a
result of mind games played through rumor mongering
and the visible inability of the state to exercise
its writ against an increasingly tyrannical minority.
So adamant are some segments of the state in indulging
these extremists that the concerns of the wider
society have been given short shrift. After all,
the wider society is seen as the silent majority
-- non-violently pursuing their micro level lives.
But when the life and liberty of this silent majority
is threatened, they will have to rise and be counted.
Such a time is on us now. At every level we are
being threatened. Here in the capital we are suffering
the tyranny and terror of the Jamia Hafsa, but this
is rampant all across the country. In our rural
areas, we are facing the wrath of power-hungry local
politicians who terrorize through the DPOs (as the
SPs are now termed) and DCOs (former DCs) all those
who seek to remain outside their influence or challenge
their corruption. When it is women managing alone
in the rural areas, the situation is particularly
disturbing with DPOs transferring any SHO who may
be enforcing the writ of the law. So we have to
contend with SHOs who are in league with local criminals
and terrorization has become the norm.
Is anybody concerned? There is no one who will listen
if the oppressors are district nazims, government
MNAs or MPAs -- certainly not the local officials
who are now beholden to the local politicians. Clearly,
the law and writ of the state hold little value
for the "powerful". Whether it is the
danda of the Jamia Hafsa or the political clout
of the local politicians, the security the state
must provide and the law and order that it must
assert has all but vanished. Local criminals, including
known declared absconders of the law, are now openly
asserting their will through violent terror. Even
local lawbreakers who have been banned from entering
their areas continue to rule through "remote
control" of the local officials.
This scribe has always been passionate about this
wonderful nation but never has so much despondency
been so rampant. It is not so much the extremist
perspective that is worrying -- after all, a stubborn
liberalism still compels one to accept and tolerate
diversity as long as this tolerance is mutual --
but the inability of the state to assert its writ
effectively and the hijacking of the state authority
by individuals and groups. Unless the state can
exercise its writ effectively on the domestic front,
it will constantly face both internal and external
pressures -- as seems to be happening presently.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. Courtesy The
News)
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