A Brutalized
and Surreal Polity
By Shireen M Mazari
The trauma of
Karachi on May 12 was revived on September 29 in
Islamabad. Only this time, in full view of the civil
society through live coverage, the guilty were the
supposed protectors of the very people being beaten
and savaged. No condemnation for the police force
can be too harsh in terms of what they did to the
lawyers and journalists on Constitution Avenue that
day. It was not the crowds running amuck but the
police force -- which clearly showed not an iota
of discipline let alone humanity. Is this what our
police academies are now sending into society?
No professionalism, only a barbarianism determined
to unleash violence and abuse on the intelligentsia
of this society. Are these the enforcers of law
and protectors of the nation in the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan? Where is the accountability and what
is their punishment? Merely a limited "suspension"
forced upon the bureaucracy by the Supreme Court.
What is this farce of "inquiry committees"
to establish who did what when documented evidence
is on tape after tape showing the inspector-general
of police himself along with other police officials
beating up the civilian protestors. Inquiry committees
are certainly needed to establish the "who"
and "why" aspects. After all, why did
the police lose control of any professionalism they
may have had? And who gave the orders? Or was it
simply that the police chief let his murderous streak
run free and led his men in a surreal battle with
peaceful, if verbally aggressive protestors and
even more peaceful journalists who were simply trying
to do their job?
But why are we not surprised by such violence anymore?
We are filled with intolerance at all levels. If
things go the way we want, we become effusive in
our praise and laurels, but if things go against
our expectations, then the same laurels turn to
abuse. Thus, swinging from one extreme to another,
civil society is being suffocated from all sides.
It is threatened by extremist doctrines and intolerance
from one side, acts of terrorism from another, and
increasingly endangered from the very forces created
for our protection. Thus making us into a brutalized
polity dominated by hatred, suspicions and cynicism.
Was it not an irony to see people express their
skepticism about lawyers and politicians in the
wake of the September 28 Supreme Court decision
and the mayhem of the following day. Unfortunately,
the media have become victims in this bizarre crossfire
at multiple levels.
Amid all this violence and political jockeying for
power, no one is looking to the very real threats
to the nation. Women abuse is on the increase; extremists
are destroying the future of our youth by closing
down schools; our cultural diversity is being threatened
by the same militants; and every day existence is
becoming difficult for the ordinary citizen in the
wake of spiraling prices, especially of basic food
items. Despite a bumper wheat crop, wheat shortages
abound because the political elite is busy amassing
money through wheat smuggling and hoarding. The
sugar mafia has now been joined by the wheat mafia.
We all know who they are, but who will move to bring
them to book? After all, presently, we are in the
process of seeing past corruption slates also being
wiped clean.
What are our political elites doing? Making deals,
playing musical chairs with "resignations",
doing everything but seeking to ameliorate the suffering
of the nation at multiple levels. Extremism and
violence are becoming endemic; security for the
ordinary man is non-existent with the police themselves
acting as a source of threat; and those depriving
the people of their basic food items -- the mafias
– are not being brought to book. No wonder
people are expressing a growing cynicism -- as witnessed,
to the surprise of many, in the set of TV interviews
conducted in Karachi by Geo television post-September
29.
Yet, the political landscape continues to become
ever more surreal. Alliances and counter alliances;
promises of "shariah"; promises of unfettered
democracy by those who themselves have shown an
inability to tolerate any form of dissent; and,
perhaps most dangerous, efforts by some to dance
to the US tune in the belief that the US will decide
our political fate. No one is going that extra mile
for the US as much as Ms Bhutto and Mr Farhatullah
Babar, a sincere man for whom I have nothing but
respect, who is having a difficult time in trying
to provide rational explanations within a nationalist
context of his leader's bizarre outbursts.
On the A.Q. Khan issue, the real issue is not one
of the Pakistani government cooperating with an
international organization but of a Pakistani political
leader reopening an issue which has been effectively
closed. Already, the present government went an
extra mile -- some of us felt it was unnecessary
-- in cooperating with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) including sending our old centrifuges
for inspection to the Agency. We were under no international
legal obligation to do so, but in the spirit of
cooperation on non-proliferation, the Government
of Pakistan chose to do so. That is why the head
of the IAEA stated categorically to the agency's
board, in June 2006, that the IAEA had received
all the cooperation it had sought from Pakistan
and the issue was now closed. It is keeping this
fact in mind that one is suspicious of why Ms Bhutto
would want to resuscitate this issue at this particular
time. The suspicions become stronger when one listens
to her response to a question asked in a CNN interview
on September 26. She was asked whether she would
ever allow Dr Khan to be handed over to the US and
her response is telling. It was not a clear cut
"no" as it should have been. Instead,
she declared that she would not be handing him over
"to anyone unlawfully." So here we have
her keeping that dangerous option open for the US
to gain physical access to Dr Khan.
As if that was not enough, she has now declared
that she will allow the US to enter Pakistani territory
-- within certain ifs and buts of course -- in its
pursuit of Bin Laden. So effectively, this implies
that the US will be allowed to violate or undermine
Pakistani sovereignty if it sought to do so within
the context of the war on terror! Clearly, it is
this "moderation" that endears her to
the US as the only "acceptable" political
option for Pakistan. Too bad for the US that the
people of Pakistan may not agree to that -- if given
a chance at truly fair and free elections.
The real tragedy is that as a result of the brutalisation
of civil society, we as a people are in danger of
losing our humaneness and tolerance. The savagery
that filled the faces of the police force on September
29 was only too evident. But we need to also look
at the faces of those decrying the Supreme Court
judgment on September 28; look into the eyes of
those who suffered violence on September 29; and
look at the marchers across the country on September
30. It is as sad as it is terrifying. The Pakistan
so many of us love passionately is receding in a
haze of brutal surrealism.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. Courtesy The News)
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