Cleansing the Mess from the Country Is Now the Watchword
By Salahuddin Haider
Karachi, Pakistan

A sweeping campaign covering all segments of the society to liberate it from the malaise eating into its vitals is now clearly foreseen.
Highly placed sources said that army, under the exemplary leadership of General Raheel Shareef, seems determined to make Pakistan a happier and better place to live.
Some sort of exercise has, in fact, been on for the last few weeks: a list is being drawn of those involved in minting money through ill-gotten means for taking action. Even some of the army’s top brass, retired or in active service, may not be spared.
The present army chief, who has revived the age-old traditions of leading from the front, had resisted pressures late last year for action against the civilian administration. He, nevertheless, firmly believes that the democratic dispensation must not be interfered with.
On the military front, he has been concentrating on the military’s training and development of its combat capabilities. He just does not sermonize on being fighting fit, but has been spending days and nights frequently with troops in the forward positions. His presence has obviously been a morale booster for the troops.
Such a practice was ignored in the past, especially by late General Ziaul Haq, and recently by General Kayani. Musharraf used to visit Kargil, and surprised even the Indians by spending a night inside their territory on the world’s highest battle-ground.
Enquiries and background interviews suggest that Raheel has convinced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that cleansing was now a pressing national need. He has already reactivated the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). A simple proof of this development is the arrest and thorough investigation into the alleged malpractices in the Sindh Building Control Authority and the provincial Fisheries Department.
Some very sensational disclosures have been made by officials of the two major revenue-earning departments. They are being questioned further to pick up those guilty of land grabbing and funding gang warfare in Karachi.
Political patronages have also been found in water thefts, and in backing of tankers’ mafia, extortions, and serious crimes like dacoities, etc.
Intelligence enquiries have helped identify some senior bureaucrats, politicians from major parties of Sindh like PPP and MQM, and even ANP. The DG Rangers report, released during an apex committee meeting in Sindh some two weeks ago, has clearly spelled out these and many other weaknesses in the Sindh civilian administration.
The current chief minister Qaim Ali Shah has been found wanting, for two main reasons. He sits on decisions. Avoiding action is worse than taking poor decisions. Even Benazir, during her exile in Dubai, had been complaining of Shah’s failure to address peoples/workers grievances. She was forced to remove him from the presidentship of the Sindh PPP and pass on the responsibility to Nisar Khuhro.
Those arrested from fisheries and building control departments have confessed to working for Bilawal House, and of funding gang warfare in Lyari and other areas of Karachi. Zardari’s outburst at FATA obviously was a diversionary tactic. Threatening to destroy the military structure, if obstacles were raised in running the PPP government in Sindh, proved disastrous in the end. Zardari’s Islamabad iftar party on Friday was more of a public relations exercise, or perhaps a shot in the dark to muster support for himself.
The party was attended by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Chaudhri Shujaat, and Asfandyar Wali, plus MQM nominees, but the consensus it had aimed to achieve, remained elusive and a distant dream. The Peoples Party remains as weak as before, and needs to clear the mess from its ranks, improve its image as good governors. Only then it can feel secure. Its public image is at the lowest presently.
Instead of attending to problems of the people it relies more on eyewash, which will be nothing but an exercise in futility.
The PPP chairman’s contact with Altaf Hussain too was a half-hearted attempt to keep the party afloat. MQM itself is on the defensive. The aggression which had been its hallmark since day one, seems to have evaporated now. It has realized that picking up quarrel with powers that be just will not work. It, therefore, has adopted a conciliatory approach which will be much more helpful to its cause rather than following a policy of confrontation.
If Zardari thinks that mobilizing popular support would push the army back from its clear cut policies to set the country on a new track, he is making a mistake. The Peoples Party is in no position to mobilize popular support for itself. It has lost face before the people. Recent evidences are enough to understand this reality without much ado.
His attempt to forge fresh alliance with Altaf is not going to work. Neither of the two major Sindh parties is in a position to confront the armed forces, which are solidly behind the civilian administration at the Federal level and want it to achieve its goal. That factor should never be lost sight of.