PTI leader Hammad Azhar's mother (left), former Punjab health minister Yasmin Rashid (center) and retd Justice Nasira Iqbal (right) —Twitter/PTI

 

Pakistan in a Cul-de-Sac?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

 

That the Shahbaz-Rana Sana duo overplayed its hand in dealing with peaceful marchers of Imran Khan’s (IK’s) ‘Long March’ of May 25-26, and using extreme brutality of force against them, isn’t surprising at all.

This is the same deadly duo that became synonymous with brutal use of state authority in the dastardly crime against peaceful protesters in Lahore’s Model Town in 2014. The pair was then holding Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province, in their thrall—with Shahbaz as its Chief Minister and Rana, ironically, its Law Minister.

Now, thanks to their mentors and handlers, the pair of criminals has extrapolated itself on to the larger canvas of the federal government. So, the savagery the supposedly law-enforcing police of Punjab let loose on IK’s legions of faithful followers doesn’t surprise those who have been following the trajectory of politics in Pakistan on the watch of the ‘Sharifs.’ Since these businessmen were thrust upon politics—initially in Punjab but subsequently in the State of Pakistan, on the whole—under the benign patronage of their ‘khaki’ mentors—they have imparted the culture of Bollywood gangster movies to Pakistani politics.

It’s quite routine in Bollywood spoofs for a mafia Don to have gangs of goons and thugs at his command who would be ready to use maximum brutality to carry out the orders of their master. The Sharifs, who have had Punjab at their mercy for nearly four decades, fashioned their politics entirely on this Bollywood stereotype.

A cussed, vicious-minded, and foul-mouthed minion like Rana Sana is, invariably, the pivot of the ploy to sow terror and fear of God in the hearts of the adversary or adversaries. By the way, in the thuggish ethics of gangster politics—a staple to the Sharifs—an adversary is not an adversary but an enemy that must be put down and annihilated with brutal force. Rana Sana, with his reputation of being a serial killer, fits the bill to execute his masters’ blueprint of brutality to the hilt.

This is exactly what Rana did in dealing with IK’s peaceful protesters. The gangs of thugs at his command used lethal tear-gas to blind the marchers—who weren’t protesting at all—and scatter them like autumn leaves. Cars were smashed with impunity and women and children terrorized like vandals entering a conquered city.

But Rana’s goons injected an element not common to Pakistan’s patriarchal society. They targeted women, in particular, and humiliated them with vulgar indecency. Pakistan’s constitution and cultural mores draw a red line when it comes to treating women. But Rana’s power-besotted goons seemed eager to violate the sanctity of chadar and chardiwari (A woman’s head-cover and her hearth), guaranteed as inviolable under the law of the land.

The way Dr Yasmeen Rashid, a close confidante of IK and a respected figure in the politics of Punjab, was mishandled and roughed up is a case particularly in point. She was hounded inside her car—of which the windscreen was smashed by police goons—by male police; they tried hard to drag her out of it but stopped only because tele-media had rushed to the scene of her plight.

But even worse treatment and harassment was in store for retired Justice Nasira Iqbal. She’s the daughter-in-law of the ‘Dreamer’ of Pakistan, Allama Dr Mohammad Iqbal. On top of it, she has served as a judge of Lahore High Court. But all of her credentials and fame didn’t stop the goon-squad of Rana Sana from tearing down the main gate of her house and threaten her and her staff with warnings of dire consequences. They were looking for her grandson, Waleed Iqbal, a lieutenant of IK’s.

IK wasn’t expecting the new denizens of power corridors of Islamabad to stoop down to such abysmal lows in throwing bloody spanners in the works of his peaceful march to Islamabad. Obviously stunned out of his wits, IK called off the dharna (sit-in) that was supposed to be the endpoint of his protest. He saved whatever face he could by serving notice to the government that he and his followers would be back to the capital city after six days if his demand for the announcement of early general elections in the country wasn’t responded.

It’s understandable that IK has hit a dead-end and, for the moment, is lost for directions. It’s, in strategic parlance, a force-majeure that he’s faced with. Obviously, the rank-and-file of his party weren’t prepared for what Rana Sana and his goons perpetrated on them and are groping for a clear strategy as their next move.

IK must move quickly and decisively before despondency and despair takes the better of his followers.

But time and ground realities don’t hold much promise of early help coming their way.

IK is appealing to the higher judiciary’s sense of fairness and fair play, guaranteed under the Constitution of Pakistan. His appeal is particularly focused on the apex court which provided, but only some succor to him in the teeth of Rana Sana’s brutal crackdown on his followers.

IK barking up the apex court’s tree for help makes logical sense. After all, in its role as the final arbiter of what’s right and what’s wrong—according to the law of the land enshrined in the Constitution—it's the ordained responsibility of the court to give a categorical direction.

But judicial independence in Pakistan’s context has different connotations. Except for a brief period of a few years under Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry—who had been unchained by Pervez Musharraf’s crude and highly tentative exercise to gag the apex court—Pakistan's apex court has traditionally been incarcerated under the dubious halo of ‘necessity.’

Pakistan’s top judiciary has been damned for decades for being selective in its application and interpretation of rule of law. In common man’s parlance, scales of justice tilt readily in favor of the powerful and the wealthy, only.

So, it may seem naïve of IK to pin much hope of justice and fair play from a court which has habitually been looking over its shoulders for a signal, especially in crucial moments when it’s expected to play to the letter and spirit of the book of law.

It’s hard to justify Rana Sana—even with his image of a ‘Black Knight’--to be so brazen and provocative in going after IK’s peaceful march, without a helpful and approving nod from the bastion of power. Far from being contrite or apologetic for his thuggish conduct, Rana Sana is emboldened enough to hurl even more brazen threats at IK if his legions marched towards Islamabad, again.

Rana’s hectoring is threatening to unleash a bloody confrontation, if not a civil war, in Pakistan. The gangster Interior Minister had the cheek to single out the Chief Minister of KPK for defying his flexing of muscles and blatant show of force. The Chief Minister, paying back Rana in similar coins, has served his own warning: if IK gives another order to march to Islamabad, the KPK CM would deploy full force of his province to take on the Interior Minister and his goons.

This is dire. This is serious stuff. With the country’s economy tanking and nose-diving into an abyss and the power brokers in Islamabad mindlessly inflicting ever more economic suffering and grind on the hapless people of Pakistan, a gung-ho culture of violence and intimidation is the last thing for Pakistan to afford.

Our political leaders are mostly run-of-the-mill junkies with little or no inkling of lessons of history. But those who have some insight into history of revolutions must know that the match of one is lit when a desperate people, with their backs to the wall, are driven to a point where they have nothing to lose.

The gory example of Sri Lanka—of a few weeks ago—is before us. The people of Pakistan, like their Sri Lankan counterparts, must not be coaxed into the same direction. All those boasting and bragging about their unflinching commitment to Pakistan should strive, together, to seek an exit from the blind alley where Pakistan has been stranded. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com

(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)